For those who have ceased check-in and/or claiming, what types of proactive processes are staff now doing to manage the electronic resources?  Will you please describe any of the new duties/responsibilities and the frequency with which these duties occur, that have replaced old duties performed during check-in and claiming?

Tonia Graves
Electronic Resources & Serials Services Librarian
Old Dominion University Libraries
Norfolk, Va 23529-0256
(757) 683-4188 Phone; (757) 683-5954 Fax
tgraves@odu.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: SERIALST: Serials in Libraries Discussion Forum [mailto:SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU] On Behalf Of Colleen Valente
Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 10:23 PM
To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU
Subject: Re: [SERIALST] changing job descriptions

In addition to the excellent points Rick has made, I want to add one that I could never have come up with on my own. It took a long time, valuable staff member to make me understand what was behind a lot of the resistance to a very big organizational change that the library I worked at then was undergoing. I had spent a lot of time listening, talking, etc but still could not understand exactly, the level of resistance. This wonderful staffer finally looked me in the eye and said, "We are not afraid of new jobs. We are afraid of failing at new jobs".

Maybe everyone else understands that aspect. I had not understood it and once I was enlightened, I was able to offer the kinds of reassurances about training and retraining that were badly needed. This might very well underlie the reluctance of  Mike's staff to move into the electronic environment. They know they are competent at their current jobs. What if they fail at the new ones? Reassurance, promises of training/retraining, and, above all, assurance that they will be given the time they need to learn might just do the trick.

Colleen Valente
Head of Technical Services
Library
Auburn University at Montgomery
Montgomery, AL
Ph: 334-244-3684
cvalente@aum.edu
________________________________________
Date:    Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:45:39 -0700
From:    Rick Anderson <rick.anderson@UTAH.EDU>
Subject: Changing job descriptions (Re: [SERIALST] Cease claiming, checking in, binding)

One barrier for many of us in making these changes is an unwillingness to
tell people that their jobs are going to have to change, sometimes in
dramatic ways.  Those conversations can be very, very difficult.  In my
experience, though, if you talk to people both publicly and privately about
the reasons for the changes ahead of time, and if you listen carefully and
respectfully when they raise concerns and demonstrate that you've taken
those concerns into account (whether or not you do exactly what the person
wanted), the results are much better than if you either a) try to make
everyone happy or b) simply railroad your decision through without getting
good input and listening to it.  (When I had to reorganize again because of
budget cuts and layoffs, the process was much less satisfactory because it
had to be carried out without all that good input from managers and staff.)

Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dir. for Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library
Univ. of Utah
rick.anderson@utah.edu
(801) 721-1687

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