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6023 results in Facet Publishing

Page 276 of 302

  • 1 - The role of team leaders in ILS

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 1-12

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This introductory chapter sets the context of leading and supervising teams in information and library services (ILS). The chapter discusses working as a team leader or supervisor; the role and the responsibilities; the context of library and information work; and the background to approaches to management including the strategic planning process.

    Working as a team leader or supervisor

    Working as a team leader or supervisor normally involves responsibility for a team plus their work. The team may be relatively small or large and may be located in one building or spread geographically across a country. Virtual teams are becoming increasingly common in ILS. Coming into the role of team leader for the first time may involve taking responsibility for an experienced team that has been established over a long period of time. It may involve working as a team leader with staff who perhaps applied for your position and were unsuccessful. Sometimes team leaders are appointed with the task of developing a new team from scratch. Case studies 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 provide typical examples of team leaders in today's information and library world.

    Case 1.1 Information work in a museum

    Sam has taken up the role of team leader of a small team made up of two part-time library assistants and an information officer. They work in a specialist information service associated with a museum. Sam has never worked as a team leader before and her main concerns are that she is younger than her colleagues and has little experience of working in the museum sector as her previous experience was as a school librarian.

    Case 1.2 Information skills team leader in an academic library

    Jane has taken over responsibility for leading a team of six information skills specialists in an academic library. She is confident that she can do the job as she has just moved into her new role from a similar role elsewhere. Her main concern is that one of the team members made an unsuccessful application for the job. She is not looking forward to meeting this person for the first time.

  • 9 - Workplace learning and training

  • Barbara Allan
  • Book:
    Supervising and Leading Teams in ILS
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    31 December 2006, pp 157-176

  • Summary

    Introduction

    This chapter outlines approaches to managing workplace learning, and then identifies and explains the planned workplace learning cycle. This cycle may be used to implement any type of workplace learning activities, e.g. coaching sessions, demonstrations, training events. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of different types of workplace learning activities including e-learning, coaching, and learning through reflection.

    Context of workplace learning

    Team leaders in the 21st century face many challenges including the need to ensure that their team has the knowledge and skills required to produce high-quality work. We are working in a rapidly changing environment – one that is characterized by accelerating change, continuing information explosion and continuing changes to communication and information technologies. In addition, new approaches to living, working and learning as illustrated by the shift to a 24/7 society, the development of a mobile and global workforce, and the expansion of learning from traditional places such as schools, colleges and universities into the community and workplace have provided further challenges for information and library services.

    In recent years there has been a shift in emphasis from the idea of training and development to the concept of lifelong learning and continuous professional development (CPD). What is training and how is it distinguished from concepts such as development, continuous or continuing professional development and lifelong learning? In practice, people often use these words interchangeably:

  • • Training. Often used to refer to learning that is associated with the development of very specific skills and behaviours that are required in the workplace. Training may take place through a wide range of activities, e.g. through instruction, coaching, on-the-job training and e-learning. It frequently involves attending specific training events organized by the employing organization or a professional association such as CILIP.

  • • Development. A broader term including all types of learning that are associated with personal and career development; these may or may not be work-related. It takes place through gaining a variety of work experience, attendance on education and training programmes, e.g. university or collegebased degree or diploma, and workplace activities such as mentoring.

  • • Continuous or continuing professional development (CPD). Relates to the idea that learning and development is an ongoing process and essential for individuals involved in any kind of professional practice.

  • 5 - Social and economic impact

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 77-89

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Direct impact on individuals, and on the specific groups which the library serves, has been discussed in the last chapter. However, alongside that kind of impact measurement, there has been growing interest among librarians in recent years in trying to assess the broader social and economic impacts of their services. In other words, what does the library mean in terms of the development and sustenance of communities and societies? What does the existence of a library add to the economic performance of a city, region or nation?

    ■ Social impact

    Studies of social impact start from the observations that all organizations have effects on the societies within which they operate, that they have responsibilities to those societies and that the extent of their impact needs to be monitored and assessed. The concepts of social responsibility and social impact were brought into sharp focus by the events of 3 December 1984 at Bhopal in India:

    Shortly after midnight poison gas leaked from a factory in Bhopal, India, owned

    by Union Carbide Corporation. There was no warning, none of the plant's

    safety systems were working. In the city people were sleeping. They woke in

    darkness to the sound of screams with the gases burning their eyes, noses and

    mouths. They began retching and coughing up froth streaked with blood.

