Project Management Case Studies

These case studies represent a range of projects in different libraries.
They are all based on real events. The participating librarians were asked to provide details of projects within the headings used in the case study template which is located at the end of this document. Each case study is presented using these headings to enable the reader to make comparisons between the projects but there is some slight variation of style and detail. Although some editing has been done by the writer of these learning objects, the intention is to retain as much of the individuality of each project as possible. Brief conclusion and analysis is provided at the end of each case study by the writer of these learning objects.

Several of the projects are ongoing at the time of writing. This partly reflects the nature of projects in ILS whereby they run parallel to mainstream service delivery. This offers real challenges for those involved and especially for the project leader who will continually need to prioritise the tasks, commitment and speed of working towards completion.

None of these projects have been submitted by or directly involve senior managers. Although most have some approval and reporting to senior staff, these projects are managed by professionals in the middle management strata of their organizations and involve different grades of staff or volunteers.

Senior staff are less accessible than middle managers and would probably claim to have less time available to complete a template. However, it was a deliberate policy of the writer of the learning objects to select projects that involved middle managers. She believed that students and staff on training courses benefit from analysing case studies of projects that they could identify with or experience in their own work situations. These case studies will help the learners to understand the core principles of project management and their application within ILS communities. Titles of the project case studies are listed below:

DVD Collection Project
Library Portal Project
Public Library Schools Visits Project
Reclassification Project
School Author Visit Project
Self Service Project
Visual Images Databases Project
Volunteers Project

DVD Collection Project

Making DVDs available as Short Loan items in a University Library

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)

The organizational and service context for the project:

• There was a review of the University Media Services that included the expansion of services in response to requests from academic staff.

• There was a re-organization of the University Media Services physical space which opened up the area and provided sufficient space to accommodate DVD materials on the open shelves.

• The purchasing or recording to VHS was ceasing, the exceptions being items otherwise unavailable, or items specifically requested in this format by teaching staff.

• The introduction of self service machines which allow customers to issue DVD items. Previously students had to watch DVDs in the library which was acceptable during the day when the service was fully staffed, but less flexible in the evening particularly after counter/enquiry services had closed.

The ideas and reasons that influenced developing the project were:

• The demand for delivery of a more flexible service which takes into account the changing needs and expectations of users as well as their patterns of library use.

• Feedback from customers, which called for borrowing rights on DVDs to be brought into line with other audio-visual items, including CDs and cassettes.

Research carried out to inform the project involved:

• Liaison with academic staff to provide media teaching materials for courses and resources to support student learning.

• Contacts developed and maintained with other FE and HE institutions in order to share knowledge and experiences of delivering media services.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

To expand the Media services offered by the University library in response to requests from library customers and to make these collections more widely accessible to the user population.

The benefits expected from the project were:

• Changes in the Media Services workflow. Audio-visual materials available for loan were previously only issued either at counter services or on self service machines, although customers can still choose to watch DVDs in the library.

• Greater flexibility for the user population. Using and borrowing the DVDs would be less restrictive in terms of when and where the items can be viewed.

• More opportunities for customers to request DVD items, particularly those recommended by lecturers and in heavy demand. Previously, the system operated largely on a first come first served basis which was not always helpful for some users, including part time and distance learning students.

Finance available
There was a designated budget for the project that was managed by the Media Services Librarian.

Staffing
No formal project team was established. Media Services Librarian had overall responsibility for the progress and development of the project. Bibliographic Services staff oversaw the process of cataloguing the materials and Media Services staff were involved in the final stages of processing the DVDs to make them available.

Time scales
The project needed to be completed for September 2007, in time for the new academic year. It took approximately 9 months from the initial discussions to the DVD materials being available for loan.

This project involved 2 full time staff in the Media Services department with the ongoing support from other library departments and Media Services Library Assistants.

Communication
The original idea was discussed and communicated to the staff in local team briefings within the library as well as via email.

The project team communicated with each other through meetings and emails.

Progress on the project was communicated to senior managers in regular meetings between the Media Services Librarian and the University Librarian and Deputy Librarian.

Completion of the project goal was communicated to the user population through:

• Library induction and information skills sessions as well as working with academic staff to promote the service to students.

• Departmental meetings with academic staff which librarians attend.

Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

The following tasks were completed for planning, developing and delivering the project: • Research based on the experiences of institutions already loaning DVD and other audio-visual materials.

• Liaison with IT, Counter and Bibliographic services staff to set up parameters on LMS and cataloguing items on the basis of extra Short Loan borrowing rights.

• Physical re-organization of the Media Services area to accommodate DVD shelving.

• Amending information leaflets and electronic resources to include details of additional borrowing rights for customers.

• Promotion of services during induction week, including library tours and information skills sessions.

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Evaluation will consist of:

• Future monitoring of the circulation statistics for DVDs after 1 complete academic year. • Informal feedback from the users through a ‘Tell us’ suggestions process. • Informal feedback from academic staff on the service and availability of materials.

Reflection

Key skills needed to develop the project:

• Time management skills in order to have the service fully operational by the beginning of the academic year 07/08.

• Effective communication between all the library departments involved as detailed above.

Training for Media Services staff was given as well as guidelines for the service circulated to library staff via email.

Initially the DVDs were issued from Friday until Monday evening in line with Short Loan books; however, the decision was later made to reduce this to Saturday pm as a large number of DVD items are in heavy demand.

The service achieved the goal of being available at the beginning of the academic year 2007. Based purely on informal observations, the service has been well received by library users.

There will be an ongoing process of transferring resources from VHS to DVD wherever possible. Currently, VHS materials are only available to students for reference use and are not kept on the open shelves; the rationale for this being that some of the VHS materials would be difficult or impossible to replace. There are no current plans to change this. Currently only staff members are eligible to loan VHS items so there are similar issues with restricted access to resources in the evening during reference only periods. The University has also subscribed to the ERA + Licence so video streaming is being heavily expanded, including plans for the provision for off-campus viewing facilities in the near future.

Conclusion and Analysis

This project is an example of responding to the changing demands from users as a consequence of new technological formats of resources. It also reflects the challenge of protecting valuable resources that only exist in a format that renders them vulnerable and irreplaceable.

Collection management is concerned with the form as well as content of resources and this example highlights the need for careful management within the restrictions imposed by copyright legislation.

Library Portal Project

Restructuring the library portal to synthesise with the University portal

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)

The Library needed to develop a web presence on the University Portal. This needed to be customer focused, accurate and consistent with the branding of the institution. It was also important to ensure the appropriate maintenance and updating of the facility. This required the re-branding of the existing Library Portal to E-library facility encompassing the library style guide, Freedom of Information policies and content editor guidelines established by University. It also needed to adhere to the current University accessibility guidelines.

There was a need for creation of distinct external and internal facing sites. The external site was intended to market the library and to provide information to potential students, partner colleges, external visitors etc. The Internal site was intended for the University students only, containing more detailed information about library services as well as access to electronic resources.

