What do you do now?

First of all: Do Not Panic. Panic is unbecoming and unproductive.
Secondly: Follow these steps and you will be on your way to having an orderly, well-run special library.

The first step is to define your environments. It is important to know and understand the area around your library, both inside and outside the company. Work from the outermost environment and work your way in. The different types of environments are listed here, along with questions you might consider when describing them.

External Environment: Outside the company

• Is your company in a major metropolitan area, a large urban city, a small town, etc.?
  
• How would you describe your company's geographical region?
  
• What is the population of the city in which the company is located?
  
• How many different types businesses or industries are in the surrounding area?
  
• Are the surrounding companies largely domestic, national, international?
  
• Are there any government offices nearby? If so, which ones?
  
• How many businesses or companies offer the same or similar services to the services offered by your company?
  
• Are you located near any major modes of transportation, i.e. interstate highways, airports, train stations, etc.?
  
• Are there any schools, colleges, universities in the area?
  
• Do they specialize in a particular type of education – technical, agriculture, humanities, business, etc.?
  
• Are they public or private schools?
  
• How many libraries – public, special, academic, etc. – are in the city?
  
• What sorts of resources and support can you expect of the public library?
  
• Is the area surrounding the city largely urban, suburban, agricultural, industrial, etc.?

External Environment: Inside the Company

• Who owns and operates your company?
  
• How long has the company been here?
  
• Is your company a government institution or agency? Privately owned? Publicly owned?
  
• Does your company rely on subsidiary income such as taxes?
  
• What is the breakdown of staff: executives, administration, support staff, management, full-time & part-time employees, etc.?
  
• Do the employees primarily work from the office, from home, or from the field?
  
• How many, if any, of the employees travel as a regular part of their job?
  
• Is this the only office? Is it the headquarters for state, regional, national, international offices?
  
• What is your company's specialty?
  
• How long have they specialized in this?
  
• How do they do it?
  
• How many people work for the company? At this location? At other locations?
  
• What are the major departments within the company?
  
• To whom do each of the departments report?
  
• What does each of the departments do? For what are they responsible?
  
• Has your company received awards for excellence in anything? If so, what?
  
• What is the growth potential for your company?
• What are the major research and development departments within the company?
• Is there an MIS or IT department that does data collection and analysis?
• What are the trademarks, patents, etc. held by the company?
  

Example: The Company Group, Inc., is the privately owned parent company for The Company Corp. and several future ventures.

The Company Group is a market research and development firm that serves domestic and international, B-to-B, and institutional clients. Using proprietary qualitative research techniques, The Company Group lowers the barriers-to-entry into new markets, whether they are geographic, psychographic, or demographic. They identify new market trends, competitive forces, and the way current and prospective clients experience and perceive products and services.

The Company Group is currently run by a CEO and President, three VP's, and seven managers running the various departments within the company. Currently, there are 50 people on The Company Group's payroll; within the next five years, there are expected to be approximately 300 people employed covering all areas including but not limited to administration, library staff, information technology, support staff, field researchers, maintenance and janitorial staff, etc. The Company Group also has plans to offer internships in all fields to students at local universities and colleges, nearby Other State University (located in a nearby suburban area south of the state border), and the University of AnyState (2 hours away in AnotherCity, CD).

The Company Group's customer base is located primarily in the CityTown, AB, area, but they are planning on extending their services to the surrounding states and to Europe within the next five years. Satellite offices may be established as the company grows, but corporate headquarters will remain in CityTown, AB, as will the central library and information technology facilities.

Internal Environment: Inside the Library

• Has your company ever had a library/librarian before? If so, for how long? If not, why were you hired?
  
• What services did/will the library offer?
  
• Was disbanded, eliminated, downsized, or given to the care of a non-librarian or department? If so, why?
  
• Who has been/will be running the library?
  
• What sort of cataloging, shelving, classifying, etc., are in place/will be used in the library?
  
• Are there any partnerships, formal or informal, between your company's library and outside sources?
  
• To whom do you report? To whom does your supervisor report?
  
• How does your supervisor feel about the library?
  
• Will you have control over the library budget?
  
• Will the library budget be incorporated as part of departmental budget or be a separate entity?
  