    Whole neighbourhoods fled in panic, some were trampled, others convulsed

    and fell dead…. Within hours thousands of dead bodies lay in the streets.

    (www.bhopal.net/index1.html)

    Subsequently the factory's owner, the Union Carbide Corporation, a subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, had to pay $470 million in a legal settlement. The company's website states: ‘Since the time of the incident, the chemical industry has worked to voluntarily develop and implement strict safety and environmental standards to help ensure that an incident of this type never occurs again’ (www.bhopal.com/).

    Partly as a result of incidents like this, it is now accepted that good governance requires that all organizations monitor and take positive action on their impacts on society, with responsibilities going far beyond mopping up after adverse effects have been noticed. It is also worth noting that, while in the UK and USA shareholders still remain dominant, in many other countries a much broader view of corporate stakeholding is taken.

  • 3 - User satisfaction

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 35-53

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    The days when a service organization could ignore its customers and concentrate on its internal targets are long gone. Hopefully, all libraries have moved away from the customer-as-nuisance viewpoint, what Moore (1992) characterized as the ABC (Another Bloody Customer) approach to customer service:

    all too often we are made to feel that simply by being a customer we are trespassing upon someone's leisure time; or making their life unnecessarily complicated. In some cases, usually in shops selling computers or hi-fi equipment, we are made to feel that, as customers, we fail to come up to the intellectual level of the people serving us.

    Libraries now accept that they must be user-centred and show empathy with their customers. In other words, the focus of all their services needs to be on the individuals and groups who will make use of them, rather than on the library's own processes or on the materials and other resources which the library collects or to which it provides access. A small caveat needs to be added to this statement to recognize that many national and specialist libraries do focus on collection development, conservation and preservation. However, even in these cases, users of the future inform decisions on acquisition, retention and conservation priorities in the present. It follows that statements of library purpose, which as Chapter 1, ‘Background’, suggested need to drive performance measurement, will have a clear user focus.

    The idea of focusing on users, or customers, has a long history. In librarianship it was most memorably expressed by the Indian librarian S. R. Ranganathan in his ‘laws of library science’, formulated 75 years ago (Ranganathan, 1931):

  • • books are for use

  • • every reader his book

  • • every book its reader

  • • save the time of the reader

  • • a library is a growing organism.

    • Interestingly, this approach preceded the adoption of similar principles in industrial and commercial organizations, which only really started to adopt customer-focused approaches in the aftermath of World War 2. A series of influential figures, known as the ‘quality gurus’, started to promote the idea that the quality of a product or service could only be assessed by reference to the intended user and the intended use.

  • 7 - Processes

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 106-112

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Efficiency of operation – essentially the transformation of available inputs into the maximum number of high quality outputs, or the production of the required number of high quality outputs from as few inputs as possible – is an important part of performance measurement. Apart from any other consideration, accountability for the use of, often public, funding requires that processes are as efficient as possible. Libraries have addressed this requirement for many years. In this chapter we will look at some of the ways in which efficiency can be measured.

    A useful perspective on assessing process performance is to think of the organization as a series of units which are dependent on each other, acting as each other's suppliers and customers. The following example illustrates the point:

    The professional librarian may decide to order the book in the first instance on the basis of either an earlier request or an assessment of likely demand. He or she then becomes the customer of the acquisitions department which is to arrange for the item in question to be purchased. In turn the acquisitions department becomes the customer of an external supplier. When the book is delivered, the acquisitions department supplies it to the cataloguer – another customer/supplier relationship. Each department of the library will in turn be the customer and the supplier as the book travels down the chain until eventually the circulation department supplies it to the end user, the external customer.

    (Brophy and Coulling, 1996)

    This idea has been encapsulated in the concept ofquality chains, encouraging a stress on the importance of internal customer satisfaction. Using classic definitions of quality, we can ask whether the product which is handed over to the next person in the chain is fit for that person's purpose and meets that person's requirements. Asking these questions provides a powerful tool for identifying where things may be going wrong, or where inefficiencies may be occurring. As with all chains, the strength of the whole is defined by the strength of the weakest link.