Contacts were made for discussions with other academic institutions that had already developed their sites. Background research was needed on the University guidelines and relevant legislation relating to FOI and accessibility.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

To provide both external and internal sites that are customer focused on the relevant target audience. To create a library web presence on the University Portal that meet quality, branding, consistency and maintenance standards.

Benefits of the project:
There would be a more user friendly facility for library customers to access. Previously, separate login requirements for the University Portal and Library Portal created unnecessary barriers for library users. Now a single login process, using individual network usernames and passwords, allows access to all University electronic information, including library services.

Finance available
There was a designated budget for this project but this was managed at the senior level by Librarian and Deputy Librarian
Staffing
A Library Web Group was established and composed of four members of library staff with interest and expertise in web design and electronic resources’ development.
The project also involved other departments in the University, including those concerned with content management of web services such as IT services, marketing etc.

The project was led by the library Electronic Resources Co-ordinator with support from three subject librarians. The Electronic Resources Co-ordinator has overall responsibility for the maintenance and development of electronic resources in the library, including the E-library facility.

Time scales
The project needed to be completed by September 2007 ready for the start of the new academic year. It lasted approximately 9 months from the original ideas and planning to completion.

During the project period 1 member of staff worked on the developments full time plus 3 staff members worked a few hours each week as needed.

Communication
The original idea for the change was communicated to the user population by:

• Library team briefings.

• Wider plans for the University web presence were communicated to all staff in regular ‘Blueprint’ email bulletins which cover new developments in the University. Also, the Vice Chancellor made visits and presentations to different departments, which included information on the development of the University Portal.

The changes were also communicated to potential students during University open days and library visits.

The project team communicated with each other via meetings and e-mails. Progress was reported to senior managers periodically at meetings.

Completion of the project goal was communicated to the organizational / user population through:

• Promotion of the E-Library to the user population during library induction sessions and follow up information skills sessions. Posters, information leaflets and ongoing regular ‘drop in sessions’ were organized by subject librarians.

• A Training Hour session was used to communicate the new portal to library staff. This included a practical demonstration and background to its development.

Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

No details of these tasks were provided.

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Subject Librarians were invited to provide feedback on the format and composition of individual subject pages and contribute to modifications as necessary. This is an ongoing process.

Reflection
Key skills and knowledge needed to develop the project

• Knowledge of institutional style, editor content guidelines and relevant legislative requirements.

• Technical knowledge / expertise relating to development and management of electronic services.

• The new portal has only been available from September 2007. The Library Web group continues to monitor the content, formatting and adherence to legislation such as FOI and accessibility standards.

• As a result of the changes the access to the E-library service is far more user-friendly, including a single login process.

Conclusion and Analysis

Even though details of the Key Tasks have not been provided for this project, this example was considered useful to be included as a case study for several reasons.
Libraries are almost always part of a larger organization and cannot work in isolation from their host organizations. Libraries need to be visible to their communities and a web presence with easy access is vital to achieve this.
Libraries need to continually develop and change to keep pace with organizational change yet there is also a need for them to provide consistency and continuity of their services to their user communities.
This project is an interesting example of how a new service is developed while there is also a continuing need to provide access to existing resource collections. It is also a useful example of partnership working within an organization, supported by knowledge gained through wider professional contacts.

Public Library Schools Visits Project

Background/ Context of the Project (Stage 1)

The County Council needed to develop appropriate services to schools. They also needed to apply the ‘Fulfilling Their Potential’ framework which was done through the Annual Business Plan. This in turn needed to be included in all of the libraries’ local library plans. Each type of library in the county library service was given a target of class visits to libraries to achieve for that year. The Service Development Team for Children’s’ Services invited a teacher from each school in the area to attend a meeting to discuss the aims of the project and how this could be organised.

Project Definition and Goal (Stage 2)

The main aim of the project was to develop appropriate library services to schools that would improve children’s use of their public library.

Benefits of the project
A successful project would improve visitor targets, increase the active borrower count and increase book issues. This would also help to improve the satisfaction rating during the children’s’ E Plus surveys.

Finance

There was no designated budget for this project. The goals had to be made achievable from within the standard libraries budget.

Staffing

The Children’s’ Service Development Manager was the project lead for all the libraries in the county initially. Then the Area Co-ordinators monitored the performance of each library manager who was responsible for the project within each of their libraries.

Head teachers, English teachers, and in some cases School Librarians, were involved depending on the responsibility within each school. In the larger libraries the responsibility would then be passed down to the children’s librarian and in the smaller libraries the responsibility to organise and deliver the class visits would remain with the library manager.

Support staff were used to process the joining forms so that each child would become a member of the library. This enabled them to borrow a book during their class visit. Staffing numbers needed to be adequate to support the visit whilst also maintaining a service to the public.

Time Scales

The project started in January 2005 and had to be included in all of the library action plans by April 2005. This meant it would then be part of the core service for that year (April 2005 – March 2006). This would also be when all of the libraries would have to meet their targets. These class visits have since been incorporated into library action plans each year as part of the standard service.

Communication

The original idea was communicated to library managers through a joint area managers’ meeting to discuss services to children and how they could be improved.

Emails kept the Service Development Manager (SDM) in touch with library managers. Each manager had a meeting with the SDM to further discuss the need for essential training and staff responsibilities. Operational issues also needed to be discussed such as: staffing numbers required for a class visit; concerns about proof of identification and joining children to the library; carrying out the visits while the library was open to the general public and possibilities and problems if children borrowed books during the visit.

The SDM and the Area Co-ordinators were informed of progress during the monthly area managers meetings and by the quarterly library action plan updates. This helped to ensure that targets were being met, the project was on course and to highlight any problems.

Key Tasks (Stages 3 and 4) • SDM informs library managers of project and aims. • Project is included in each library action plan with targets set for each library to achieve. • Schools are consulted by the Children’s SDM and key contacts passed to library managers. • Library staff were informed during weekly staff meetings. • Meetings are held with library managers to discuss training and operational issues. Feedback from staff was discussed. • Guidance notes on how to deliver class visits were drawn up by the Children’s SDM and a team of children’s librarians and emailed out to library managers and children’s librarians. • Library managers / children’s librarians contacted schools in their catchment areas to arrange meetings with teachers / school librarians to discuss plans for the class visits, age of children, numbers of children, mutually convenient dates, length of visit, joining procedures. The programme and content to be included in the visit for each age group was also agreed. • Class visits were planned by managers / children’s librarians. • Adequate staffing was arranged and roles communicated to staff. • Class visits were rolled out to schools. • Follow up calls and letters to teachers after the visits were used to assess feedback.

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Evaluation was sought formally within libraries through monthly management meetings and through the library action plans quarterly updates. Performance targets would also be improved through successful visits.
There was no formal evaluation plan recommended to libraries, however each library would have their own way of gaining this information. Library managers and librarians liaised closely with teachers and other library staff involved before and after each visit to find out what went well and what didn’t work so well that could be changed next time. Library staff that had been on duty during the visit were also asked to give feedback as to how they coped with issuing books to large numbers of children, problems with library cards and serving the public during the visits, etc.

