www.le.ac.uk

Save the Cheerleader! Save the

Library..?LIS Resource & efficiency savings ideas

Gaz J Johnson

Document Supply & Repository Manager

David Wilson Library

University of Leicester

7th April 2011

gjj6@le.ac.uk

The Challenge• Source ideas from the cloud

– On LIS service efficiency savings and cost

– Aimed for ideas not obstacles

• Gathered through a range of sources

– Social media (twitter, Facebook etc)

– Online survey

– Email exchanges and discussions

• Concepts presented as is, and may not represent

personal or organisationally held POVs!

– Tabula rasa approach

Academic (HE)45%

Academic (FE)31%

Public Libraries14%

Governmental5%

NHS6%

Survey Respondants by Sector

N = 64

0.0%

10.0%

20.0%

30.0%

40.0%

50.0%

60.0%

70.0%

2011 (in progress)

2011 (anticipated)

By Dec 2012By Dec 2016

Unlikely

Time Frame of Anticipated Savings

Most effective resource saving

measures you have encountered?

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Resource Saving Experiences

• Staff redundancies/Voluntary severance/Staff

cuts/Non replacement of vacant posts

• Flexibility of staff in the roles and tasks they can

partake in/Change in staff attitude

• Cancelling expensive (and poor cost per download)

resource subscriptions/Spend less on printed

materials/standing orders

• Outsourcing aspects of acquisitions/automating &

reducing in-house book processing

• More energy efficiency to save on running costs

The most effective staff time saving

measures you have encountered?

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Time Saving Experiences

• Outsourcing, changing processes (ie shelving workflow)

/Making procedures more straightforward

• Removing the cataloguer post(s) and buying in shelf-ready

books/simplify cataloguing procedure

• Team work, flexibility, multi-tasking/Reducing professional

demarcations/Concerns over stress from change

• Minimising static service points so that time isn't spent sitting

waiting for work to do/Self-service issue, return etc.

• Moving as many systems and processes as possible online

The single most effective & least

disruptive cost-saving improvement

that you would make?

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Effective but Least Disruptive?• Staff talent is overlooked and under-used/New ways of working-more

working from home/More efficient use of librarians time

• Reducing the senior management team/Cut down on in house

bureaucracy

• Review staffing (evenings/weekends) by senior staff/substitute non-

professional staff or student volunteers

• Reviewing the processes of all services and areas of the library/Close

smaller branch libraries/Cut non-core services that have little

impact/value/

• Monitoring with a view to cutting what is not used enough to justify

costs/Cut e-resources budget/Cancelling high journal subs.

• Stop providing staplers, pens, paper etc etc to students when they never

bring their own

• Use the technology that we have to its full potential

Impact of “Traditional” Approaches

• Reduce non professional staffing levels

(front of house)

• Reduce non professional staffing levels

(back office)

• Reduce professional staffing levels

• Reduce opening hours

• Decrease new stock acquisitions

• Decrease reliance on physical collections

• Outsource acquisition related activities

• Outsource technical support

Extremely disruptive (52.5%)

Approach Modal Perception

Moderately disruptive (30.0%)

Moderately disruptive (41.7%)

Extremely disruptive (57.4%)

Moderately disruptive (47.5%)

Slightly disruptive (33.33%)

Negligible disruption(28.3%)

Negligible disruption (25.0%)

General Comments & Thoughts

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Comments: Final Quotes

• Evaluating services and thinking about which are absolutely

essential, and which are only desirable (don't hold onto

anything that can be done by others)

• Trying to resist any further large scale savings, as they

would have a negative impact on students' success rates.

• Need to take a more commercial approach to generating

income without endangering access to services. (sell

stationery, withdrawn stock etc)

• Reducing both staff and resources will cut costs but means

you end up doing less with less…

• Gareth J Johnson

– Document Supply & Repository Manager

– gjj6@le.ac.uk 0116-252-2039

– Twitter: llordllama

Slides: www.slideshare.net/GazJJohnson

Blog: llordllama.wordpress.com

Contacts