Lessons from a symposium - compensation, job descriptions and competencies

Compensation

     Foundations:

• Philosophy: what is valued, culture and environment, internal equity, competitiveness
• Design: Internal comparisons, pay structure, market comparisons
• Administration

• Money isn't everything: Whom do I work with?  Whom do I work for?  Challenges?
• Why put golden handcuffs on someone you don't want?
• Engage people whom you want to retain and motivate
• Market surveys are an alternative to COLA increases (don't do both because you will double count)
• To convince the municipality to give money for compensation - show how you support THEIR goals and objectives (from strategic plans, etc.), speak their language

Job descriptions and competencies

• A central tool: basis for job ads, performance management, compensation
• Add to offer letter (becomes part of employment contract)
• Review regularly

     Job description template:

• Title:
• Reports to:
• Duties / Responsibilities
• Required Experience:
• Required Education:
• Required Skills and Abilities:
• Working Conditions

     Performance Appraisals:

• The windshield should be bigger than the rear view mirror.
• Keep a "shoebox" (file) for each employee - with good and not so good things to review in appraisal
• Appraisals are a waste of time if you don't know how to coach
• Numerical (rankings) or not?  Up to you - helps justify if you tie salary to performance
• Appraisal errors:  "similar-to-me" bias, central tendency (everyone is a 3/5), halo/horns, leniency/strictness, recency, contrast effect

Lessons from a symposium - manager -trustee panel

• Policy - needs to be vision driven, community focused and consistent
• Board needs a manager (leader) who can help with direction
• "Book famine" - lack of titles for print disabled
• Need to provide policy with care and feeding - they are living documents
• If you are tackling tough issues, you need to be armed with information - compare with other libraries, prove that what you do is relevant
• Sometimes, throwing the gauntlet at taking on tough issues, e.g. pay, can make something impossible begin to become possible (if not an immediate reality)
• HR case study: board sets HIGH level HR policies, CEO sets operational
• Mirror city policies if you can
• CEO sets management compensation, involved in all but 1rst level discipline, collective bargaining interpretation
• "Rules about rules": they have to be reasonable, published, communicated, understood, enforced and consistent with collective agreement
• Chairs should talk to managers weekly; look for burnout signs e.g. tears, defensiveness, taking it personal

Lessons from a symposium - Eli Mina

I attended a symposium on human resources issues for libraries.  Here's what I learned.

Presentation by parliamentarian Eli Mina:

• When raising points of order or otherwise enforcing Rules of Order: only be a stickler for the rules when you are protecting people's rights or the end results.  (Don't be too fussy)
• Shift from a negative focus to affirmative - ask not what to forbid, but what to achieve.  "Propose, don't oppose."  
• Defend the process, don't criticize the person.  Keeping correction impersonal makes it easier to deliver and easier to take.  A good impersonal question when someone is off on a tangent: "Where are we on the agenda?"
• Objectives:  ORDER - FOCUS - EFFICIENCY - EQUALITY - DECORUM - SAFETY.
• Equal time tactic: No one speaks a second time on a topic while others are waiting to speak for their first time.

• Who decides?  MONARCHY = one decides, ANARCHY = no one decides, DEMOCRACY = all decide.
• "Any objection to _? "  (How a chair or other can quickly look for unanimous consent, which eliminates need for voting)
• Policy direction = board, professional expertise = staff, public input = community.
• Board debates, CEO informs.
• "Green bananas" - things that come up e.g. in a meeting, that are decided on too quickly.  When something comes up that requires more fulsome consideration, play for time - table it until the next meeting.  Or take a meeting break to gain a moment to think and plan.

Thoughts on makerspaces

I have some thoughts on makerspaces and I would like to sketch out one example of a makerspace plan.  This is not rigorous or well thought out, it is just to capture some ideas.

Vision: "Design, fabricate and repair objects, art and community."

• "Design and fabricate": two stages of making something from scratch.  Repair probably requires a planning equivalent to design, perhaps "learning how to make repair," but for the purposes of a vision statement, it is understood not stated.  
• "Objects, art"  - Objects are physical things made to be used.  Fabrication is everything, design is a means to an end.  Art can be physical or intangible.  Design is everything, fabrication is a means to an end.  
• "Community": It is kind of cute to include community in the list of what gets made, but it is not untrue, a makerspace can build community.  Community is also a resource that helps design/fabrication/repair happen.  
• "Craft" is another term to use in a vision statement.  It suggests both design and fabrication in one pleasant sounding word.