Reflection

Key skills needed to develop the project: • Good communication with people of all ages, written and oral • Good ICT skills • Ability to work in a team • Ability to use initiative • Project management skills • Time management skills • Self-motivation and the ability to motivate a team

A set of guidelines were written and sent out electronically to managers to enable them to plan and devise a series of class visits appropriate to the age range of each class visit. Although the guidelines were well thought out it would have been useful to have been supported by a children’s librarian for the first class visit or to have been able to observe how they delivered a session. Instead confidence has grown with experience.

Problems encountered: • Staff were extremely unhappy having class visits while the library was open to the public. The previous librarian had taken some class visits but only while the library was closed. This project reflected a belief that a change in culture was necessary to show the children how a library operates and enhance their perspective of a library as part of the community. It was also thought to be good for the public to see children using the library, further evidence that the library service has changed. • Difficulty contacting teachers who are either teaching or in meetings. Librarians needed to find out the best times to contact or ask them to contact the library manager. This was time consuming. • Where more than one class visit was arranged on one day there could be problems if the first class was late. This would then mean that visits would have to be cut short or would overrun thus causing problems for the next class, or problems with library staff not being able to have their breaks. • Some library users complained of the noise generated by the class visits or of having to wait to be served. Meeting all user needs at such times proved challenging. • Some schools did not cancel the visit if they were unable to get the children to the library. This was a particular problem when a series of visits had been planned for one school and books became overdue because parents were told by the school that it didn’t matter. The library was unable to contact parents as they did not have a list of the names. • Library books getting mixed up with books at the school. Pupils and teachers failed to differentiate between ownership of these items. • Some schools insisted that they needed to bring two classes at once due to staff/ time but this has been too much for the library to cope with whilst also serving the public with the resources available. • Teachers not getting joining forms to the library well in advance of the visit to enable library cards to be processed for the children. Library staff levels were not enough to cope with class visits, serve the public and process large numbers of joining forms all at the same time.

The project experience has informed managers / librarians what works and what creates problems. It identified the numbers of staff needed to ensure a successful visit. It also identified the need to communicate the important factors to teachers before the visit so they in turn can inform parents.
The project goal has been achieved and class visits are now included in all library plans each year.

Conclusion and Analysis

This is an interesting example of a project that involved policy that evolved as a consequence of external environment factors. The public library needed to improve children’s use of their local libraries which had been identified as weak through monitoring of national standards and statistics.

There is a sense of a top-down approach as this was imposed on the libraries. However, the dispersed project leadership ensured that managers were involved in the planning and developing stages so that local issues could be adapted to meet the project goal.

Communication with the schools seemed to present real problems as did the challenge of trying to meet the very different needs of diverse user groups.
Overall, however, it is interesting to read about a project that has become part of standard service delivery.

Reclassification Project

Reclassifying the main book collection (approx. 53,000 items) of a departmental library in an old university to the Library of Congress Classification scheme (LCC). Simultaneously weeding out un-used stock.

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)

The library conducted a survey of its primary users (staff and students of the Department of Education) at the end of the last two academic years, and the results have shown that many users found the existing book layout difficult to use. The current classification is an outdated and now rather idiosyncratic version of Dewey. This means that the classification of each new book is potentially subjective, and has to be carried out by a senior member of staff who knows the collection well.

The current scheme also results in a very large number of books with the same shelf mark. Users have to browse through all of these to find the title they need. The current Dewey classification is then sub-divided by a letter, on the spine of the book, taken either from the main author’s surname or from the title of the book, if it is edited. This creates confusion among users, especially as the letter is not included in the shelf mark on the library catalogue.

The library collection has also run out of space, and includes a large amount of material that has not been used for many years. The project aims to weed out material that has not been borrowed for 5 years: either to the library stacks, if it is unique within the Oxford library service, or to be sold, if another copy is held in the Bodleian Library.

In turn the book stack is being weeded, applying the same criteria.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

The goal of the project is to create an up to date collection, with growth space for new material, arranged by Library of Congress (LCC) an easy to use, internationally recognised classification sequence.

Benefits of the Project
This aims to make the collection easier to browse, as books should be grouped in a more systematic fashion. It also aims to make individual items easier to search for, as the classification will end in a 3-letter code, taken either from the author’s name or the title, included in the shelf mark, thus limiting the number of titles that can have the same shelf location.

The majority of the University’s libraries have already reclassified to LCC, or are in the process of doing so. By bringing the Education Library into line with the rest of the University, it should help our many users who use more than one library, as well as making life easier for those who were already used to LCC at a previous institution.

Finally, it should also mean that the classification of most new material can be done by library assistants as part of the general book processing stage, as class marks can generally be found in the MARC records of the Library of Congress’ online catalogue. This will reduce subjectivity and make the workflow much more efficient.

Finance available
This project began in Easter 2007, with no extra funding provided. Two volunteers helped with the project during the summer vacation of 2007, and made excellent progress, but it was proving difficult to sustain momentum on the project with the library’s core staffing.

In January 2008, extra funding was applied for and acquired approximately £2,800 for 7.5 staff hours per week until 31 December 2008. The librarian placed a bid for the money, and then split the hours between two existing part-time staff, one of whom had been a volunteer during the summer.

Staffing
All of the Education Library staff are involved in the project, and contribute when they can. The staff working evenings and weekends, when the library is often quieter, work on the weeding and reclassification, while staffing the issue desk.

However, from January 2008, there are two designated people working on the project, away from the desk, for a total of 7.5 hours per week. The project management role, although fairly informal, has been taken by the librarian.

Time scales
The date for completion of the project was initially negotiable, although the funding expires in December 2008. The final stage of the project involves editing catalogue records, relabelling and shifting stock. This needs to take place during the summer months, preferably July and August. The library is quietest at this time of year and users will suffer the least disruption.

The total time from idea to delivery is likely to be approximately 18 months. However, this is only phase 1 of the project, as the oversize collection will also need to be heavily weeded and then reclassified. Phase 2 of the project will also involve reclassifying the separate teaching resources collection to Dewey. Currently this is classified using a ‘home grown’ scheme but Dewey is more suitable for resources taken out to schools that generally use the Dewey Classification Scheme.

Communication
The original idea was discussed at library staff meetings, and in consultation with the Head of Social Science Libraries. The idea was raised at the Committee for Library Provision in Education, where it was discussed with staff and student representatives from the Department. Details of the purpose and time scale of the project were sent to all academic staff in the department by e-mails and comments were invited.

The Education Librarian also communicated the plans regarding the project, and continues to provide regular progress updates, at all major Departmental committee meetings, including the Academic Staff meeting, the Committee for Graduate Studies, and the Research committee.

