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7. Management Issues
Pages 163-192

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From page 163...
... This is an organization with 4,000 staff members ranging from highly specialized professionals, through dedicated clerical and technical staff supporting professional tasks, to a broad range of other support personnel. The committee members were deeply impressed by the loyalty and professionalism of everyone they met but were at the same time distressed by the obstacles that exist to effective management of these human resources.
From page 164...
... Reinventing the processes will mean reinventing the work, an effort that will in turn require close collaboration between LC management and the unions.1 They must find and share a common vision of a workforce that is more highly skilled and more highly paid and then seek a strategy to approach that vision in a way that maximizes opportunity for all those i' 1 1 A 1The Library of Congress has four labor unions: AFSCME 2477 (representing nonprofessional staff) , AFSCME 2910 (representing professional staff)
From page 165...
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From page 166...
... It is practically impossible for the Library to hire new college graduates in computer science because of the salary differential between enkygrade government hires and what industry can pay. There are market imbalances everywhere between skilled technology workers and what employers offer, which must make whatever pressures there are on the LC staff in general that much greater for IT staff.
From page 167...
... ~ the committee's view, the upcoming transition in LC's staff can and should be made an opportunity to rethink and redesign jobs and bring fresh talent and viewpoints into the Library. The committee expects that 10 years from now there will be fewer traditional librarian positions in LC and more positions for IT-savvy librarians, although many of the latter may well be filled (if the committee's remarks below about a culture of training are heeded)
From page 168...
... s-~et.'ve-~em. plo~e$.,ar.~,~mUt~ne.' a:.g~Yerr,,~mer,~ empl~ee,5,,,..~.:-wh hired iti~:al~lY~:ovewi~aiit.~ ~ I- I:- ~~ ~~ LC's Human Resources Services Directorate review hiring practices to make sure that job descriptions are written to appeal to applicants outside of the government.
From page 169...
... This ruling has caused the organization to be even more attentive to procedure in Me hiring processes, from writing job descriptions to selecting and screening candidates to interviewing and offering employment packages. This care and deliberateness may satisfy the need to demonstrate fairness and an effec
From page 170...
... The low level of worker exposure to modern technology and the introduction of the ILS have necessitated classes in basic computer skills like using a mouse. But a cataloger who gains a certificate indicating proficiency with a mouse does not necessarily have the ability to mount the shared reference documents from a server or to find what is needed within the LC network, nor will a professional trained in library work necessarily be able to use the library-like resources such as databases online or on the World Wide Web.
From page 171...
... Even Cough a number of training courses are available, there is no evidence of a culture of learning in the organization. There is, for example, very little encouragement for, and even some discouragement of, professional travel for conferences, nor is there sufficient use of temporary project assignments as training opportunities.6 Creating such a culture requires strong pressure from Human Resources Services, the Internal University, and HR units throughout the Library, but the effort can succeed only if promoted by senior management and supported by managers throughout He organization.
From page 172...
... The threat of the objects of work spilling out of order is constant in some departments. The apparently ad hoc status of the physical binding leads to equally ad hoc solutions for storing excess clips, binders, and folders.
From page 173...
... The hiring of contractors with special skills necessary for this project was accomplished in record time, particularly given the hiring constraints listed above. A small number of regular employees transferred into the project, even without guaranteed return to their former jobs or employment status (the NDLP positions were typically temporary appointments—Nl E, "not to exceed".
From page 174...
... According to the document, research shows that Human Resources Services (HRS) Directorate professionals cannot in one step go from being bureaucratic administrators to becoming partners in achieving the goals of the func9As reported to the committee during a site visit to the Library in July 1999.
From page 175...
... The committee recommends that the Human Resources Services Directorate be more aggressive in pursuit of exactly that goal, that it set its sights on being an agent of change and a business partner, and that it begin drafting goals and plans to that effect immediately, with deadlines for seeing change in some small number of months, not years. While this approach is aggressive and risky, HR experience in industry indicates that it can be done.
From page 176...
... One example would be to increase the pool of highly qualified candidates by, for example, implementing processes such as internship. CRS has had good success with its Grad Recruit program, in which graduate students compete for summer positions, which then become the basis for recruitment to permanent positions.
From page 177...
... This initiative must be driven by senior LC management and led jointly by the Human Resources Services Directorate and the heads of the Library's major service units. Recommendation: Current staff of the National Digital Library Program should be aggressively recruited for retention and assimilation into the broader Library staff.
From page 178...
