ERIC ED390390: Team Approach to Staffing the Reference Center: A Speculation.

29 Pages·1993·0.33 MB·English

by  ERIC

DOCUMENT RESUME
IR 055 731
ED 390 390
AUTHOR And Others
Lawson, Mollie D.
TITLE
Team ApI:-oach to Staffing the Reference Center: A
Speculation.
PUB DATE
[93]
NOTE
29p.
PUB TYPE Non-Classroom Use (055) Reports
Guides
Evaluative/Feasibility (142)
EDRS PRICE
MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage.
DZSCRIPTORS
Academic Libraries; College Libraries; Group
Dynamics; Higher Education; Leadership
Responsibility; *Library Administration; *Library
Personnel; *Management Teams; Models; Organizational
Communication; *Participative Decision Making;
Personnel Management; *Reference Services;
*Scheduling; Staff Utilization
Central Missouri State University; *Staffing
IDENTIFIERS
Patterns
ABSTRACT
This document applies theories of participatory
management to a proposal for a model that uses a team approach to
staffing university library reference centers. In particular, the
Ward Edwards Library at Central Missouri State University is examined
in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of its current approach.
Special attention is given to the group dynamics aspects of the
building of reference teams, to the logistics of scheduling with
rotations and substitutions, and to the responsibilities of a team
leader. The report suggests that team building would ensure more
flexible and equitable scheduling, define supervisory
responsibilities rather than leave them ambiguous and impede
decision-mvking and coordination of activity, reduce reference
"fatigue," and improve harmony and communication among staff members.
All these conditions would ultimately benefit the clientele. (BEW)
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*
Reproductions supplicd by EDRS are the best that can be made
from the original document.
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TEAM APPROACH TO STAFFING THE REFERENCE CENTER:
A SPECULATION
c
Authors:
LLI
Mollie D. Lawson
Coordinator of Technical Services
Library Services
Central Missouri State University
V. Lonnie Lawson
Professor
Library Services
Central Missouri State University
Stephen Walker
Assistant Professor
Library Services
Central Missouri State University
S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
CENTER !ERIC)
O This document has been reproducer", as
received from the person or organi/aton
originating it
O Minor changes have betwr made to
Inn Prove repronfortnor quality
Points ol vim or minions staled in this
document Or not necessarily repie,ent
QIlicral OERI posaion or policy
PERMISSION 10 REPRODUCE 11-1IS
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
V. Lonnie_ Lawson
BEST COPY AVAILABLE
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
2
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC1"
ABSTRACT
Participatory management or team management have prompted
a plethora of library discussion in the recent past. However,
building
no articles appear which discuss the formulation of
teams to increase productivity and provide better service to
The authors have developed a model for using teams
clients.
to staff the Reference Center at a university
The purpose of this new
Center.
Reference/Information
approach is to provide better service, define supervisory
responsibilities, improve worker relations, reduce fatigue and
improve communication between all staff members.
1
TEAM APPROACH TO STAFFING THE REFERENCE CENTER:
A SPECULATION
The concept of team participation receives idealistic
lip service as a representation of harmony and efficiency.
Thomas R. Horton writes
-rs that are best
There are many human endez.
entrusted to a single creative individual - but getting
things done through organizations is not among them.
Instead, teamwork is needed, and so is delegation:
Teamwork that exists between reference personnel is not
Teamwork exists in such library areas as
the same as a team.
Teams working
reference, but teams are another matter.
They would consist of both
reference might improve service.
librarians and paraprofessionals who work together on a
scheduled, proprietary time.
However, there are questions about a library reference
team's practicality and whether it brings improvement over
the existing means of work.
Current Reference Center Staffing at
Central Missouri State University
The staff at Central Missouri State University's Ward
Edwards Library may one day work or manage reference teams.
Central Missouri State University (CMSU) is a mid-size state
university with an enrollment of approximately 12,000
The Ward Edwards Library serves the students,
students.
staff, faculty and general public with a full-time staff of
approximately forty, fourteen of which are library faculty --
2
six in Technical Services and eight in Public Services.
Before the summer of 1989 Ward Edwards Library was a
At that time the library was
subject-divided library.
reorganized into a centralized library, which included a new
Near the Reference
Reference Center on the main floor.
Center was a bank of online catalog terminals, CD-ROM
stations with nearly twenty database products, most of the
paper indexes, and the entire print library reference
collection.
Since the reorganization, the Reference Center has
undergone several changes in the way that it is staffed. At
first most reference librarians and library assistants worked
Now that has become
at least twenty hours per week.
twelve to fifteen hours per week, depending on a person's
other assignments.
In the beginning the Center had for the most of the day
an abundance of staff (sometimes as many as five), and until
1992 library faculty could excuse themselves from duty at the
Center for a liberal variety of reasons. New rules have
reduced absenteeism, but the flexibility that was intended to
be present has suffered.
At least two workers are scheduled at any one time, and
more than two are scheduled during the "peak" hours of 9 a.m.
Duties involve all levels of reference service
to 4 p.m.
from instruction in the use of the online catalog and CD-
3
Workers also collect
ROMs to general reference work.
Interlibrary Loan requests, distribute Interlibrary Loan
(Until March of 1993
orders, and answer telephone requests.
the Reference Center was also in charge of receiving and
sending FAX messages.)
The pool of human resources comes from both the public
Librarians
and the technical services areas of the library.
and paraprofessionals are scheduled daily at the Center,