The team working on the project are using regular staff meetings and the library mailing list to communicate on progress and any issues encountered. The librarian also meets regularly and informally with the team members individually, to discuss progress and deal with any problems arising.

The weeding of stock in particular has needed to be carefully communicated to academic staff. Books marked for weeding have been given a coloured dot and replaced on the shelves, so that academics can check to make sure that they approve of the material being withdrawn in their subject area.

The physical reallocations during the summer will be communicated via LCD screens, signs, notices and emails, plus within the committees.

Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

The table below lists the main tasks
| | | | |
|What? |Who? |How long? |Notes |
|Weeding from stack to create space | | | |
|(one person from 400s, another from |Issue desk staff | | |
|100s) | | | |
|Checking and deleting stack records | | | |
| |Cindy/Sue/Eric/Kate | | |
|Weeding from open shelf to stack / | | | |
|for withdrawal (marking with |Beth/Anne | | |
|yellow/green dots) | | | |
|Reclassifying remaining open shelf | | | |
|material (writing the new |Beth/Anne | | |
|classification inside the book) | | | |
|Removing dotted books from open shelf| | | |
|to stack or cupboard for sale |Issue desk staff | |Check with academics |
|(change on OLIS, then stamp/sticker) | | |first before moving |
| | | |(Kate) |
|Relabelling and moving books to new | | | |
|locations |Everyone | | |
|Resources room – reclassifying of | | | |
|Teaching Resources Collection to |Cindy/Eric/Sue/Kate |Phase 2 | |
|Dewey | | | |
|Moving to new locations | | | |
| |Everyone |Phase 2 | |

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Although we have not yet completed the project, to be able to fully reflect on it, we have been evaluating its success informally, on an ongoing basis. We also had a more thorough evaluation after the pilot stage of 300 books was complete. This raised issues, such as policies for multiple copies/reference copies/items in a series, which we then incorporated into our criteria for weeding.

Reflection

The project is still underway, although reflection is a continuous process. The librarian had already worked on a similar reclassification project in another Oxford library, so was aware of some of the potential pitfalls. For example, this helped to inform the decision to mark all books with a new classification inside the cover, before then changing them all on the catalogue, relabelling and moving them together. This aims to reduce the amount of time that two sequences will have to be maintained.

The training was all carried out in-house, by the librarian, although some more central training by the Oxford University Library Services (OULS) in classification may have been useful and eased the pressure on staff time.

One major lesson learned was that it was not possible to carry out the project effectively with the existing staffing levels, as every member of staff has key background/technical services tasks to carry out, even when they are not staffing the issue or enquiry desk.

One anticipated problem is that academics may find that books that had been grouped together by course area may now be separated. The hope is that this will be outweighed by the more consistent grouping of books by subject area, and mitigated by the fact that it is not a huge library! Possible adjustments to the scheme may have to be made if this does not seem to be the case, although an ongoing examination of the class marks that are being assigned suggests that the majority of books are not being separated too much. We would also hope to avoid any adjustments that turned our version of LCC into another idiosyncratic, in-house scheme.

Conclusion and Analysis

This is an interesting project that needs to be managed and completed, parallel to continuing to deliver the services provided by the library. This is fairly typical of many library projects. Unlike retail and banking organizations, libraries can rarely close to make improvements so there is a real challenge to manage projects with a minimum disruption to regular services. Interestingly however, recent refurbishments at some M&S and also Waitrose stores, continued while their premises were open to customers. Sales figures were probably lower but customers were still buying throughout these periods, no doubt in the conviction that the stores had what they needed and that the changes would probably be for the better.

Where there is some disruption, users need to be convinced of the value of living with this disruption so that they will benefit from the improvements. Communicating this is important, especially with the academic staff who may believe the changes are for the benefit of library staff rather than their users.

This project is also typical of the very limited finances available for many library projects. The bid for extra funds is very small yet having a specific amount of money linked to a project can sometimes force things to happen. It encourages a clearer focus on how staff use their time, the tasks that need to be completed and others that perhaps can be reduced to create more staff time.

This project has a strong team approach. It uses existing staff and increased the hours of 2 part time workers who were both familiar with the library. This can be useful for moving a project forward quickly. If new staff are employed on a project, several months can be lost in the recruitment and training processes.

This project is part of a larger, ongoing reclassification task. Dividing the project into phases is a useful approach that has clear completion dates that can be worked towards. The task is divided into parts rather than one large overwhelming task that seems as if it will never end. A phased approach can help to sustain staff motivation but it also provides some opportunities to adapt how the tasks are completed within each phase. Consistency is important but a flexible approach can be built into each phase, especially without a special budget allocation.

School Author Visit Project

Organizing an author visit for a school library

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)
The context for the author visit was to promote and encourage reading within year 7 of a girls’ grammar school. At the start of the academic year there had been a read-athon and a reading passport event. However the Librarian and the English teachers felt that something else more tangible and fun was needed to continue to encourage reading and make it a habit not a chore.

Research was carried out to find an author suitable for the school and the intended audience’s age (11 -12 years old). It was important to consider the type of books the author wrote. The Library Management software was used to identify the most popular library books borrowed by year 7 pupils. This provided details of trends in genre, and the most popular authors. The librarian also asked year 7 to recommend authors they would like to meet.

The next step was to find the author contact addresses by using Google to find their homepages in the hope there was an email address, or message board to contact them by. Publishing houses and agents had proven unsuccessful points of contact in the past.

Eventually the author of the Totally Lucy series of books was chosen and contacted via her homepage email address. This was done 6 months prior to the date of the event to allow plenty of time for planning.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

The goals of the author visit were: - To promote and encourage reading within year 7 - To engage pupils in a short creative writing workshop, enabling them to develop their own skills.

Benefits of the project were to: - encourage reading - develop questioning and answering skills - develop a wider understanding of publishing and ways in which to get work published regardless of age - develop creative writing skills.

Finance available
£350 was budgeted for the author visit. This is the ‘recommended rate’ for school visits by the Association of Authors and Illustrators. This money came out of the Library budget. The Librarian is responsible for this budget and had anticipated this cost in her planning at the start of the financial year.

Staffing
The School Librarian was the person responsible for organising the visit. She was the point of contact with the author and helped to ‘iron out the details’ of the day.

The Librarian also collaborated with the Head of English at the School to choose an appropriate date that would fit in with the demands of the curriculum and timetabling. Each of the five Year 7 forms had a session with the author. The final session was designated a ‘keen writers’ session for those in Year 8 who had a special interest in becoming a writer. The Head of English was instrumental in choosing the girls selected to take part in this session.

Student Librarians were asked to ‘help’ prepare promotional material such as displays and posters before the day. On the day they were asked to help with the following tasks:

- selling of books - organising queues during the book signing - interviewing the author after the event for the Library Blog - taking photographs of the event

Two Departmental Assistants from English and Humanities were also asked to take photos during the day.