... Finding: Additional learning opportunities for LC staff could come through internships at other organizations and through linkages to professionals in every part of the Library. Opportunities for learning could also be created by rotating personnel out for temporary duty in congruent government agencies.
From page 179...
... Recommendation: Human resources staff both in the Human Resources Services Directorate and within the major service units should become agents of change and business partners more rapidly than is foreseen in the HR21 plan. COORDINATION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY VISION, STRATEGY, AND STANDARDS 179 The committee's charge raised fundamental questions about how decisions on the application of information technology to the Library's mission are framed and made.
From page 180...
... For example, the Law Library goes separately to lets to seek resources to support its GLIN project. The committee does not see any programmatic vision in LC as a whole that is capable of looking at GLIN and seeing the strong connections between that worthy but underfunded digitization project and ways to link it with activities in other units, such as Library Services, CRS, or the NDLP, to the mutual advantage of all.
From page 181...
... Given restrictions on salary within the civil service and the allure of the dot-coin world, the experience of other federal agencies in recruiting and retaining appropriate CIOs has been mixed at best.~3 Organizations of similar size in the not-for-profit sector typically pay two-thirds to twice again as much for a CIO as LC can nav and the private sector pays much V 1 ~ more. Most strikingly, libraries typically do not have chief information officers.
From page 182...
... No one within the Library is explicitly looking at technology and technical trends, envisioning where technology will be 5 years out. No one is bringing that vision to the major service units and content innovators and saying to them, "This is what IT could bring to you in 5 years;
From page 183...
... The THOMAS initiative to distribute congressional material publicly came from the Speaker of the House of Representatives, not from LC. The current lets Directorate and staff are not well suited to provide technical vision, strategy, or technical leadership for the Library.
From page 184...
... 184 LC 21: A DIGITAL STRATEGY FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS the digital age. It would also provide strategic technical Winking for the Library.
From page 185...
... from around the country and the world. These individuals would come to LC for, say, 6 months or a year to work on projects from which they would create work of value to the library profession as a whole, develop their own careers, and, by interacting with appropriate LC staff, catalyze Me technology thinking and practice of the organization.~5 Findings and Recommendations Finding: Current decision making at the Library regarding information technology is neither transparent nor strategic.
From page 186...
... Recommendation: The Library should create a limited number of visiting research positions in areas such as digital libraries and digital archiving and preservation. EXECUlTIVE MANAGEMENT It is no longer possible, if it ever was, for senior management of large organizations to regard information technology as a black box to be controlled and managed by technologists.
From page 187...
... The committee has some reservations about whether the government sector is the only place to look for external management expertise LC was notably successful with two of its relatively recent senior management appointments precisely because it went outside the government sectorbut regardless of those reservations, this office will clearly add a layer of bureaucracy and will have little of substantive strategic value to offer. The PMED office will be challenged to demonstrate that it adds value congruent with the direct and indirect costs it imposes (indirect costs: time and effort spent by other Library units in complying with PMED procedures)
From page 188...
... At the Executive Committee retreat on October 31 and November 1 1999, the Operations Committee was formed, to be chaired by the deputy librarian; it replaced the Senior Management Reporting Group and is intended to serve as a forum for senior programmatic and infrastructure managers to solve problems and share information. The Executive Committee delegated operational decisions directly to the Operations Committee.
From page 189...
... (The committee observes also that during the tenure of the present librarian, links between LC and the rest of the national and international library community have been forged at and below the level of major service unit heads, for example, at the Library Services or Law Library level. The strategic heart of i6In particular, the committee believes that the Law Library, the Copyright Office, and CRS all have an important stake in the same "digital future" that is addressed by the Digital Futures Group.
From page 190...
... Similarly, the Office of the Librarian functions best as the recipient and manager of information coming up from all across the Library about what is happening and what is possible. An easy and effective flow of communication about IT initiatives and possibilities from the Office of the Librarian to the whole of the senior management team and to the Library beyond is vital, but the communication must be bidirectional and must be a constantly reinforcing source of new ideas, clarified vision, and refined application of technology in the service of LC's users.
From page 191...
... The second phase of the ILS implementation expects to reengineer the core Library Services functions; however, that phase not only should involve attention to the processes directly affected by the ILS but also should be considered an opportunity for institution-wide reengineering. Many of the workflows of the Library could profitably be investigated.
From page 192...
... The Copyright Office and the interface between it and Library Services is the first place that deserves attention. Recommendation: The committee recommends that the Library publish, by January 1, 2001' its own review of this report and an outline of the agenda that the Library will pursue.


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