Design resources can include 

• workstations with music, CAD, and printing software
• Books and other collection materials with relevant information and knowledge
• Staff and community human resources to guide/train/teach/assist designers
• All of the above to support repair

Fabrication and repair resources can include

• Printers
• Sewing machines
• Tools
• Musical instruments and recording devices
• Materials: fabric, sheet goods, printer inputs, paint, paper, clay

What things would I like to see in a makerspace?

• Workstations: music production and recording, graphic design, and illustration, printer interface, video production
• projector: for training/leading group activities
• musical instruments: guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, hand instruments, DJ stuff, mic, PA
• printers: large format, vinyl, 3D
• sewing machines: regular, serger, canvas
• Cameras: still, video, stop motion
• Art supplies
• Technology to assist in uploading, distributing and sharing results

Activities

• Musical: jam/song nights, recording studio
• Craft: upcycling projects, 

Other

• A library makerspace should be used to make stuff for the library itself: vinyl lettering for stacks and other signage, 3d printed chessboard pieces, etc.  Economical and good PR.
• Identify experts who can assist others.  Anyone from any level of staff who is willing to help on demand or lead scheduled programs.  Community members, with a formal agreement and plan in place.
• Any piece of technology that is acquired should come with a plan for how it will be promoted, used in programming, used by the community or otherwise leveraged.  Nothing acquired that will just sit there.

Library future

I just attended a workshop where former Hamilton Public Library CEO Ken Roberts spoke about the future of libraries.  I found it really interesting.  Here are some highlights I wanted to capture:

• Apparently, public libraries are really growing in China and there is lots of library innovation happening there.  Apparently science fiction has become popular there, with the government lifting past restrictions based on their observations of how important science fiction is in Silicon Valley style culture.
• The old model of content consumption and individual learning is giving way to more content creation and group learning.  This would seem to fit in with the "learning commons" model of school library which is happening in Alberta.  It also seems to connect with community engagement.
• "Meet you at the library" as a vision statement - if you can get people to say that, you have truly become a living community space.
• Under 5% of library funding comes from non-government fundraising sources, and that is the case everywhere.
• The trend towards library staff out from behind a desk requires that they be identifiable - badges, vests, buttons, corporate shirts, whatever it takes.
• "Hang out, geek out and mess around" - Chicago Public Library's model for teen learning in its media center.  Hang out meaning people working together, geek out meaning having a knowledgeable peer transfer knowledge, and mess around meaning just fiddling with the technology to figure it out.
• Sometimes leaders enable others rather than controlling the process.  (Amen.)
• Author: John McNight, "Building community needs from the inside out: a guide to finding and mobilizing a community's assets" - outlines what communities can do to develop their own local assets. 

How to handle library news

I have observed quite a few situations where a library issue became news in the community.  I have drawn the following conclusions:

• The media, and the public in general, rarely comprehend the full, nuanced picture.  This is not surprising - they don't have as much information as an insider.  Every time I've been familiar with an issue that became newsworthy, I have seen errors in the publicly circulated information.
• The media and other shapers of public opinion will run with whatever story they can get.
• Given the above points, it is critical for the library to be in front of the story, communicating with the media and others and shaping the story.
• The library's story should always be positive.  Even if the story seems negative, the library needs to spin it in a positive way.  For example, a funding cut can be framed in terms of all the great things the library wants to do with that money.
• Saying nothing is not as safe as it seems.  It might seem prudent to avoid a public statement that could be criticized, but other people will say plenty and their version of events will become the truth.  And it will happen quickly.  You don't have much time.

Rising to the Challenge: Re-envisioning Public Libraries

Another planning-methodology-cum-call-for-change:

This is a report/initiative by the Aspen Institute.  It posits that we are in a time of change which requires expanded access to education, learning opportunities and social connections, and which represents an opportunity for public libraries "with their unique stature as trusted community hubs and repositories of knowledge and information."

"The process of re-envisioning public libraries to maximize their impact reflects:

• Principles that have always been at the center of the public library's mission - equity, access, opportunity, openness and participation
• The library's capacity to drive opportunity and success in today's knowledge-based society
• An emerging model of networked libraries that promote economies of scale and broadens the library's resource reach while preserving its local presence
• The library's fundamental people, place and platform assets."

People, place and platform - that's a good summary of what a public library is!

Their strategies for success:

• Align library services in support of community goals (YES)
• Provide access to content in all formats (which seems to mean econtent to them but which I think speaks to print disabled content too)
• Ensure the long term sustainability of public libraries 
• Cultivate leadership

Their publications include an Action Guide for libraries and a Facilitator's Guide for facilitators who will use the report as the framework for community engagement and strategic planning.