• What expenses is the library budget expected to cover?
  
• What kind of staff will you have? Full-time? Part-time? How many?
  
• What kinds of materials are there/will you obtain for your library?
  
• Which departments regularly use/are expected to use the library?
  
• What is the relationship between the library and the other departments in the company?
  
• What are you planning to do to help the library get started or improve its services?
  
• What are the next steps that need to be taken?

Example: The Company Group's executives want a corporate in-house library, understanding the importance of it in the line of work the company does. Too much money is lost each year to file duplication, excessive subscriptions, and a lack of organization for the research the company does for its clients.

It is my job to lay the groundwork for a stable, well-prepared library so that as The Company Group expands, the library will be able to seamlessly expand with it to meet the subsequent increasing research needs of the growing number of employees. To that end, I will create a collection development policy, create a catalog of current sources owned, research materials for the collection, and work with the information technology specialist to begin designing and construction an intranet and catalog. I will also be responsible for getting the company's internal documents – videos, reports, transcripts, newsletters, etc. – organized and cataloged.

My job is to build the library from scratch, writing the mission statement, identifying library goals and objectives and making sure they support the goals and objectives of The Company Group. I will also create a services design and develop a collection development policy. I need to figure out a budget appropriate to the needs of the library and The Company Group figure out what kind of staff I can justify.

Once you get (or create) the organizational chart for the company, you should build one for your library. Naturally, the chart will include the name of the person to whom you report as well as the people who will eventually work for you. You might create the library organizational chart in the typical triangle shape: supervisor at the top with each succeeding level of employee listed underneath. This may or may not mirror the shape of the company chart. After building the chart, study it and ask yourself if this really reflects the way you want the library to provide services. The traditional triangle shape points everything – flow of communication, focus of attention, etc. – to the top. In an article in the Kansas City Business Journal, Jill Hogan suggests inverting the chart so that the departments you will be assisting on a daily basis are actually at the top. By placing the customers at the top of the list instead of the boss, will help create an atmosphere in your library of customer importance: The customer is the most important part of the library. Without the customer, there would be no need for a library.

An offshoot of the typical organizational chart is a networking chart. Create a networking chart in the same way you would create an organizational chart, with the exception being that you include your contact names instead of heads of departments. For instance, the organizational chart may indicate that Mr. Bigwig is in charge of the finance department, but his secretary/an intern/a particular accountant, is the one to talk to when you need certain supplies or invoices processed. Or, Ms. Bigshot is the titular head of administration, but she's out of town a lot and so Mr. Underling really rules that roost. Or, you really want to do a little more active, personal marketing of the library in the WeKnowItAll department, but unless Ms. Gatekeeper gives her silent but powerful approval, you will be met with a reluctant, unsupportive audience.

It is important to understand the chain of command so that you know to whom you should turn when necessary, but it is equally as important to understand how the company grapevine works, so that when something needs to get done, you know who'll do it.

W3Future.com is a great site for building organizational charts. It is easy to use, and the advanced features provide HTML coding for the charts you build.

Ferguson, Tim W. "Who's Mentoring Whom?" Forbes, v159 n10 p252-253. 19 May 1997. Infotrac Business and Company ASAP. 28 April 2002. <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/usclibs/>.

Hogan, Jill. "Upside-down Organizational Charts are Right-side Up." The Kansas City Journal, v18 i14 p20. 10 December 1999. Infotrac Business and Company ASAP. 28 April 2002. <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/usclibs/>.

Take care that the mission statement – either the library's or the company's – is not a glibly worded vague notion of the general area in which you wish to head. Be precise. Be specific. Say what you do and how you do it. It doesn't have to be long, in fact, shorter is better. But make sure you cover all your bases.

A mission statement defines the business of your library. Who runs your library? Do you purchase materials to support only one department of the company? Then put that in the statement. Do you support all company departments? Make sure a reader will know that. Where do you get your information? From donors? By purchases? By interlibrary loan agreements? Who will use the information? How will they use it? In one to three paragraphs, see if you can define what you expect of the library and how it will get done.