  • 6 - Inputs

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 90-105

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    This book has deliberately chosen to put the spotlight on effectiveness, outcome and impact measures in its early chapters, reflecting a concern shared by most professionals to show how much good a library does. However, there are many occasions when it is important to measure inputs – resources which contribute towards the delivery of the service itself; processes – the work done to transform the raw inputs into useful products and services; and outputs – those things, including the intangibles, which are produced. The next three chapters focus on these topics.

    ■ The library profile

    One vehicle for presenting input measures is the ‘library profile’ and many reports and studies use this approach. In essence the idea is to draw a picture of the library in terms of what resources it has to draw on. These include stock held, contracts for access to information sources, buildings, staff, IT equipment, financial resources and various types of infrastructure. There is always a temptation in presenting such data to imply that ‘the bigger the better’. So a larger building, it is implied, is better than a smaller one. A larger bookstock is better than a limited one. All other things being equal, these statements are probably true but it is rare for all things to be equal. Apart from anything else, the purposes of the library and the purposes for which the resources are held will differ over time and between organizations.

    ■ Library statistics

    When measuring inputs, processes and outputs it is common to make use of quantitative (i.e. statistical) data. Indeed, this is so much the norm that it may be taken almost for granted. Such data may be presented in terms of the individual branch, the individual library, a sector or by some other grouping.

    Most libraries issue an annual report of some kind, which contains much data of this type. For example the British Library's Annual Report contains a section headed ‘Statistics’ (the 2004–5 version is at www.bl.uk/about/annual/2004to2005/pdf/statistics.pdf).

  • 11 - Services for all

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 138-146

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    In measuring the performance of a library or information service, it is easy to concentrate almost entirely on the broad picture and thus lose sight of the service being received by particular user groups. In this chapter we will be looking at ways in which success in meeting the needs of such groups can be assessed. A particular emphasis will be placed on users with disabilities (or, more properly, different abilities). However, all libraries should carefully consider how they are addressing the needs of all the subgroups in their populations, bearing in mind comments such as that in Chapter 5, ‘Social and economic impact’, that ‘the public library service has not yet managed to engage freely with ethnically diverse communities’ (and there is no evidence that other sectors are any better). By developing the library profile (see Chapter 6, ‘Inputs’) to include such groups, regular measurement of performance in meeting specific requirements can be encouraged. Williams (2004) suggests that libraries should be considering, and monitoring their performance in serving, people who are ‘different’ in all of the following ways:

  • • age

  • • ancestry

  • • cognitive style

  • • cultural background

  • • economic background

  • • ethnicity

  • • gender

  • • geographic background

  • • language(s) spoken

  • • marital/partnered status

  • • nationality

  • • disability (mental, learning and physical)

  • • physical appearance

  • • political affiliation

  • • race

  • • religious beliefs

  • • sexual orientation.

    • As a general principle, the more that services can be differentiated to meet the specific needs of individuals and groups, the greater satisfaction with those services is likely to be and the more probable it is that customers will return time and time again. For this reason, there has been considerable interest in the possibilities of personalization, and this is the topic we turn to first in this chapter.

    ■ Personalization

    The idea behind personalization, in terms of electronic services in particular because it is there that the scope is greatest, is that each individual should be able to tailor the ‘look and feel’ of the information which is displayed on their workstation, so that it matches their personal requirements both in terms of content and presentation. An advantage of this approach is that it enables people to express their individuality and their personal needs for themselves.

  • 14 - Standards

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 166-174

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    There are considerable benefits from the development and use of standards in performance measurement, not least reduction in individual effort and the possibility of producing results which are truly comparable. It is not surprising, therefore, that over the years different sectors have developed standards and guidelines as a basis for service, some of which have statutory backing. For example, public libraries in England and Wales have been required by law to offer a ‘comprehensive and efficient service’ since the Public Libraries Act of 1964, though what is meant by that has in the past been poorly defined. An attempt to resolve this came in the early 2000s with the development of public library standards to try to provide a yardstick for assessing service economy, efficiency and effectiveness (see below). Another example can be found in the health service sector, where a standards-based approach to accreditation was introduced in 2002 by the Health Libraries and Information Confederation (HELICON), which remarked that ‘part of the quality improvement process in libraries is the development of standards that can be used to assess and support library and information services in providing cost-effective, client-centred services’ (Fowler and Trinder, 2002).

