NC DOCKS at Appalachian State University

Ogburn, Joyce

English

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

The Art vs. The Business of Librarianship Column Editor: Joyce L. Ogburn (Yale University) The current discussions of outsourcing, re-engineering, and doing more with less demonstrate the fundamentaJ shift in the way that librarians are being asked to pro-vide their services. The clash that some-times occurs between the library service culture and the business culture of providers of services to libraries has moved within libraries themselves, and we are seeing the same clash develop as the strain of meeting expancling needs with shrinking staffs forces a re-examination of library practices and processes. The business culture is becoming perva-sive in libraries, reflecled in the move to justify or cul costs and current staffing, while still providing an acceptable level of ser-vice. The business culture values streamlin-ing and economy and il revolves around processes and work flows. On the other side we have the art of librarianship that devel-ops from years of experience and a honing of instincts and skills. Art is nOI easily quan-tified and studied. It values individual skills and decision making. These days the art of librarianship is running smack into the business of librarianship and is getting rather bruised. There is room for both - but the balance between the two is not easy to find . Some library functions such as acquisitions have for some time been a part of the business culture; recently more and more library func-tions have been embracing a business per-spective. Librarians are all being asked to model workflow and costs and 10 seek possible alternatives to the way we have always done our work. In this process, however, we find that measures of success of service are nol always easily quantifiable or subject 10 rou-tine workflow modeling. Yet we m,ust try, not just to satisfy the library administration, but also to survive and to continue to offer our services. Reallocation offunds, not find-ing of new funds, has become our way of life. And as the world with which we deal is also becoming more dependent on negotiat-ing tenns and contracts for services and infonnation, we have to have the skills (and data) required to interact with this business world. The clash in cultures, and maybe in some cases values, is becoming more acute as many librarians struggle to come to lenns with changes occurring around us. In order to survive the current trends librarians need several things: 1) a 101 more infonnation about what we do, 2) library systems that provide much more data about processes, transactions and their costs, and 3) skills in negotiating and evaluating pro-viders of services and products, including contracts and licenses. How many of us, despite having inte-grated library systems, still have to keep some manual statistics? How many of us pay to use external databases without an internal, automated means to track and verify usage? We need systems to evolve to a stage where they can provide this lcind of infonnation on a regular basis. Systems also need to be flexible so that we can change what we [Tack over time as we learn what is important at any given time. If metering becomes a routine way that businesses will charge for transactions and services, librarians should have the internal means to track usage by staff and patrons to verify that charges billed 10 libraries are accurale. Usage statistics and costs should cOI1linued on page 80 Archived version from NCDOCKS Institutional Repository – http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/Ogburn, Joyce L. (1995). Acquiring minds want to know: the art vs. the business of librarianship. Against the Grain, 7(3), 77,80. Archived from http://content.lib.utah.eduAcquiring Minds !rompagt 77 a1so help identify patterns of use and com-pare costs with comparable services if de-sirable, and a1so with charging back to pa-trons if necessary. Even if we negotiate flat rates for services, we need some means of monitoring whether what we are paying for is a good deal. TIle topic of negotiation brings us back to the marriage of art and business in Iibrarianship. Negotiation requires skills in using and understanding numbers, but also in assessing and interacting with people. Notall aspects oflibrarianshipcan be treated with cold hard statistics. Interactions with people will remain a major part of what we do, either in offering services or negotiating for them. As times change. part of what will guide us is our instincts and things that cannot be measured or even always under-stood and agreed upon. The art has to re-main, but we must also be prepared to back up O Uf Services with an understanding of numbers and costs of doing our busi-n=. ~ 

Acquiring Minds Want To Know The Art Vs, The Business Of Librarianship

http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/asu/f/Acquiring_minds_want_to_know_the_art_vs_the_business_of_librarianship.pdf

Acquiring Minds Want To Know The Art Vs, The Business Of Librarianship

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The University of North Carolina at Greensboro