Location
Poster Session
Start Date
11-10-2019 3:30 PM
End Date
11-10-2019 5:00 PM
Type of Work
Poster
Description
Objective Organizations in fields from manufacturing to health care use process improvement teams, an important aspect of LEAN practice, to improve their work. The library faced challenges with interfaces for electronic resources, including a dated electronic journals interface, out-of-control LibGuides, and lack of control over our web presence. The library formed the Electronic Resources Task Force to foster a collaborative approach to solving these problems. This poster will show techniques used and what we accomplished. Methods The library experienced many changes in the last year including changes in leadership and staff. With our new director’s emphasis on improving electronic access, new staff members, and a staff member’s recent training in Lean, we had a great opportunity to incorporate new techniques in team development. Our goal was to provide attractive, modern, and seamless access to evidence-based, high quality information resources. To share information and improve accountability, the team developed a shared flowchart document that allows any team member to update progress on any task at any time. The team meets regularly, further improving accountability and providing opportunities to address electronic resources and collections issues as a group. Results To date, the Electronic Resources Task Force has reduced the number of active LibGuides from 71 to 33 updated guides. Our transition to EBSCO’s Full Text Finder is complete. Additionally, we developed a new search box for LibGuides, introduced a LibGuides-based Databases A-Z page, updated LibAnswers, and rolled out a new literature search form and database. The team continues to follow up on a list of future improvements. Conclusions Incorporating Lean into our work is ongoing, as is our staff member’s training in these techniques. However, we can conclude that the techniques originally developed in manufacturing and being used in healthcare can also be used to improve library work.
Elevating Library Practice through Process Improvement Teams: The Electronic Resources Task Force
Poster Session
Objective Organizations in fields from manufacturing to health care use process improvement teams, an important aspect of LEAN practice, to improve their work. The library faced challenges with interfaces for electronic resources, including a dated electronic journals interface, out-of-control LibGuides, and lack of control over our web presence. The library formed the Electronic Resources Task Force to foster a collaborative approach to solving these problems. This poster will show techniques used and what we accomplished. Methods The library experienced many changes in the last year including changes in leadership and staff. With our new director’s emphasis on improving electronic access, new staff members, and a staff member’s recent training in Lean, we had a great opportunity to incorporate new techniques in team development. Our goal was to provide attractive, modern, and seamless access to evidence-based, high quality information resources. To share information and improve accountability, the team developed a shared flowchart document that allows any team member to update progress on any task at any time. The team meets regularly, further improving accountability and providing opportunities to address electronic resources and collections issues as a group. Results To date, the Electronic Resources Task Force has reduced the number of active LibGuides from 71 to 33 updated guides. Our transition to EBSCO’s Full Text Finder is complete. Additionally, we developed a new search box for LibGuides, introduced a LibGuides-based Databases A-Z page, updated LibAnswers, and rolled out a new literature search form and database. The team continues to follow up on a list of future improvements. Conclusions Incorporating Lean into our work is ongoing, as is our staff member’s training in these techniques. However, we can conclude that the techniques originally developed in manufacturing and being used in healthcare can also be used to improve library work.