Look for Problems and Find Opportunities: Lean in Your Library

Lean organizations actively seek out waste (time, energy and resources) and inefficiencies in order to maximize value for customers. Every problem acknowledged is an opportunity to improve something for your patrons. Several years ago, South Dakota State University began implementing Lean across campus. Staff at Briggs Library are using Lean principles to improve library processes, both large and small. As part of the library’s strategic plan, every department is responsible for at least two Lean projects per year. The examples presented here illustrate the value of Lean for customers as well as the benefits to the organization.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_presentations/1001/thumbnail.jp

Providing Information Literacy Instruction to Graduate Students through Literature Review Workshops

As future professionals, graduate students must be information literate; however, information literacy instruction of graduate students is often neglected. To address this need, we created literature review workshops to serve graduate students from a wide range of subject disciplines at a point of shared need. Not only did this strategy prove to be successful in reaching a large number of students from a wide range of subject disciplines, the data gathered from the students identified some of the gaps graduate students have in their knowledge about library services

Good People, Bad Job Situations: A Middle Manager\u27s Dilemma

Middle managers play a critical role in successful library operations in both public and academic settings. Their alignment with and their ability to carry out the vision of upper management is critical to moving the organization forward at all levels. The authors offer practical strategies for any middle manager who finds herself in a position where she is not in accord with her boss, situations that can range from uncomfortable to disastrous. They examine a variety of issues and circumstances such as misunderstandings, unanticipated changes in the organization, lack of fit with the organizational culture, different work expectations, and incompatible work styles that lead to conflicts and challenges between the middle manager and her boss. Because the library management literature does not address this area well, the authors suggest approaches for coping, determining possible exit strategies as well as behaviors to avoid. The recommendations are based on reading management literature from a range of other sources and from personal experiences

Making Spaces: Resolving Use and Usability Issues of the Modern Library

As library spaces are re-envisioned to meet new institutional goals and user expectations, careful planning is necessary to ensure that internal and external stakeholders are included in the planning process and that resources are used to a maximum benefit. Presenters will share the planning and decision processes used in restructuring three floors at their library.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_presentations/1002/thumbnail.jp

ACRL Environmental Scan 2015 Presentation

Every two years, the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee releases an environmental scan of higher education, including developments with the potential for continuing impact on academic libraries. The 2015 environmental scan provides a broad review of the current higher education landscape, with special focus on the state of academic and research libraries. The document builds on earlier ACRL reports, including the Top Trends in Academic Libraries. The 2015 environmental scan is freely available on the ACRL website (PDF). This presentation highlights key elements of the 2015 environmental scan.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_presentations/1003/thumbnail.jp

Using the “ACRL information literacy competency standards for higher education” to assess a university library instruction program

Describes how the Oregon State University library used the recently published ACRL (Association of College and Research Libraries) Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education as a framework for an initial self-study of instructional practices and for promoting the concept of information literacy. The survey used for subject librarians is appended

Building Together: Nurturing Leadership through Communities of Practice

In the current era of never-ending change, effective library organizations must be nimble and flexible. Formal committee structures and reporting lines often get in the way of making changes quickly and may not provide opportunities for leadership development. Communities of Practice (CoPs), as realized at Arizona State University Libraries, provide a flexible model to gather employees from diverse areas and levels of an organization to address a common interest, project or problem. The issues and projects addressed by CoPs at ASU Libraries have benefited overall organizational dynamics and promoted management/staff interpersonal relations, leadership skills, self-awareness, and increased involvement from employees of all areas. Many who participate in these groups go on to participate in further leadership roles in formal groups within the organization. In this workshop, participants will learn about CoPs as an organizational and leadership development resource, including discussion of the theory behind the practice, resources useful for these collaborative working groups and an interactive discussion break-out time for an opportunity to consider how such groups might work in individual organizations.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_presentations/1004/thumbnail.jp

Flavour in supersymmetry: horizontal symmetries or wave function renormalisation

We compare theoretical and experimental predictions of two main classes of models addressing fermion mass hierarchies and flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) effects in supersymmetry: Froggatt-Nielsen (FN) U(1) gauged flavour models and Nelson-Strassler/extra dimensional models with hierarchical wave functions for the families. We show that whereas the two lead to identical predictions in the fermion mass matrices, the second class generates a stronger suppression of FCNC effects. We prove that, whereas at first sight the FN setup is more constrained due to anomaly cancelation conditions, imposing unification of gauge couplings in the second setup generates conditions which precisely match the mixed anomaly constraints in the FN setup. Finally, we provide an economical extra dimensional realisation of the hierarchical wave functions scenario in which the leptonic FCNC can be efficiently suppressed due to the strong coupling (CFT) origin of the electron mass.Comment: 23 page