Time scales
The challenge was to agree a date that suited the author’s commitments but provided curriculum benefit for the pupils. It was hoped that the visit would take place just after Christmas. This was not essential but it is usually a quieter time of the academic year so the visit would not be competing with other activities. It would also give the pupils an event to look forward to.
The visit was planned out 6 months in advance in order to secure a date in the author’s diary. The event was arranged so it would fall on a Thursday. This helped with timetabling as 4 of the 5 Year 7 classes already had English on this day in the Library. This meant that only 1 group would need to be ‘pulled’ out of their normal lessons.

Communication
The author visit was communicated to the students by putting posters up around the school, creating a large display in the library and also sending a letter home to parents a few days before the event.
Telephone and email were used to communicate with the author.
Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

6 MONTHS BEFORE VISIT

Research authors:
Find an author suitable for the age group and gender of intended audience.

Choose authors:
Contact suitable authors and wait for their response, arranging a suitable time when it is convenient for them to visit school.

Confirm dates
Confirm chosen date with author, Head of English, and Head Teacher checking to make sure there are no clashes with other school events on that day.

Plan visit
Make a preliminarily plan of the visit with the author and Head of English, checking to see exactly what will be done with each class on the day. Send the author outline of arrangements when finalised so that she can see what is agreed.

A FEW WEEKS BEFORE VISIT

Contact author a few weeks before event
This is useful to check everything is still OK, what their travel arrangements are (so you can see if they need to be picked up) and what there needs might be on the day (equipment, dietary etc)

Promotion
This is very important to the success of the event. You need to promote the event to get the intended audience excited about the day and make it a success. We used posters, library displays and discussed the visit during English library lessons.

Organise books for sale
Two weeks before the event arrange for books by the author to be delivered from the publisher on a sale or return basis. We ordered 100 books – 10 of each title. There are 130 girls in Year 7 so we felt this was an appropriate amount.

WEEK OF VISIT

Letters home to parents
A week before the event send a letter home to parents to tell them what is happening and about book sales on the day and their cost. Any sooner is a waste of time as people forget.

Student reminder
Remind students of the event a few days before. This was done using an assembly notice.

Float
A few days before the event arrange with the school office to have a float for change on the day to help with book sales.

Authors Lunch
Arrange with catering for a lunch to be provided on the day for the author.

Prepare students
Prepare student helpers about their roles on the day checking they are sure of what they all have to do.

Organise the interview team and photography for the day
Check that the Departmental Assistants are prepared for taking the photos.

Invite Deputy Head of Humanities, Head of English, Head Teacher etc to come and join in on the day.
This is not essential but politically it is wise to make sure they are fully aware of how the library is promoting reading and other skills.

AFTER THE VISIT

Return unsold books to publishers and request an invoice.

Write up student interviews and put them on the school library blog so that all pupils and staff can read about the event.

Evaluation (Stage 5)

No formal evaluation instruments were used.
Informal evaluation was received from the girls who were asked to discuss the event and write about it in their next English lesson.

Reflection

The key skills needed to develop the project were: - patience - organisation skills - communication skills - team working skills – collaborating with English Department and student librarian team - financial skills – sales of books under pressure and handling money

The build up to an author visit can be both exciting and also a bit of a thankless task. It is however worth it. Our chosen author was very ‘low maintenance’ and down to earth. She did not want to charge for accommodation so stayed over night before the event with the Librarian. She came on her own without an entourage, which some authors insist on doing. All this made the planning stage and the actual day a lot easier and a lot less stressful.

On the whole the author visit went very well and smoothly. It would have been useful to have promoted the event a little more, and maybe to have spent some time during an English lesson to talk about the visit and plan questions for the author. This would have got the girls to think more carefully about the day and enabled them to gain more from it.

Selling the book during lunch time was stressful as there was only the Librarian and a few student helpers present and it became very busy. Finding other staff willing to give up a lunch hour can be difficult. Next time it would if better to organise the book sales through a local book store. They would come into school on the day to sell the books at no extra charge as they are glad of the business. Although there would be less income generation for the library, a small discount might be possible. However, this would remove an extra responsibility on the day. It also would have removed the pressure of having to send books back after the event, bank money and claim for postage etc.

The ‘keen writers’ session was very last minute. The teachers only decided who would attend the session 3 days before the event but the girls were only notified one day before the event. They needed more time to prepare e.g. brought some of their short stories with them, composed questions etc. Better preparation would improve the value of the session.

Conclusion and Analysis

This is a useful example of a project that only lasts for one day yet needs very careful planning over quite a long time period to ensure success. The logistics involved with negotiating between an author and academic colleagues to make the practical arrangements will be challenging. However there is also the need to encourage or coerce the pupils to participate so that they gain the maximum benefit possible. The Librarian reflects that more could have been done here but this is usually within the control of the teachers rather than the Librarian.

Reading this case study provides evidence of the need for good organizational and people skills. It also highlights the need for an awareness of the politics involved with organizing an event that disrupts the school timetable.

Self Service Project

Staff changes on the Service Desk as a consequence of self service machines in a University Library

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)

This project formed part of a wider review of the university library services, including increased opening hours at the weekends as well as the recent opening of a new social learning space, a ‘Learning lounge’ in the basement of the library. These developments were in response to customer feedback, including more flexible service provision for P/T and distance learning students as well as requests for more informal study and social facilities.

The organizational and service context for the project was: • To reduce the levels of staffing on the Service desk during the day in order to provide extra support in library departments. • To reduce the staffed evening opening hours of the service desk during the week from 8.45pm to 7.30pm. • To encourage customers to use the self issue machines for routine transactions, including issuing, returning and renewing items allowing staff at the service desk to focus on more involved circulation enquiries. • To reduce waiting times at the desk for customers. • To provide more flexible services and facilities for customers, including part time and distance learning students, especially for people who access the library in evenings.

The ideas that influenced developing the project were: • Customer feedback relating to the provision of services in the evening. • The need for greater choice and responsiveness to a broad range of library customers and flexible patterns of library use.

Research carried out to inform the project included: • Visits by Lending Services staff to other academic libraries who had already implemented self service machines. • A trial period during 2005-2006 when two earlier self service machines were operational, however, service desk staffing levels remained at the same and users were encouraged to trial the services.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

To encourage customers to use the self issue machines for routine transactions, including issuing, returning and renewing items. This would enable staff at the service desk to focus on more involved circulation enquiries.
To re-organize the staffing patterns on the counter service, including reducing the number of people on evening teams and the staffed opening hours of the counter.

Benefits expected from the project include:
The project would enable the provision of more flexible services and facilities for customers, including part time and distance learning students, in particular people who access the library in the evening.
It would also reduce the frequency and length of evening working sessions for library staff in keeping with the overall use of the counter services after 7.30. During consultations, a large number of staff had expressed the opinion that the low use of the counter service after 7.30pm did not warrant having teams of staff working.