All profsssionals and
Monday through Friday.
paraprott_ssionals work at reference some time, but their job
requirements determine the proportion of their duty hours.
For public service workers this may amount to over a third of
Amid this group most public service
their daily work time.
librarians and support staff work twelve to fifteen hours per
week at the Center, while selected technical services
personnel work an average of five hours per week during fall
and spring semesters.
Advantages to Current Staffing Approach
There are positive aspects to the current scheduling
At Central Missouri State University the
procedure.
Coordinator of Public Services develops the schedule for
staffing the Reference Center, and since it remains the same
for a full semester, one can make plans around one's existing
schedule for this time.
Another positive aspect is the rotation of the work time
6
4
The assignee of a particular time slot for that
slots.
semester will, for the next semester, move to the next slot.
For example, a duty of 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 to 2:30
p.m. one semester may become 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 to
This rotation equalizes any
4:00 p.m. for the next.
perception of the "worst" or the "best" time slots, since
eventually everyone will work during all of the time slots.
Also, schedules for future semesters are fixed and
predictable.
Disadvantages to Current Staffing Approach
At CMSU reference duty is of paramount importance and is
treated as if each library faculty is a classroom instructor
whose time at the Reference Center is a scheduled class
To allow for absences requires finding a
meeting.
substitute.
Unless attending the Annual Missouri Library Association
Conference, or either the Annual or Mid-Winter American
Library Association Conference, a faculty member who wishes
This is
to go to a meeting must arrange for a substitute.
also required for attendance at a departmental, college, or
For vacation
university committees, or when taking a class.
and "comp" (for compensation) times no substitute is required
when the Coordinator of Public Services has been notified at
Sick leave requires a
least three days in advance.
substitute only if it is a non-emergency medical appointment.
5
Working from one to three hours a day, some workers have
both morning and afternocn shifts, which can complicate
Difficulties
scheduling appointments and reduce flexibility.
result rthiefly from attending meetings, which perforate most
Faculty must constantly consult personal calendars and
days.
re-schedule appointments in an effort to avoid conflict.
Another problem is the supervision and management at the
For example, the Coordinator et Public
Reference Center.
Services tries to "come around" as often as possible, but
'this does not occur enough for satisfactory evaluation of the
Since all library faculty
Reference Center personnel.
members are evaluated each year, little documented evidence
can be presented about the work done at the Reference Center,
even though it constitutes about one-third of a Public
Services faculty's workload.
Since no single individual is officially in charge of
daily activities at the Reference Center, the problem with
With the coming and going of
inter-communication is greater.
scheduled workers, small, but important, aspects of providing
For instance, a class
service may fall through the cracks.
is working on an assignment and a worker going off-shift
Or a client leaves a paper
forgets to inform a replacement.
message that is lost in the shuffle of activities.
Even
though a Daily Information Sheet records information for all
workers, such episodes continue to take place and create
Th
6
problems.
Team Approach to Staffing Reference Center
In the fall of 1992 a Reference Center Task Force was
created to suggest improvements to Reference Center service.
One was that each day a fixed
Several ideas were developed.
By chance
group of people should staff the Reference Center.
the word "team" was applied to this group, and from this
evolved a concept of "team" -- a group of the same people
working together for the same purpose.
Initially, team units were designed chiefly to solve the
To see that everyone served
problem of scheduling people.
equally at reference, groups were assigned their own block of
A leader was introduced to give direction and
time.
In formulating this
accountability for the staffing.
concept, the originators had no previous library model by
However, models already exist in business.
which to go.
In the business world "team" is the buzzword that seems
Over eighty percent of all
to be used the most these days.
U.S. business organizations with one hundred or more
employees, utilize a portion of their employees as working
According to Tom Brown the idea of organizations
teams.2
building teams at every possible level is not a concept that
The team concept that is
is going away in the near future.
now common in the United States probably began with the
incorporation of the Japanese quality circle work ethic.3
In
7
the area of libratianship the concept of quality circles has
In their 1983 article in the
been around for some time.
Journal of Academic Librarianship, Martell and Tyson define
small groups of employees who meet
quality circles as "
.
.
voluntarily, usually on a weekly basis, to learn and to apply
techniques for identifying, analyzing, and solving problems
affecting their work or workplace."4
Basically, this work concept made use of the employees
Rensis Likert expounded on
mental and physical capabilities.
this in his book, New Patterns of Management, when he stated
that the new worker was better educated that those of the
past and desired to participate in the managerial process.5
This is related to the concept of participatory
management, a subject that has prompted an abundance of
However, no
library material over the past two decades.
articles can be found in Library Literature or ERIC about
teams formulated to provide better service or to increase
productivity in libraries at the lowest decision-making
level.
In libraries a business team approach should improve the
existing way of performing tasks, both in public services and
Teams can be adapted to such daily
technical services.
They are confined
services as answering reference questions.
to specific responsibilities, and they do not go beyond them
to become a de facto management level that makes
i U