Success in Tough Times Richard P. Hulser, Chief Librarian Natural History Museum L.A.C. SEAL-S Meeting March 8, 2013

Turn perception of library from passive materials warehouse into active source of information and education Focus on services while dealing with collection management

Library started with Museum 1913 Early 1920’s depository branch of Los Angeles Public Library 1925 Fully part of Museum & no longer branch of LAPL First library collections came from Historical Society of Southern California and Cooper Ornithological Club More materials came from Southern California Academy of Sciences & Museum staff

 Fully manual library operation  Library closed almost 3 years  Researchers mainly on their own to obtain content  Departments managing own collections  Growing backlog of un-cataloged books  Solo librarian with volunteers  Tight budget  Limited IT support

Added expertise/education Willingness to learn Online grad programs broadens volunteer pool Low cost or free labor  Temporary  Reliability  Training  Supervision  Not substitute for staff

 Computer equipment  Office furniture  Supplies  Priorities sharing

foursquare

Does your “parent” organization have a vision, mission and strategies for the next 3 – 5 years? What are these? Library vision, purpose & strategies – including your technology strategies – must support & be aligned with the parent organization Parent Organization Vision & Purpose Library vision & purpose Strategies & technologies Library strategies & technologies

 Supplies the rationale and priorities for funding  Ensures priorities are addressed in a timely and appropriate way  Required for some funding (grant proposals, etc.)  Decreases potential purchasing “latest” technology  Increases alignment with library long-term planning, IT plans and institutional strategy (win-win-win)

 Physical Resources  People Resources  Policies and Procedures

Functionality Affordability Minimal IT support requirements Flexible, easy access from desktop on-site and/or off-site access requirements internal staff & clients/customers/users alike  Internet access speed & reliability dependency  Technical problems trouble- shooting  Content storage cost in Cloud  Multiple application/content integration  Security hurdles interactions of Cloud- based service with locally stored content User authentication & single sign-on issues

Quantitative & qualitative analyses of physical & e-content use critical Usage statistics provide core quantitative factors Reference tracking can provide both quantity & quality information Use quantity and quality information in price negotiations

Information Owners’ Information Custodians’ Information Users’ Legal Rights Social Rights Financial Rights

Consider free online content to replace/reduce print cost & management while increasing ease of access Biodiversity Heritage Library OCLC Firstsearch or other tools to identify online resources & free Open source resources shortcut on library catalog Open source articles or special issues in fee-based journals

Negotiation vs. Partnership – know which to use and when to optimize vendor products & services Negotiate if dealing with content or services where there are plenty of providers Negotiation is more than price – can be services, training, marketing help to your users, etc. Partner if you have/anticipate multi-year, long-standing vendor relationship Partner if you're in tumultuous times and change is an issue  technology, user behavior, and more changing fast

Richard P. Hulser