Finance available
Finances were available to purchase four self service machines and to fund the staff training, implementation and ongoing technical support.

These finances were managed by the University Librarian and Deputy Librarian

Staffing
The project was supported by:

The Senior Library Manager, with responsibility for the Counter Services department, who managed the project.

The Counter Services Supervisor responsible for overseeing the services offered on the counter who assisted with the project.

The Library Systems Team Manager for technical support.

3M- the supplier of the self service system.

Time scales
The ideas for the change were discussed and researched during the spring term. The project needed to be established for the start of the academic year in September 2007.

The total time of the project was 6 months with most of the tasks achieved during the summer vacation period.

2 staff were employed full time plus ad hoc support from Counter Services and IT staff.

Communication
Library communication was through team briefings, training hour sessions and consultations with staff on changes to evening working patterns.

The project team communicated through meetings and emails.

Feedback to the Senior Management Team on progress of the project was provided by the Head of Counter Services.

Promotion of the changed services was provided to new and returning students. Demonstrations of the Self Service machines were formally added to the schedule for library induction tours.

Counter Services staff were briefed on the services and provided with relevant training.

Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

No key tasks were provided for this project case study

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Ongoing evaluations will be based on circulation statistics as well as informally in terms of the reduced amount of routine transactions being dealt with on the counter, reduced queues etc.

Customer feedback was obtained from suggestions and comments offered in the ‘Tell us’ suggestions process.

Reflection

Initial technical training was provided by the supplier and information was delivered to the library staff by the Counter Services supervisor.

The only problem occurred with the external issue system with some new university ID cards being printed incorrectly and not being readable on the self service machines. This resulted in a large number of library users being unable to use them. These were later replaced but it had an impact on the use of the machines in the first few weeks of the term.

The project goal was achieved by:

• Staffing changes implemented in September 2007, including reduced team numbers and opening hours of the counter service.

• Reducing the number of people on evening shifts has also allowed counter staff to work on a rotational basis reducing the overall number of evening duties for each individual to one every three weeks. This has resulted in more staff being available to work in other library departments which has improved their wider knowledge of the different library services. Reducing the staffed hours of the counter has generally been supported by the library staff.

• Use of the self service machines has continued to increase both during the day and evenings and helped to reduce waiting times to issue books and at the counter for enquiries.

Conclusion and Analysis

This project could be viewed from several perspectives.

The changes appear to be reducing the opportunities for users to interact with staff through the reduction of staffed hours on the counter at weekends and evenings. However these changes reduce the time staff spend on routine loan transactions and increase their time available in the daytime for more professional activities such as enquiry work.

The project also involves changing user behaviours as well as how staff are used. The machines will need to be used when staff are not available. Increased familiarity with self service machines will increase user choices at the counter even when staff are available. Reduced waiting times will improve the user experience.

Staff are an expensive cost within an organization and this project is an attempt to maximize how staff are used whilst also adapting to the changing user needs and technologies available. The challenge is to balance user needs with the demands for increasing efficiency in the use of staff resources in service delivery. It is also important that staff are still visible within the library environment rather than being thought by users to be hiding away in offices. There value of staff working on more professional tasks in the library will need to be evident through improved services.

Visual Images Databases Project

Subscribing to Visual Image databases to reduce the purchase of slides in a Visual Arts Library of a new University Library.

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)

There were changes in the delivery of Art and Design programmes in the University, including course content, methods of teaching and assessment. The increased emphasis on electronic delivery of teaching sessions required access to high quality copyright cleared images which resulted in a marked decline in the use of the slide collection. A loyal and enthusiastic group of academic staff and associate library members still regularly use the slide collection; however, students largely prefer to locate images online.

The current Copyright Licence Agency agreement (CLA) which the university holds is restrictive in terms of the digitization and storage of image collections and has so far prevented many institutions from making image collections freely accessible electronically. This has particularly affected institutions which predominantly focus on Contemporary Art teaching as many of the images held in the slide collection fall under strict artistic ownership rules. The issue is a long and protracted one and has not moved forward very much in the last three years. Even if a workable image licence was formalised there are concerns about finances and staffing implications and whether the overall costs involved in a digitization project would provide sufficient returns in terms of collection usage.

As with all other university departments (and other institutions), the overall library budget has been stretched in recent years and library services have been heavily scrutinised prior to funds being allocated to individual areas. The decision was made to stop purchasing physical images and to allocate the funds to trialling two digital image databases.

Reasons for developing the project

• To meet the changing expectations and needs of library customers in terms of providing resources that are easily accessible, relevant and responsive to the teaching and learning activities in the university.

• Feedback from some academic staff showed they were keen to enhance the provision of digital resources. The Land of Lost Content, one of the databases being trialled, was identified as a useful resource by academic staff in Graphic Design and Product Design.

• The practical acceptance that if library users prefer to access images online, it is advantageous to provide resources which contain copyright cleared images in the hope of counteracting the ‘Google’ factor and to maintain the relevancy of the Visual Images service to the user population.

Research carried out to inform the project

Prior to taking out subscriptions, a number of institutions already using the image databases were contacted to find out about usage levels and general experiences of using the resources.

It was also helpful to share information via contact with other institutions by attending meetings of Visual Image librarians/curators and participation on relevant electronic discussion lists.

Communication and discussion took place between the Art and Design subject librarians and teaching staff, informally and during attendance at meetings in the academic departments. This facilitated discussion and feedback on the types of resources needed to support teaching.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

To develop the Visual Images service to ensure that it meets the expectations of library users and supports teaching and learning activities in the University.

Finance available
The only finance available was limited to the cost of annual subscription rates for the two databases. This was managed by the Library Senior Manager and Media Services Manager.

Staffing
The people involved in the project were:

• Senior Manager-allocation of funds

• Library Media Services Manager. The Visual Images service is part of the Media Services team.

• Two Art and Design subject librarians. They had key roles in liaising with teaching staff in the Art and Design department.

• Senior Library Assistant Visual Images, responsible for day to day running of the service as part of the Media Services team.

No external partners or colleagues from outside of the library were involved, apart from the research and negotiation stages as described above.

Time scales
The ideas for the change were discussed and researched during the spring term. The subscriptions needed to be established for the start of the academic year in October 2007.

The total time of the project was 5 months with most of the tasks achieved during the summer vacation period.

In total, 4 members of staff spent a few hours each week on the project. This was fitted into their existing workloads but had priority over other tasks that were not governed by a deadline.

Communication
The project was discussed with academic staff at Programme Board meetings held regularly in academic departments. Subject librarians attend meetings relevant to their subject responsibilities to discuss any library related matters.

Teaching staff promoted the database services to students in lectures & seminars.

The project team communicated with each other through face to face discussion and emails.

They communicated the project and its progress to library staff through library team briefings.

Details were communicated throughout the University via a Portal-announcement.

Materials promoting the services were displayed in the library and distributed during library induction and information skills sessions.