    In addition to sectoral standards and guidelines, there is a small number of formal international standards which have been developed by experienced professionals and have received endorsement by the national standards authorities such as BSI and NISO. These are described later in this chapter.

    ■ Public library service standards

    Public library standards were introduced in April 2001 in the UK and subsequently modified in the light of experience and following the publication of the major report,Framework for the Future, in February 2003 (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2003). In 2006, public libraries were expected to meet standards defined in terms of ten criteria (www.culture.gov.uk/NR/ rdonlyres/07070797-AE22-4064-8BAF-FEEE2ABA99F9/0/libstandards_ 06.pdf):

  • • the proportion of households living within specified distance of a static library

  • • aggregate scheduled opening hours per 1000 population for all libraries

  • • the percentage of static libraries providing access to electronic information resources connected to the internet

  • Preface

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp xv-xviii

  • Summary

    There are two competing maxims concerning performance measurement:

    If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.

    and

    What gets measured, gets managed.

    This book is an attempt to steer a course between these two, perhaps overly cynical, viewpoints. Performance measurement is vital to management. Without clear and reliable information about what is happening within an organization and in its interactions with its customers and suppliers, it is impossible to make well founded decisions to guide future development or even to monitor the effects of decisions that have been made in the past. Equally, there is always a danger that managerial attention focuses on the data that happen to be available, rather than on the rounded picture of all activities, including those which are by their nature very difficult to measure. The effect of this is that the wrong activities are prioritized and incorrect assumptions made about performance. So both dangers – attempting to manage without measuring performance and managing sub-optimally by concentrating on the information that happens to be available – need to be avoided.

    Libraries have been measuring their performance for a very long time. However, whereas for many years the key measure was the size and quality of the bookstock, in more recent times attention has shifted towards the effects that the library has on the population it is intended to serve. Measures concerning stock and the provision of access to local and remote resources remain important but it is now recognized that, without a user focus, it is all too easy to lose sight of the purpose for which libraries exist and are funded. For this reason, this book is organized with its initial emphasis on the user – on satisfaction and impact – and only then on the library's processes. It is hoped that this will indicate the priority that needs to be given to these issues.

    Performance measurement can never be more than a tool. Its techniques and approaches are designed to help managers to discover how well their services are performing, to identify where action is needed and to monitor what is being achieved. It may also be used to support advocacy for libraries.

  • 8 - Outputs

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 113-121

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    While the importance of outcomes and impacts has been stressed in earlier chapters, it remains the case that assessing outputs is an important way of measuring performance. While bigger does not necessarily mean better, it is certainly true that the average reader is likely to find more of interest in a large library than in a small one – all other things being equal. Because a larger stock almost always means a more varied stock, the large library has an inbuilt advantage. Of course other factors are at play. We would want to ask how old the stock is. How well is it described in the catalogue? How readily can items be found on the shelves? How liberal are the lending policies? How helpful are the staff? Each of these issues will be reflected in the volume of business that the library transacts, so that measuring those outputs will be helpful as we seek to measure overall performance.

    Outputs often feature prominently in libraries’ reports. The statistical summaries which were discussed in Chapter 6, ‘Inputs’, contained a considerable amount of data on outputs as well as inputs, not surprisingly since quantitative data are often reported as a whole. Although there is a huge range of potential outputs that could be counted, the most common ones that libraries report are volume of issues, which measures items that users have borrowed, and number of visits, which measures physical visits to library services; LISU calls these ‘the most prominent output measures’ (Creaser et al., 2005).

    ■ Usage of library materials Usage counts

    The amount of usage of library materials is one of the most frequently measured outputs and this is often presented under the heading of ‘document delivery’. The performance of the library is assessed in relation to the number of items delivered during a specified time period, sometimes associated with factors such as delivery times. For example, the interlibrary loan (ILL) service may best be judged by a combination of its success rate in obtaining items requested by users and the speed with which it is able to arrange delivery of those items to them. Monitoring this activity regularly will be fundamental to assessment of the library's ongoing performance.