It is extremely important to have a mission statement – a written mission statement. Such a document helps you define who you are and what you do. Post your mission statement: on a poster hanging next to the reference desk, on the backs of business cards, on bookmarks, on library stationery, on the library's page on the intranet, etc. Let people read what you do, then let them see you doing it. Don't be afraid to revise, amend, or update your mission statement periodically. A regular review, say at the fiscal year end or beginning, would be wise. That way you can make sure that your mission is supporting the company's mission and that you and your staff are providing the services promised.

Examples:

Company Mission Statement:
The Company Group, Inc., is a market research and implementation firm focused on the Academic Institution Industry, providing customized research and presentations for their clients using proprietary research and information gathering techniques. Through methods such as feasibility analyses, fund-raising program development, and institutional brand identities, The Company Group, Inc., strives to produce the most comprehensive, up-to-date reports based on their research. Through a variety of forums including but not limited to consulting, public speaking, conferences, seminars and workshops, and publishing, The Company Group, Inc., is a source of information for the academic industry.

Library Mission Statement:
The Company Group Information Center (CGIC) reflects The Company Groups's purpose and functions as an integral part of the market research and information gathering process. Graduate Professional Librarians and trained support staff manage the library and strive to support the information needs of the company by:

• providing information resources and services to meet the demands and needs of The Company Group, Inc., employees;
  
• purchasing and acquiring materials such as but not limited to books, periodicals, videos, films, electronic media, viewing devices, equipment, software, etc., as needed to maintain, update, or enhance the collection;
  
• educating company employees as needed on proper use of materials and information as dictated by copyright, trademark, FCC, and privacy laws;
  
• collecting, preserving, restoring, and cataloging all materials acquired or purchased for the collection, including documents produced in-house;
  
• working in collaboration with the Information Technology department to construct, maintain, and update a company intranet.
  

Listed below are links to samples of mission statements. Special library mission statements are hard to find on the internet, so the majority of these are for other types of libraries. However, since all libraries exist to serve their respective communities, it should not be terribly difficult to adjust wording to make the statement fit your library.

Academic Library Mission Statements

What are the company's goals and objectives? It is as imperative for you to have an idea about how the company intends to achieve its mission as it is for you to know its overall mission. How can you hope to support the company's efforts if you don't know how they conduct business? It's simple: you can't. At least not in an effective and efficient manner. And if you aren't both effective and efficient, your library will not last long because the company will not continue to provide financial support for anything that doesn't carry its own weight.

Once you have defined the company's goals and objectives, you can set them for the library. Two sets of goals should be established: one for the long term, and one for the short term. The short-term goals need to be set for about a year or so, basically a listing of tasks you want to accomplish in the coming fiscal year, and how you expect to accomplish them. For the long term, a statement of ongoing or permanent goals should be drawn up describing the major services the library provides and the steps taken to provide them. These are usually organized around major services such as reference, technical services, cataloging, etc.

Goals are broad, sweeping statements declaring a desired outcome over the long term. Objectives are the action plans put in place to reach the goal. The amount of time defining a goal can vary, say, from one month to five years; but whatever the time period indicated, a goal is more broad in scope than its objectives. Objectives, on the other hand, are specific mile markers stating each step required to meet the goal, usually with some sort of quantifiable information – dates, percentages, number of users/searches, costs, etc. – that can be measured and checked off once it has been reached.

In the examples below, notice how the goals are broad, with specific steps listed stating how each goal will be met. Each goal represents something the library will do to enhance, promote, or support the company's mission. Each objective is a measurable step that can be scheduled, measured, or crossed off once it has been met.

• At the start of every fiscal year, a review of the CDP will be conducted ...
  

• Twice a year, librarians and staff will discuss ...
  
• Four times each year a community assessment ...
  

• A committee consisting of ... will meet no fewer than six times a year.
  
• At least once a week, update the catalog ...
  

• Twice a month, newsletters shall be distributed ...
  

• Perform cataloging of new materials at least once a week, ...
  
• Perform monthly checks on all electronic subscriptions ...

Primary Short Term Goals

1. Develop a Collection Development Policy (CDP).

• A first draft of the CDP policy will be prepared ... by the end of May 2002.
  