A promotional ‘launch’ event for the ‘Land of Lost Content’ database was held at the beginning of academic year 2007-2008. This was organised by an Art and Design lecturer who invited interested students and staff to attend a presentation by designer Wayne Hemingway who has contributed personal collections to be included on the database. He also provided the funding to establish the resource.

Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

The following tasks needed to be done for planning, developing and delivering the project:

• Liaison between academic and library staff to decide which digital resources would best support teaching in the university.

• Contacting database suppliers and setting up subscriptions, arranging training sessions for staff etc.

• Promotion of the new services in the library and Art and Design department, including information skills and teaching sessions.

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Ongoing formal evaluation is largely premised on usage levels and viability of renewing the services in the next academic year. However, one of the database providers is currently unable to provide any retrospective statistics from September to December 2007 and has made no firm commitment to this, so this will need to be taken into consideration before the service is renewed.

Additional informal observations / evaluation are continuing though general enquiries work with library users, particularly identifying how receptive customers are to the services and whether the contents of the databases are relevant to their work.

All evaluation discussion and feedback will be considered nearer to the time when subscription renewal takes place and new budgets are allocated to the library.

Reflection

Key skills needed to develop the project:

• Effective communication skills are needed as regular communication between academic departments, teaching staff and librarians is essential to ascertain the value of the databases to users.

• Knowledge of the courses offered in the university and the types of resources needed to support these. Also awareness of the changing information needs of library customers away from more traditional materials to electronic resources.
A hands on training session was delivered by one of the database providers which provided a background to the service, guidance on navigating the resource effectively and the range of images available on it.

There were some initial technical problems with logging onto one of the databases with the initial password provided although this was resolved quickly by the provider.

With hindsight, what could have been done better and how?

• Engaging academic staff and students in a trial period of the databases to invite feedback on the content etc. Although one of the database services is regularly updated with contemporary works, it contains a large number of art historical images which are not relevant to the Art and Design programmes offered in the university. Unfortunately, this is also the service which does not currently offer any means of obtaining user statistics from the first few months of the subscription.

• Another UK academic library has subscribed to a range of digital image services for a year in order to identify the service (s) with the most useful and relevant content. This process would have been very beneficial here; unfortunately current finances do not permit this and it is unlikely that additional funds will be available in the near future.

What was learned by those people involved in the project?

• The need to work closely with academic departments/teaching staff to promote the services to students. Subject librarians are using information skills sessions as a means of promoting the services to library users as well as encouraging academic staff to do this during teaching sessions.

• To provide honest feedback to the database providers on the services offered. Usage statistics are the main issue here as neither provider is currently providing the range of data that we need to evaluate levels of use. Although the services are relatively new and still in the process of development, we have to be able to obtain this information in order to make a case for renewing the resources next year.

Was the project goal fully achieved?

• As planned, the databases were available at the beginning of the academic year 2007. This was useful in order to promote the services to new and returning students during library induction/info skills sessions.

• It is still the early stages of evaluating how well the services are being used by library users. It will be important to find out whether the database contents are relevant to the needs of the user population and if they provide an accessible and viable alternative to other freely available web based images.

Conclusion and Analysis

This is an example of a project concerning change and improvements to existing services that needs to be completed during an academic vacation period.

This is another example of project approaches being used to implement a change of service provision. The restriction in available finances supported using a project approach for a change that was piloted over one academic year.

This case study offers an interesting juxtaposition of electronic resources with archived images held within the library.

It will be interesting for this library to evaluate the databases to ascertain the value added provided from the resource, in contrast to purchasing items. It will also be interesting to monitor any change in behaviour of staff in using these resources and the impact on their teaching.

Volunteers Project

To recruit, train and supervise volunteers for a data entry project for the local studies service of a public library

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)

A number of local building plans had been deposited with the local studies library. The plans were incredibly useful to the public library service but needed to be added to a database in order to record the information they contained and to facilitate their retrieval for user enquiries. As it was not possible within the current staffing capacity of the library service, using volunteers seemed a viable option that was appropriate for this type of project. Using volunteers is also seen by the organisation as an opportunity for community engagement and as a way of adding value to the organisation. Volunteers are also seen by the organisation as a way of complementing the work done by paid staff.

Two volunteers had already been recruited for other purposes in the library and this pilot had been successful. Therefore, the service wanted to recruit further volunteers in order to undertake this large data entry project. The responsibility for recruiting, training and supervising additional volunteers was given to the Principal Library Assistant as a performance target. Again, this was opportunity to further develop the use of volunteers within the library service.

In order to familiarise herself with the process she needed to study the organisation’s volunteering policy and volunteer checklist. She also discussed the details and processes with her line manager, who had recruited the first two volunteers.

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)

To recruit, train and supervise volunteers to undertake a data entry project for the library‘s local studies service.

Benefits of the project

• To recruit further volunteers to add building plans to a database • To ensure that these plans could be found for enquiring library users and that the information on them was recorded for the purposes of preservation • To reduce pressure on existing library staffing by using volunteers as a project of this scale was not possible within current library staffing capacity • To add value to the organisation through the use of volunteers, providing an opportunity for community engagement and for complementing the work done by paid staff.

Finance available
There is no extra money available for this project so it needs to be achieved within the general library budget. Hidden costs include a librarian’s time and there are some other minimal costs, for example, printing, stationery.

Staffing
The project is managed by the Principal Library Assistant with special responsibility for Heritage and Local Studies. She reports to and is advised by her line manager when necessary.

Staff within the Heritage and Local Studies team are also involved, as they are required to support the volunteers.

Two volunteers have been recruited specifically to work on the project.

Time scales
There was no fixed date set for the project to be completed. It will continue until all of the plans have been processed.
Responsibility for the project was originally discussed with the Project Manager in March 2007 but other priorities and planning issues delayed the start.

Volunteers needed to be recruited and working by February 2008 and were finally recruited by December 2007.

The Project manager initially worked on the project as and when she could within the capacity of her other responsibilities. Much of her time in the early stages was spent on establishing how the tasks could be completed. She also need time to research and study the policies involved with use of volunteers. This used an average of a few hours a week over a period of approximately 4 months.

The volunteers each turn up at the same time in the week but are in at different times. They have met but each have their own box of plans to work on independently of each other. When they have completed a box, these plans are interfiled with the completed collection of plans. Work then begins on their next box.

Communication
The project manager was briefed on the project by her line manager during the pilot stage and then assigned specific responsibility for it at her performance review. This was then formally written up as part of her targets for the forthcoming year. She reported her progress to her line manager via emails and informal discussions. Progress on the project was also discussed at her 6-month review.

Specific details such as the two volunteers had been successfully recruited and trained were communicated to the line manager and the local studies team via email. The line manager then reported the news via the library management group and put the item on the local brief in order to pass the information on to the wider team.

Key tasks (Stages 3 and 4)

The following tasks have been identified by the project manager:

The project was assigned at a performance review and confirmed in the final version of performance review documentation.