  • 10 - Infrastructure

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 129-137

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Libraries rely heavily on their infrastructure for the delivery of services. The library building is the most prominent and probably most expensive part of that infrastructure but information and communications technology facilities will be of almost the same importance. Clearly it is imperative that the performance of these investments be monitored to ensure that they are helping the library deliver value, and that they are not in themselves an untoward constraint.

    ■ The library building

    The building from which services are delivered is a very significant input to library service as a whole, especially in relation to those services that require the user to come to the building, such as physical book lending or access to workstations. At one time it was usual for detailed norms to be published for the building itself, often by government agencies, and although this is now less common it is an approach which can still be found. Compliance with such standards is then the basic measure of performance. An example of this approach can be found in the ‘Library building standards’ published by the State of Queensland in Australia (www.slq.qld.gov.au/serv/publib/policy/guidelines/four). These suggest, for example, that for a main branch library the total floor area should be related to population size:

  • • Population: 10,000–15,000 there should be between 49 and 45 m2 per 1000 population

  • • Population: 15,000–50,000 there should be between 45 and 41 m2 per 1000 population

  • • Population: 50,000–100,000+ there should be between 41 and 37 m2 per 1000 population.

    • The standards also state that for a new library there should be space for each of the functions listed in Figure 10.1. This then becomes a checklist against which performance can be measured.

    Note that all of these are inputs to the service. The fact that there is, for example, a ‘toys and games area’ tells us nothing about what has been provided there, who has used that area or what effect that use had on them. This is not to say that such information is useless: unless a library has this kind of designated area it might be very difficult to attract very young children. As was stressed in Chapter 6, ‘Inputs’, these performance indicators thus take us to the first stage and tell us something about that library's capabilities.

  • Appendix 2 The analysis of data

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 216-223

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Having spent time and resources collecting data, it is clearly important that they be analysed thoroughly and properly. A lot will depend on the type of data collected – especially on whether they are quantitative or qualitative – and on the purpose for which they have been collected. For example, a survey of existing users in a small branch library on a specific topic might merit only manual analysis and a very straightforward report. At the other extreme a national study, possibly including comparisons between different libraries or even across sectors, will probably require detailed and complex analysis. In the latter case it might well be necessary to employ a trained statistician or other professional.

    However, in each case the aim is the same. It is sometimes expressed as three stages (Miles and Huberman, 1994), especially when some of the data being analysed are qualitative in nature:

  • • data reduction, by gathering data together, coding them and expressing them in comparable ways so as to create datasets from which meaning can be extracted

  • • data display, which takes the datasets and presents them in ways that make their meaning clear, for example in lists or charts or graphs; note that this is still part of data analysis – presentation for reporting purposes is covered in Appendix 3, ‘The presentation of results’

  • • drawing conclusions, which finds the patterns and themes that emerge from the data; this stage also looks for exceptions and contradictions.

    • In this appendix the aim is simply to present the rudiments of data analysis as might be applied within a single library conducting its own studies. However, it should be stressed that it is very easy to analyse data wrongly, and advice should always be sought by anyone who does not have the expertise and experience gained through training and practice. Even the calculation of averages is not as straightforward as it may seem!

    ■ Quantitative data

    Most studies produce at least some quantitative data even if they only relate to the numbers of people surveyed or the numbers of items analysed. In very small studies it may be feasible to analyse these data by hand, using a calculator, but it is usually better to make use of suitable computer software.

  • 1 - Background

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 1-18

  • Summary

    the ultimate criterion for assessing the quality of a service is its capability for meeting the user needs it is intended to serve, and … the value of a service must ultimately be judged in terms of the beneficial effects accruing from its use.

    (Richard Orr)

    ■ Introduction

    Performance measurement is central to library management, since without a firm grasp on what is actually being achieved it is impossible to move forward to improved service – or even to maintain the status quo. Measuring achievements against aims and objectives reveals the relevance of the service and enables managers to judge whether staff effort and resources are being used in the best possible ways. Gathering data on levels of service provides a basis for comparative assessments, either against similar organizations or against guidelines and standards. Analysing the effects the service is having on its users enables evidence of impacts and benefits to be presented, providing the ultimate justification for the service's existence.

