Best of Core Forum: Calling It Quits: How to Evaluate Library Services and Decide What to Stop Doing

Following a period of disruption, library leaders need to realign service offerings with current organizational priorities and resources. In this interactive session, we will introduce a new model that we designed and applied at our large research library to redefine, reevaluate, and right-size research service offerings to better align with current staffing levels and support work-life balance for staff. Our model includes: (1) a rubric designed to aid in the evaluation of service offerings against available resources and campus needs; (2) a reusable checklist to support the sunsetting of services; and (3) a service template to clarify ongoing services for internal and external audiences. In our session, participants will use our model to engage in hands-on learning as they assess the sustainability and resource levels of the service offerings at their own institution. They will be positioned to identify potential service changes to align internal and external communication strategies for supported change. We will also infuse our session with change management practices that center people and support them as individuals in these change processes.

This webinar was previously presented in-person as a session at the 2024 Core Forum. We are hosting this webinar, with the session adapted and presented live as a virtual event, to extend its reach.

Learning Outcomes:

The goals of the webinar are:

• Develop awareness of a model for evaluating their libraries’ services in order to set priorities and plan improvements.
• dentify best practices from change management in order to effectively lead their teams and libraries through challenging processes.
• Identify best practices from change management in order to effectively lead their teams and libraries through challenging processes.

Who Should Attend: This webinar is intended for librarians making decisions on the continuation, sunsetting, and/or staffing of library-offered programs. Presenters serve in middle management roles in an academic library.

Presenters:

Erinn Aspinall is the Director of the Health Sciences Libraries at the University of Minnesota. Her career includes work at public health, medical, and health sciences libraries, including 17 years at the University of Minnesota, previous experience at the University of New Mexico and the University of Michigan, and post-graduate work at the NIH National Library of Medicine. She believes that libraries are at their best when they mirror the needs of their communities, and has brought that vision to her work. Her additional interests include organizational development, and continuous process improvement.

Danya Leebaw is the Social Sciences Director at the University of Minnesota Libraries. She spent ten years as a social sciences librarian at Carleton College, and prior to that was a business librarian at Emory University. Danya earned her MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to becoming a librarian, Danya worked for nearly a decade in advertising. Her research is focused on academic library management, librarians, and academic freedom, often through a critical theoretical lens.

Emma Molls is the Director of the Open Research & Publishing Department at the University of Minnesota Libraries, which includes computational research, publishing services, research data services, research information management, and houses the Data Curation Network. Prior to this role, Emma was a publishing librarian at the University of Minnesota and a Scholarly Communication and Social Science Librarian at Iowa State University. Emma is the past president of Library Publishing Coalition, past member of MIT Press' Library Advisory Board, current member of the SPARC Steering Committee and writes about the sustainability and scalability of scholarly communication programs.