Richard Huffine

former Library Director, U.S. Geological Survey& fromer National Libraries Program

Manager, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

March 19, 2015

We rarely get to pick the circumstances within which we approach transformation

But we can chose the language we use to talk about libraries, librarians, and the information needs of our institution

I want to give you two examples from my experience that I hope will give you some strategies for talking about transportation with your customers, leaders, and staff

Perceived duplication (some real, some not) Funding decisions made at the local level Increasing budget pressure (due in part to rising

IT costs) Library was part of overhead (competing with fleet,

health, safety, etc.) Collaborations (Agency-wide e-subscriptions)

perceived as making the library redundant Disparate models for management of services

Almost all staff were contracted but the key was whether or not federal managers had backgrounds in libraries or not

National management cut library budget specifically by $2.5 million from an estimated $8 million for 28 libraries ( 10 regionals, 14 labs, 4 hq) Local management made decisions based on reduced

funding. 3 regional libraries and 2 HQ libraries closed and subscriptions in 2 main research libraries were cut in half (the 2 centers worked together to maintain different titles and invested in additional e-subscriptions)

Library community and science advocates raised the alarm and started asking questions. A few key legislators wrote letters, held hearings, and asked the GAO to investigate

Congress ultimately ended up earmarking a restoration of funds and all locations were reopened in some form. GAO struggled to understand the decisions that were

made and questioned some of the underlying assumptions EPA started with.

The reopened facilities were smaller and designed to leverage national capabilities. EPA established clear guidelines for library services and service centers for some functions (ILL, cataloging, legal research)

A user needs assessment was conducted to ensure future changes address user requirements

Interior Bureaus all operate their own library services or utilize the Interior Library as needed. All Bureaus except Indian Affairs have librarians -

most have libraries but few offer a full suite of research support today.

Currently meet quarterly to coordinate and share information

Main interior provides some e-subscriptions to all Interior (Ebsco, Hein, Jstor)

Interior has consolidated services 3 times in 160 years. USGS was never consolidated into that service.

USGS is the research arm of the Dept of Interior. Started with a single library in DC in 1882. Expanded to 4 branches in the 1950s and 60s

▪ Reston, VA; Denver, CO; Menlo Park, CA and Flagstaff, AZ▪ Flagstaff is an astrogeology library built to support NASA training

of astronauts. NASA still funds 100 USGS staff in Flagstaff. In 1995, the branches were delegated to 3 separate

Regional Directors. At the same time, 12 biological center libraries came to the Survey from FWS. Regional libraries were funded centrally and had national

acquisitions and central support for technical and digital library services

Funding for the Center libraries was consolidated but their operation was not

In 2010, the entire Bureau reorganized, eliminating the previous regional structure entirely. The 4 branches were reunited and central funding for center

libraries was eliminated. A process began for center libraries to align their activities

with the national program. Some are closing, some are becoming branches with specific

roles for the Bureau as well as their local centers. On a parallel track, the USGS has developed a digital

library plan with e-subscriptions and digitization of public domain literature being the main focus of implementation.

Next steps will require assessment of collection to reduce duplication, lower rent costs, and improve value across the enterprise

Working together Staying informed Knowing each others strengths Leveraging your collective knowledge Increasing your buying power

Creating co-dependencies Sacrificing control over everything to have

access to more Being smaller then before but potentially

improving your overall value (in a costs vs. benefits way)

A hybrid of the previous two You can retain control over your own destiny

but begin to benefit from a tighter fit between the pieces of the team.

Factors to consider individually Need for a library at all (research, policy, applied or

theoretical) Scope and focus - how broad do your users need to

reach and how deep do they dive into topic areas? How current does the material need to be AND how

much historical information do they use? Some disciplines rarely use the historical literature

These question should help you focus in on what you need to do to support your users - then you can decide what that means for collaborating with others

Does the whole equal more than the some of the parts? Do some libraries provide support corporately for all? Are their things you do rarely that you would prefer to

have done by someone that really knows how do do them?

Could you get more and better resources together than you do alone?

▪ Note: in this scenario, it is okay to be a consumer of services/resources. Not everyone needs to be a corporate provider of something.

The ultimate goal is to improve the service to your users. Your bottom line is helping transportation libraries achieve their mission.

Richard Huffinerichardhuffine@gmail.com