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Visualising Success: the Kanban Approach to Improving Collaboration and Communication in the Library

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2024

Laura Griffiths  and
Alice Tyson
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Abstract

Kanban is a framework that is commonly used in the technology sector and other industries to help teams work more effectively, but it has not been widely adopted in LIS contexts. As many of us continue to adapt to hybrid workplaces, kanban could prove to be a useful tool for organising work and communicating. In this article Laura Griffiths and Alice Tyson of the IALS Library explain how Kanban boards work and offer a case study of how a Kanban board was used in a recent project at the IALS Library. The article also discusses the wider value of kanban to the LIS sector.

Keywords

information professionalscollaborationcommunicationhybrid working

Information

Type
Conference Papers
Information
Legal Information Management , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 2023 , pp. 245 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians

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References

Endnotes

1 In this article the term kanban with a small k refers to the Japanese word and signal cards originally used at Toyota. When referring to the Kanban Method, or to Kanban boards, we use a capital K.

2 Toyota, ‘Toyota Production System’ <https://global.toyota/en/company/vision-and-philosophy/production-system> accessed 28 July 2023

3 Anderson, David J, Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business (Blue Hole Press 2010)Google Scholar

4 ‘Manifesto for Agile Software Development’ (2001) <https://agilemanifesto.org> accessed 31 August 2023

5 It is outside of the scope of this article to give an explanation of Scrum, but for an in-depth look at Scrum and its applicability in the library setting see Waugh, Mike, ‘Increasing Effectiveness of Library Projects Through ScrumMaster Certification’ in Daugherty, Alice and Hines, Samantha Schmehl (eds), Project Management in the Library Workplace (Emerald Publishing 2018)Google Scholar

6 Anderson (n 3) 18

7 Gould, Elyssa M, ‘Workflow Management Tools for Electronic Resources Management’ (2018) 44 Serials Review 71CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 McLean, Jaclyn and Canham, Robin, ‘Managing the Electronic Resources Lifecycle with Kanban’ (2018) 2 Open Information Science 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 ibid 42

10 Minchew, Tessa, ‘Who's on First?: License Team Workflow Tracking with Trello’ (2015) 41 Serials Review 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Laura Parsons, ‘Just Stand-up and Kanban’ (British Library, Digital Scholarship Blog, 30 March 2020) <https://blogs.bl.uk/digital-scholarship/2020/03/just-stand-up-and-kanban.html> accessed 28 July 2023

12 Evans, Rachel, ‘Digitize Your To-Do List: A Librarian's Introduction to KanbanFlow’ (2017) 37(4) Computers in Libraries 28Google Scholar

13 Flerlage, Beth and Satterley, Renae, ‘The Use of Agile Project Management and Related Tools for Book Moves’ (2021) 21 Legal Information Management 43CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 <https://libguides.ials.sas.ac.uk/referencing>

15 <https://trello.com/>