    Librarians and other information professionals have long been interested in measuring the performance of their services. Important theoretical work was undertaken in the 1940s by S. C. Bradford at the Science Museum in London (Bradford, 1948), influencing the design of the highly innovative National Lending Library for Science and Technology, later to become part of the British Library. In the 1960s Philip Morse published a groundbreaking book on library effectiveness (Morse, 1968), while in the early 1970s the concept of the ‘goodness’ of library services was explored by Richard Orr (Orr, 1973). He suggested that it is important to distinguish between the question ‘How good is this service?’, which is a matter of quality, and ‘How much good does this service do?’, which he characterized as a question of value. In 1977, F. W. Lancaster'sMeasurement and Evaluation of Library Services appeared, marking the entry of the topic into the mainstream of library practice (Lancaster, 1977). During the 1980s among the most influential figures in this field were Nancy Van House and Charles McClure: their work is well summarized in the influentialMeasuring Academic Library Performance, published in 1990 (Van House, Weil and McClure, 1990). In the same year José-Marie Griffiths and Don King prepared a manual on public library performance indicators for the British Library Research and Development Department (Griffiths and King, 1990).

  • 12 - Benchmarking

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 147-159

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    No library exists in isolation, for within any sector the services offered will share many common characteristics. The user populations may be similar, though clearly not identical, equivalent types of resource will be stocked or made available and the processes engaged in will be comparable. For this reason it can be very useful to compare the performance of one library with others. It can also be useful to make internal comparisons between branches, departments or sections. The termbenchmarking is used to describe such processes of formal comparison.

    Over ten years ago Charles Handy recounted an anecdote about benchmarking in his bookBeyond Certainty. He said: ‘

    They went, they saw and they learnt – but not what they expected. They learnt no new techniques or pieces of electronic wizardry, but discovered instead that some firms expected failure rates up to 100 times better than theirs or had absenteeism levels ten times lower and, in one comparable case, new product development times five times shorter. Standards were different, that is all.

    This form of organized learning has recently acquired a label – benchmarking, the discipline of measuring yourself against best practice in any function or field, often in industries very different from your own. The label, however, reduces to a technique what surely ought to be an ingrained habit – to aim to be not just good enough but as good as can be, to look beyond oneself in setting standards for oneself, to shun complacency and the false comforts of talking only to people like oneself.

    (Handy, 1995)

    That story is a useful antidote to any idea that benchmarking is either an arcane art or an optional extra. Handy's argument is that it must become an integral part of everyday organizational life.

  • 9 - Staff

  • Peter Brophy
  • Book:
    Measuring Library Performance
    Published by:
    Facet
    Published online:
    08 June 2018
    Print publication:
    30 November 2006, pp 122-128

  • Summary

    ■ Introduction

    Libraries, as do many other organizations, often state that their staff are their most valuable asset. If this is to be more than a platitude then it is important that they too form part of the performance measurement processes of the library. Such assessment must be undertaken with the utmost sensitivity and it is important that staff do not feel that they are on trial. Indeed, it is almost always the case that if staff are not performing to expectations then lack of training and/or lack of leadership are to blame rather than incompetence. Any action to evaluate staff performance should be undertaken with this in mind.

    Measuring the effects of investment in staff, including training, is never easy because there are so many variables in play. As Oldroyd (1995) noted:

    it is usually simple to measure the time taken up by training, but extremely difficult to measure its benefit. It becomes progressively more difficult the further one moves from tasks towards responsibilities. Some benefit is selfevident and shows itself in improved competence (particularly in a crisis), positive feedback from customers and good working relations. Other visible benefits are seen in high motivation, openness to change, trust and flexibility. A library with high morale, a good reputation among its users, and a good ‘feel’ can be an important factor in successful outcomes.

    ■ Staff surveys

    One starting point for the assessment of staff performance is to begin with the staff themselves and undertake a staff satisfaction survey. It is surprising how infrequently this is done given the prevalence of user satisfaction surveys. Many of the principles discussed in Chapter 3, ‘User satisfaction’, are relevant to this kind of survey. In addition, there are sensitivities to observe and it is wise to gain institutional approval (you may be setting a precedent for other departments!) and to ensure that staff members, where appropriate including union representatives, are fully engaged with the process. This means, among other things, that data produced from such surveys should always be confidential and almost always anonymous.

    The results of a staff satisfaction survey can be used to highlight issues of which senior managers may either be unaware or whose significance to their staff they may not realize.

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