• The final CDP, approved by upper management, will be ready by June 1, 2002.
  

2. Develop an annual budget for the RIC.

• By May 31, 2002: Research staffing needs ...
  
• By July 31, 2002: Develop a proposed materials budget; estimate salary budget ...

3. Develop a catalog and classification system.

• By May 31, 2002: Decide which classification system to use ...
  
• By June 30, 2002: In collaboration with the IT department ...

4. Purchase materials.

• By May 31, 2002: Prepare a list of materials ...
  
• By August 31, 2002: Purchase or subscribe ...

Perley, Daniel R. "Support Still a Top Priority." Computing Canada, v20 n8 p44. 16 April 1994. Infotrac Onefile. 28 April 2002. <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/usclibs/>.

First, examine your community. Who will be the primary users of the library? Support staff doing research for field workers? Field workers doing their own research? Administration? The accounting department? Once you have your community defined, you need to try and predict what kinds of materials they will use: mostly print, mostly electronic, some of each? Then ask yourself what you will do to provide the best possible service based on your predictions.

These kinds of questions can be asked prior to starting any type of service or program in your library, but at this time, since you are starting a library from scratch, you might want to focus on the major areas for which a library provides service: reference, consultation, technology, and education. What will you do in each area to provide maximum service for your company? For each area, establish goals and objectives, the end results you wish to accomplish for each one, and a tentative schedule of implementation or evaluation. For each service, ask the journalist's basic list of questions: who (will the service be for?), what (do you hope to accomplish with each service?), when (will the service be implemented/evaluated?), where (will the service be setup/started?), why (are you starting this service?), and how (will the service be implemented/evaluated?).

It is important to keep the end result in mind when planning programs and services because evaluating each in turn will let you know if you achieved your goals or not, will indicate the level of success of each program, and will let you see where the strengths and weaknesses of each program were. At this point, it might be a bit premature to develop your evaluation forms or techniques as you do not yet know if your predictions about who your patrons will be are going to prove true or not. Right now, it is more important to keep in mind that an evaluation will need to be done eventually, and focus instead on getting the programs started.

The example below shows an example in chart form of the services, goals and objectives, accomplishments to be achieved by each service, and a tentative schedule of implementation.

See these other chapters of the Special Libraries Management Handbook:

A budget is every bit as important as planning your services and programs, if not more so because without it you won't have any way to fund those programs, nor will you be able to prove to the ones providing the money that you are worth their investment.

Customarily included within the library's overall budget is the programming budget, designed to let those who review and approve the budget know what monies will be needed for the coming year and how they will be spent. Because your library is still in the primary stages of development, there is not a great need for specific program designs. Right now, the library, in and of itself, is the program. Careful observation of how the library is used, the questions and demands placed on the resources, as well as the types of resources requested will all play a part in the types of programming your library will provide in the future. Each company employee will have varying degrees of experience using electronic and print resources, so this, too, will help determine what sorts of programs and instructional workshops you might offer in the future.

Because planning specific programming depends so much on so many unknown variables, building your library's collection is the first "program" to consider at this point. To that end, the budget should be a proposal for monies to get the library started. Before any programming can be planned, much less implemented, your library needs resources. This budget should provide for purchasing materials and resources needed to build a basic reference collection, with some specificity to the areas of interest to the company. Also included in the budget should be cost estimates for salaries, office materials and supplies (both general office supplies and library-specific supplies), fees for membership to professional associations, and travel expenses to professional development conferences.

This budget can be representative of future library budgets in that it could cover those expenses expected to recur annually. A separate budget can be prepared for one-time costs for permanent equipment and fixtures such as but not limited to a photocopier, fax machine, furniture, and shelving. These are essentials for the library, but they are expensive, and, unless they are purchased on an installment plan, are non-recurring expenses. Discuss with your supervisor whether purchases such as these should be included the library's budget or in a separate budget.

The line-item budget is what most people imagine when talk of budgeting comes up. This is simply a listing of items with associated costs listed to the right. Many times the items are grouped into categories, subtotaled, and the categories added for a grand total at the end of the report. It is harder today to group library resources by category due to the hybrid nature of more and more resources, such as journals being available in both print and electronic form. Additionally, a line-item budget is wonderful for showing how your library spends the money it receives but it doesn't do so well in illustrating what the company is getting for the money it's investing. To prove to the powers-that-be that you can do more than just spend their money, you might want to use a program budget.

