Initiative Review Group XIV Progress Report April 30, 2001
Document All Major Operational Policies & Procedures, and Place on Web.
Members:
Anne Marie Candido (chair), Vera Ekechukwu, Mikey King, Michele Tabler
The committee regards this progress report to be a draft of the final report. The content still needs a little more discussion and refinement, but on the whole the committee agrees that overall it reflects the major points that need to be made regarding this initiative.
1. Briefly describe the background, present setting/structure which applies to the initiative.
At present, some (but by no means all) policies, procedures, and forms relating to patron services can be found in very scattered locations on the library home page-especially under "Services" on the "Guides, Information, and Hours" page. However, there is very little systematic organization in their placement. Some policies/procedures are not on the home page, and some of them are difficult to find when they do exist.
Currently, all general in-house administrative policies and procedures, including associated forms, reside in the Dean's Office files, although copies of these and subsequent revised policies and procedures have been periodically distributed to department heads in the past. Thus, in theory, library departments are supposed to have on file copies of most of the library's administrative policies and procedures--especially those in the form of administrative memoranda. In addition, until recent years, new employees were given copies of important administrative memoranda (i.e., library code of computer ethics, perfume policy, eating and drinking policy, smoking policy, etc.). However, the present reality is that as a result of numerous personnel changes over the years, as well as disruptive construction and remodeling activities, many administrative memoranda have been lost in departments, or they have become outdated. In fact, many of these memoranda are now so outdated that they are no longer included in packets given to new employees. It is clear that many of these need to be reviewed, updated or eliminated, and, if updated, then systematically made available to all employees.
Individual departments have maintained paper copies of their own policies and procedures within their own departments, but these have not been easily accessible to other departments except when they have been specifically and individually requested. Indeed, there has been no mechanism in place by which library personnel can determine what policies and procedures actually exist, nor has there been a central "place" where they can be accessed as needed. Also, there are a number of policies and procedures that have not been documented at all-much to the disadvantage of personnel both within and outside the department.
2. Develop an inclusive list of issues that must be addressed/considered for that initiative, consulting non-group personnel as appropriate.
1. How best to motivate departments to document and make accessible all patron-related and in-house policies and procedures. Ensuring that this is done will benefit employees within that department, others in the library, as well as those outside the library who for one reason or another would like to know or need to know how our library "does things."
2. How best to organize and most effectively to "situate" policies/procedures on the Web so that they are clearly and logically--and therefore quickly--accessible to all who need to see them.
3. Which policies/procedures should be on the "public side" of the home page and which on the "staff side," and which on both. This is also an issue for the Web Page Committee and IRG#15 ("Create Library Departmental Web Pages").
4. How should the policies/procedures that departments wish to have for "staff only" be "protected" from public access? Questions of security. Also an issue for Web Page Committee and IRG#5. The committee recognizes that some policies and procedures are best known only to those within the library or department.
5. Considerations of ownership for placing and maintaining the StaffWeb. Should there be a central "authority" who is the only authority able to access the Web software used to place policies/procedures on the Web, or should those responsible for the content of individual "units" be given independent authority to place this information on the Web as needed.
6. Issues related to online forms: printing considerations, to whom should forms be sent?
7. How to keep procedures current-directly related to ownership issue. Issues related to "last updated" notation.
8. How the the webmaster should be identified for each page of policies and procedures and who will answer questions from the public.
1. That the library hire a full-time webmaster
2. That the library hire a full-time personnel officer
3. That a link called "Ask a Question" be added on the StaffWeb somewhere
4. That the library administration take an active role in regularly motivating departments to document and make accessible those policies and procedures that have not already been written.
5. Devise a password system that could be used for links to the few policies/procedures that should not be made accessible to the general public
3. Briefly describe how the initiative fits into the long-term goals and/or fulfills the mission of the University Libraries.
According to the stated initiatives and directions set forth by the Dean of Libraries in November 2000, the "Libraries' primary function is to provide prompt, courteous, and quality service to the University community irrespective of affiliation or geographic location. Vital to the Libraries' success are innovations within the Libraries, operational excellence, and enabling activity that supports the land-grant teaching and research mission." In order to attain the operational excellence mandated by the Libraries' mission, it is important that all patrons of the library, as well as all library personnel, are knowledgeable about and understand the policies and procedures that pertain to them at any given time. In order to enable patrons and personnel to gain such knowledge and understanding, all library policies and procedures should be made accessible quickly and conveniently in either a central location or other logical and easy-to-find locations on the library's Web page, as well as in printed form at logical access points in the library whenever that is also desirable.
Also according to the stated initiatives and directions is the goal "to pattern our operations after those at member libraries which have missions similar to those of the University of Arkansas." Thus, in the actual working out of this initiative, it is important to keep in mind the operational practices of peer ARL libraries with regard to publishing their policies and procedures on the Web for use by their patrons and library personnel.
4. Indicate other of the initiatives that should be considered in connection to, coordinated with, or that may overlap the initiative.
IRG #1 ("Analyze needs of users and develop services and technical infrastructure for needs to be met"); IRG#2 ("Evaluate effectiveness of existing library programs"); IRG #12 ("Develop operating budget procedures to support collection development"); IRG#15 ("Create library departmental Web pages"); IRG#17 ("Create a flexible/understandable budget process"); any other initiative that requires new prolicies and procedures (i.e., the preservation initiative and gifts/fundraising initiative).
5. Note any inititiatives or considerations that are lacking from those delineated thus far which may be essential to the planning and redefining process.
No other initiatives or considerations were noted by the committee thus far.
6. Recommend names of individuals who are essential (l.e., add to, delete from, or leave in tact the list of the IRG) to the Initiative Planning Team that works on developing and implementing the initiative in the subsequent phase.
- Anne Marie Candido
- Andrea Cantrell
- Jo Grippe
- Deb Kulczak
- Lora Lennertz
- Kristine Shrauger
- Juana Young
7. Recommend, based on best educated guess, the amount of time that will be required to effectively develop the plan of implementing the initiative.
This initiative will, of course, be a continual work in progress, but the committee believes the bulk of the initial work will probably be able to be accomplished in about one calendar year.
8. Recommend the priority level to be assigned to this initiative in the three-to-five-year planning phase:
Level 2 = a very important initiative, deserves attention as soon as possible