Contacting people who had expressed an interest in this volunteering opportunity to ascertain if they were still interested in becoming a library volunteer.

For those people who were still interested in the role I then had to write to them confirming their interest. I also sent them a volunteer indexer role description for them to look at. If they were then still interested in the role I asked them phone me to arrange an informal interview.

Reading all volunteering documentation e.g. policy, checklist etc. in order to familiarise myself with the recruitment process.

Meeting with each of the volunteers to conduct an informal interview and to further explain the project. As well as getting the potential volunteers to complete an application form.

Taking up verbal references with the volunteers referees.

If successful, contacting the volunteers to arrange an induction and training date.

Preparing induction packs for the volunteers and adding them to signing in sheets. Emailing my line manager to inform them about my progress on the project.

Carrying out the induction process with each of the volunteers e.g. tour, meeting other colleagues, health and safety and any other practical matters. Ensuring that the volunteers sign a volunteer’s agreement and agree to a regular commitment of time for them to undertake the role. I also arranged time during the session for my line manager to meet with the volunteer.

Providing full training in how to add the plans to the database included: • Taking the required information from the building plans • Inputting the data found into Microsoft Access • Familiarising them in the use of a laptop • Giving them instruction in how handle archival documents • Providing instructions in how to arrange the plans once they had inputted them onto the database.
At this stage I also arranged a start date for the volunteer to commence their volunteering role.

Briefing my line manager and the team about the new volunteers. Circulating instructions about setting up the laptop and other materials that the volunteers will need. At this stage my line manager also informed our Library Management Group and placed the news on to our local brief.

Volunteers commence data entry role and will report to me as their supervisor. I will then arrange any further training and sort out any queries or concerns they may have. I will conduct a review with them at a suitable point in the future to check on their progress.

Evaluation (Stage 5)

Evaluation of the ongoing project was given to the project manager informally by the line manager once the volunteers had been recruited and training had been undertaken. Formal evaluation of the project will take place at the project manager’s performance review this year.

Recruiting the first volunteer and carrying out their induction informed and improved the recruitment of the second volunteer. The supervision stage of the project is still ongoing so this will be informed by any further feedback received. Feedback will also be used to inform the process should any further volunteers are recruited to the project.

Reflection

Key skills needed to develop the project ▪ Organisation skills ▪ Interpersonal skills ▪ Effective communication skills ▪ Experience of recruitment and selection processes ▪ Knowledge and understanding of the records ▪ Knowledge and understanding of how to handle and care for archival documents ▪ IT skills especially Microsoft Word and Access ▪ Training skills

What training was given or would have been useful to support the project?

An outline of the project was given by the line manager in how to initially begin the project. The project manager was also given access to the volunteering documentation, which explained the process of recruiting a volunteer.
Previous training in recruitment and selection was particularly useful for this project.

Did any problems occur during development and implementation?

The only problem that did occur was for the project manager to arrange time to commit to the project within the staffing capacity and managing the task against her other library responsibilities.

With hindsight, what could have been done better and how?

More involvement in the recruitment of the first volunteers would have been useful. It would have saved time to have arranged the training and induction session for the two new volunteers at the same time instead of separately, which ultimately duplicated effort. However, this was not possible in light of the volunteers’ own commitments and it did ensure that they both received dedicated time from the project manager.

What was learned by those people involved in the project?

▪ How effective it can be to use volunteers within a library service for certain tasks and how it can add value to the service. ▪ The importance of effective recruitment and selection processes even with volunteer recruitment.

Was the project goal fully achieved?

Yes, although the project is still ongoing. Supervision of the new volunteers is an ongoing process and once they are fully settled in it is likely that other people who are interested in this volunteering opportunity will be approached, thus repeating the process again. If the volunteers want to continue working with the library when this project is complete, they will be used for other local studies projects such as scanning photos etc.

Conclusion and Analysis

This is an interesting use of volunteers for quite detailed work. We tend to think of volunteers doing more general tasks such as shelving, storytelling etc.
There is evidence from the task list to show that recruiting and training volunteers does take large amounts of time and the benefits take a while to be appreciated. Nevertheless, capable volunteers, focusing on specific tasks can fulfil some useful library projects. This project does however raise some ethical questions about the use of volunteers for library tasks instead of paid employees. The challenge is to use volunteers for tasks that provide value added services to users rather than locate them in mainstream service delivery.

Project Management Case Studies Template

Instructions:

The headings and questions below have been developed to construct case studies for project management training.

To construct a new case study please read the questions within each of the following headings and provide answers for those relevant to your chosen project(s). The task should take approximately 30 minutes for each project.
Using these headings will enable some comparison and analysis of the examples chosen. The questions under each heading are only intended to stimulate ideas rather than to test the rigour of the project. Some of these questions will not be relevant to the projects you have chosen but any information that you provide will be useful.
Some information may need to be duplicated in places such as finance or staffing then again under the section on Key Tasks. This reflects the approaches in the literature on project management and well help in the final construction of the case study.

Headings:

Title
Please create a descriptive title such as: • Moving a library into new premises • Planning an author visit to a school library • Restructuring the Library Portal to synthesise with the University Portal • Staff changes on the issue desk as a consequence of self-issue machines

Background / context of the project (Stage 1)
What was the organizational and service context for the project?
What ideas or reasons influenced developing the project?
Was any research carried out to inform the project?

Project definition and goal (Stage 2)
This may have been answered in the chosen title but please restate the goal here.
What were the benefits expected from the project goal?

Finance available
Was there a designated budget for the project?
If yes, was it generous or limited?
If no, did the project need to be achieved within a general library budget?
Who was responsible for the finances and how were they managed?

Staffing
Who were the people involved and why?
Were people outside of the library involved? Did it involve partners?
Was a project team developed with specific roles?
Was there a project manager / leader and if so, why were they chosen?

Time scales
Was there a fixed (or negotiable) date when it had to be completed or delivered?
What was the total time from the date of the original idea to delivery?
How was staff time managed? E.g. 3 staff full time, 1 staff member a few hours each week for 6 weeks!

Communication
How was the original vision / idea communicated to the staff and user population?
How did the project team communicate with each other?
Was regular reporting to senior managers required? If so, how was this done?
How was completion of the project goal communicated to the organizational and user population?

Key tasks (The project story Stages 3 and 4)
What tasks needed to be done for planning, developing and delivering the project?
If possible, please group these in the order that the project progressed and was completed. Some of this information may have been mentioned under the previous headings but a few sentences succinctly describing what was actually involved at these stages would be useful here.

Evaluation (Stage 5)
How was evaluation achieved, formally or informally?
Was feedback used to make any further changes during or after project completion?

Reflection
What were the key skills needed to develop the project
What training was given or would have been useful to support the project?
Did any problems occur during development and implementation?
With hindsight, what could have been done better and how?
What was learned by those people involved in the project?
Was the project goal fully achieved?

These answers can now be used to construct a project case study.