Program Budgets group everything required to provide a service in one place, even if it means crossing departmental lines. For example, to provide a company-wide intranet requires the services, and the money, from the library and the information technology department at the very least; more departments might be called on to contribute as well, further adding to this budget area.

Beyond showing company cooperation, a program budget can help you defend your services, push for funding increases, or fight against shrinking budgets. A program budget clearly illustrates, in monetary terms, precisely what services your library provides, how much each one costs, and will help you illustrate any potential negative effects of reduced funding.

Gitelle Seer provided some tips about budgeting in special libraries in The Bottom Line in 2000. Some of the advice she offers includes:

• Understand some basic financial vocabulary and accounting terms. You're not a CPA, but if you're in charge of the budget, you should understand at least the basics of what the people in the accounting department are talking about.
  
• Create a Budget timeline. Start at the end, when the final draft will be due, and work backwards, allowing for the requisite number of people to review it and provide feedback, as well as for you to gather your research about vendor pricing or materials costs.
  
• Have pre-budget meetings with the people in the financial office. This will not only help you get a firmer grasp on the company requirements for you budget, but will help establish a friendly relationship that can help out in times of crisis.
  
• Ask your librarians for input. They work with the people everyday and may have ideas for improvements to services or might even suggest eliminating a service that is not used.
  
• Make comparisons and predictions. As you prepare this year's budget, look at last year's budget to see what you estimated you would need and how it compared to what you actually used. Based on prices you were able to gather for this year, make a prediction about what you might need next year.
  
• Prepare appropriate budget packages. Who is going to read your budget? The CEO will be looking for different information than the accounting department or the library committee.
  
• Explain your sources. Whoever reads your budget might not actually read every single word, but showing that you have investigated all the pieces that contribute to your budget shows anyone who reads it that you conducted thorough, logical research. You can use this information in later years to how historical changes in costs or funding.
  
• Be prepared to offer alternatives. As you prepare your budget, look for ways to add to or subtract from the various programs and explain the effect such actions will have for the library and the company.
  
• Prioritize. Categorize your services into ones that are necessary, ones that are useful, ones that are nice to have but can easily be done without, and ones that are not really needed at all. Find out from your librarians, the staff, the company employees, what services get used and how. Do they use them at their desktops? Do they call in questions? Do they visit the library?

Following are websites that might prove useful in calculating various costs for your budget.

Materials & Resources

Seer, Gitelle. "Special Library financial management: the essentials of library budgeting." The Bottom Line, v13 i4 pp186-192. 2000. Proquest. 28 April 2002. <http://proquest.umi.com/pdqweb>.

Zero-Base Budgeting An Overview. 1999. S. W. Bliss and Associates, Inc. 5 March 2002. <http://www.swb-inc.com/zbb.htm>.

Zero Based Budgeting. The Buttonwood Group. 5 March 2002. <http://buttonwoodllp.com/Best%20Practices/zbb.htm>.

The best of services will go to waste if no one knows they are available. A marketing plan for your library will help you get the word out about the services offered at your library. While your library is still in the planning stages, this plan will be subject to much revision, suggestion, and change, but will provide a good starting off point for you when things begin to settle. Several other chapters in the Special Libraries Management Handbook have covered this topic already, so there will not be much about it in this chapter, but there are a few points worth mentioning.

• Make a point of marketing in person. Leave your office and go visit people in their offices, at their desks, or even at the water cooler. Encourage your staff to do the same. This not only gives the people who work at the company a personal contact with the library, but it might enourage questions that might not otherwise come your way either because they don't like having to ask for help or don't think about asking a librarian to help search for answers.
  
• Conduct surveys, send questionnaires, or have a suggestion box in order to get feedback and statistics about library usage and general feelings and opinions about the library.
  
• Work with the Information Technology Department to create and maintain a company intranet, then aggressively advertise the library on it.
  
• Talk with other librarians about what they do to market their libraries.

