Are we nearly there?

Measuring progress and success on the road to implementation

Sharon Johnson Head of Content Development Implementation The British Library

ALISS Xmas Special:Selection policies in the digital age building a hybrid library.12 December 2012

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“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Winston Churchill.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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Developing, communicating and implementing your strategy

In developing, communicating and implementing any strategy there is a requirement to ensure stakeholders understand:

PURPOSE – The drivers behind developing a revised strategy i.e. view of what needs to change and why

PICTURE – What the vision for the future will look like and what will be different

PLAN – How will we get there and how will we know we are making good progress in achieving the desired outcomes and benefits of our strategy?

PART –Their role in implementing the strategy, how it will impact on them, how it will benefit them and how they can input to and influence the process

References: - Bridges, William. (1991). Managing Transition: Making the Most of Change. Addison-Wesley

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The British Library has a three-fold role in relation to content

Develop the UK published archive – legal deposit

Support UK research – contemporary acquisitions, voluntary deposit, donations

Support research and culture – primary research materials and heritage

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Purpose - The key drivers for strategic change to content are both external and

internal

External Drivers

Changing user expectations

Reuse and sharing of research dataComplexity of

contentOpen access

publishingVariety of access

modelsIncrease in digital

publishing

ContentStrategy

Internal DriversBL strategy and 2020

VisionNon-print legal

deposit

Reduced funding

Storage/lifecycle costs/pressures

Digitisation

Online & remote service provision

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Picture – Our vision for the future

“In 2015 the Library’s content will reflect the responsibility of the UK’s national library to the nation’s current and future generations. The UK’s publications received through Legal Deposit will underpin all content development activity; the Library will have substantial digital legal deposit collections, including the UK web domain, and the Library will continue to invest in primary research materials.

In 2015, the research priorities of the Library’s users will be clearly reflected in the content we collect or link to. The priorities of UK researchers who use the Library will continue to be a key factor in the Library’s decisions over content. We will develop our content primarily by subject, recognising the importance of the subject-based approach to research and researchers. When there is a choice to be made, we will collect digital content as the format of choice, as digital tends to be more useful to researchers than print.”

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Picture – What will be different

2012 2015

Mixture of subject, format, country of origin, language

By discipline and subject By format

Limited selection activity in relation to print legal deposit.Selection based on historical trends, country of origin, language

Proactive involvement in selection of non print legal deposit material.Content selection and subject priorities driven by research value, user demand, uniqueness of provision

Comprehensive print legal deposit. Limited non-print voluntary deposit/donations

c.20% of purchased journals acquired in e- format.

Monograph purchases still largely print based

Non-print legal deposit regulation in place. Growing deposit of material in digital format

Increase in the proportion of purchased journals and monographs acquired in electronic format

Content view

Content Selection

Print v

Digital

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Picture – What will be different

2012 2015

World-leading experts but new skills required in developing digital content

World-leading experts equipped with appropriate skills to develop content across full range of multi- media resources

Focus on collecting by traditional methods of acquisitionConnecting limited largely to onsite electronic reference resources and some open access journals and datasets

Increase in connecting to provide users with access to wider range of research content including open access material, datasets and making use of new/developing acquisition models

Onsite or mediated access Incremental improvements in discovery and access to digital content through a variety of access models

Developing new skills

Collecting V

Connecting

Without walls

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Plan - Establishing our road map

Our strategy provides us with the basis of the general direction of travel and the desired high level outcomes once we get there.

Our implementation plan will translate our chosen strategy into organisational action to achieve our strategic goals and

objectives with identifiable milestones against which to track and measure progress

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Developing our plan - Objectives, Deliverables and Benefit Drivers

Objective Increase in connecting to provide users with access to wider range of

research content

Deliverables

License access to more content for a limited period

Integrate discovery of open access e-content

Connect users to datasets via our discovery services

Connect to collections and resources beyond the BL

Benefits

Researcher•Increased access to digital content•Increase in user satisfaction

Organisation•Reduction in growth of physical storage •Better value for money from acquisitions funding

Staff•Broader range of skills and expertise• More cost effective options for developing content

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Developing our plan – Options appraisal and timeline

LEVEL

OF

BENEFIT

High

Low

Med.

HighLow Med.L E V E L O F P R O B A B I L I T Y

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Developing our plan – Milestones and Measures

Time in months

Activity 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

A-Review marketplace

B-Undertake preliminary options study

C-Evaluate and recommend way forward

D-Agree recommendations

E- Undertake stakeholder consultation

F-Develop detailed plan

G- Implement agreed plan

Gantt chart (example only)

All objectives/goals should be SMART i.e.S Specific - Well defined and clearM Measurable - Have some means to be able know if we

have been successfulA Agreed Upon- Have agreement from stakeholders on what

the objectives/goals should be R Realistic- Looking at the resources, knowledge, and time

available can the goal be accomplished?T Time-Framed – Be clear about how much time is needed to

accomplish the goal

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Developing our plan – Milestones and Measures

Benefits

Researcher•Increased access to digital content•Increase in user satisfaction

Organisation•Reduction in growth of physical storage •Better value for money from acquisitions funding

Staff•Broader range of skills and expertise• More cost effective options for developing content

KPIs

Researcher•% of customer requests satisfied from digital sources•User satisfaction survey results

Organisation•Number of print items received•% items supplied from print•Unit cost of acquiring materials•Unit cost per use

Staff•% of staff undertaking digital skills training•Unit cost of items acquired within available funds

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Part – Gaining understanding and commitment

Why do we have to change it was much better the

old way?

I understand the importance of my

role

I’m enjoying learning and

developing new skills

Great - Only one more and then we’ve reached

our goal!

I have a suggestion to

make and know just who to talk

to

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Are we nearly there?

16Jeff Koterba / Omaha (Nebraska) World Herald

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Are we nearly there? Measuring progress and success

on the road to implementation

Acknowledgements

Lucie Burgess, Richard Price and Alasdair Ball

Thank Yousharon.johnson@bl.uk