See these other chapters of the Special Libraries Management Handbook:

The backbone of any library should be the Collection Development Policy. Many libraries, however, do not have a written policy in place. Don't let your library be one of them. A Collection Development Policy is a guideline for your library's collection. It helps you define the types and formats of resources you will and will not include in the collection. When you hire additional librarians, you can provide them a copy of the Collection Development Policy and they will know precisely what the library contains, how it handles multiple issues from cataloging to accepting gifts to weeding the collection, and what to choose if they should be called upon to acquire materials. If you leave this library, the incoming librarian will know immediately what kind of collection this library has simply by reading the Collection Development Policy. There is a chapter in the Special Libraries Management Handbook devoted to building a Collection Development Policy. It provides information about the value of such a policy, issues surrounding the idea of having one, and a basic outline for building one of your own. The following links also provide useful information in creating a Collection Development Policy.

Collection Development Policies

You might be able to run your library alone now, but as your marketing efforts begin to pay off, more and more of the company employees will start using the library, and you'll need to hire someone to help you. Several other chapters in the Special Libraries Management Handbook provide wonderful coverage of the hiring and interviewing processes. Included with this chapter are links to writing job descriptions, an invaluable tool for advertising for positions, detailing and defining what each person is responsible for, and as a basis for evaluating employee performance.

Job Descriptions

Evaluation is an integral part of a library's operation. Without evaluation of services and programs, there is no way to measure whether or not you are achieving your goals and objectives; there is no way of telling if your customers are satisfied with the services, programs, and resources you are providing; there is no way of proving to the ones who approve your budget that you are a viable investment.

Information for evaluation can be gathered in a variety of ways. To name but a few:

• Send questionnaires to people who use your library -- find out what they like, what they don't like, if they have any suggestions for improvements or new services
  
• Send questionnaires to people who don't use your library -- find out why they don't use it, find out what they think about the library, ask what it would take to get them to use it
  
• Review circulation records, interlibrary loan transactions, and reference logs to get an idea about what is and is not used. Look for patterns or trends that can help improve services
  
• Track changes in the budget from one year to the next. Look for money being spent for programs that are either under-used or not used or programs that seem to require a larger-than-average percentage of the budget each succeeding year
  
• Evaluate searching records -- print and electronic -- to identify the types of questions being asked and the sources being used to answer them
  
• Notice which seminars, workshops, or instructional sessions were best attended or most requested

There are, naturally, hundreds more ways to collect, evaluate, and interpret data. However, in order for any evaluation to be effective, the data must be gathered. That is why it is important to keep evaluation in mind when starting a library. As you plan and put in place your programs and services you must be prepared to keep statistics from the beginning so that when it is time for evaluating those programs you have the data you need to make a valid evaluation.

There are many different ways to evaluate services, and equally as many different forms and methods for tracking statistics. Following are a few links that provide or lead to more information on evaluation, how to do it, and the importance of doing it.

Bradley, Perry. "Building a Safety Library." Business & Commercial Aviation, v78 n2 pg56. February 1996. Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. 28 April 2002. <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/>.

Divisions – SLA, ed. Special Libraries Association 16 April 2002. <http://www.sla.org/content/chdiv/divisions/index.cfm>. 28 April 2002.

Hazard, John W. "Building a financial library." U.S. News and World Report, v96 pg82. 20 February 1984. Infotrac Onefile. 28 April 2002. <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/usclibs/>.

Rotman, Laurie, Margaret Spinner, and Julie Williams. "The Draper Gopher: A team approach to building a virtual library." Online, March/April 1995. Infotrac Onefile. 28 April 2002. <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com/usclibs/>.

Tully, Kimberly H. Cross-Institutional Issues in Planning and Program Management Portfolio. 24 October 1997. <http://slisweb.lis.wisc.edu/~khtully/index2.htm>. 28 April 2002.

The basic outline and information for this chapter was taken from the general structure of, assignments from, and the author's notes taken during Professor Robert V. Williams's Special Libraries Course (CLIS 724), Spring Semester 2002, University of South Carolina.

This page created by Ginger L. Roth, Spring Semester 2002.
College of Library and Information Science -- University of South Carolina.