CUL Priority Objectives

Notes from Discussion Groups: Objective 9. Identify the skills and resources needed for library innovation and develop new competencies by training and recruiting.

Group #2887
Facilitator: Elaine Westbrooks
Note-taker: Lee LaFleur
LMT: Karen Calhoun
Attending: Jean Callihan, Kathy Chiang, Angela Horn, Mihoko Hosoi, Jesse Konnecke, Deb Lamb-Deans, Susan Markowitz, Thomas Mills, Matthew Morrison, Rich Strassberg, Debra Warfield, Iris Wolley

The objective and Implementation

One early comment stated that the objective should be focused less on the skills needed for library “innovation” but more on the skills needed for the survival of the library as an institution. On a broader level, this comment was intended to emphasize the importance of skill and competency development beyond innovation. A follow up comment suggested that perhaps the term innovation was more indicative of the competitive nature of CUL, in which innovation was also a key factor in maintaining the status of CUL as a research library.
Another more general comment questioned the stated time of “five years”, indicating the ultimate need for ongoing skill development in the longer term.
In moving onto the discussion of needed skills and competencies, there was a question about whether we should be identifying “actual” individual skills, which would be numerous to name, or talking more generally about methods for identifying skills and competencies.
In response, there was a suggestion that the group could probably come up with more general categories of skills, but ultimately there seemed to be agreement that generating a list of individual skills was perhaps beyond the scope of this meeting.
The group shared ideas for identifying categories of skills and suggested that existing documents like the Cornell Staff Skills for Success or Job, and Band (E, F, etc.) descriptions could be used to guide this process. There was also a suggestion that members of CUL functional groups and project teams might also be able to provide insight on needed and important skills as well as gaps in existing skills that need to be developed.
One member commented that much of the existing skills/technology training on campus is poor.
Another commented that managerial and time management skills form a needed skill set that often impact both recruitment and retention of other employees.
Someone else suggested that training only helps if staff actually have the opportunity to use it in a timely fashion afterward, and commented on the value (and intricacies) of training at the time of need was discussed.
The discussion turned to the importance of and methods for inventorying existing skills among CUL staff, as well as the pros and cons of this approach.
It was suggested that while certain staff members may possess a given skill they may not have the time to apply it due to their other work responsibilities.
One participant also commented that skills should be hired not diverted, suggesting that employees who have certain skills may not want to be pulled out of their existing jobs to use those skills in support of other tasks.
In response, however, another comment highlighted that some employees both enjoy and benefit from this type of job flexibility, but that it should be included in the job description whenever possible.
Overall the group seemed to agree that some sort of inventory of existing skills would be worthwhile for CUL.

Potential Partners

In discussing potential partners, it was suggested that professional organizations (including those outside of the library) and Cornell Human Resources would be good candidates to aide the library in inventorying and identifying skills. One participant also suggested using faculty and students in departments like ILR to aide the Library in the process of identifying skills. ILR professor Scott Snell, whose specialty is in “Human Capital” studies, was mentioned.
The Syracuse School for Information Studies (SIS) was also mentioned as a partner in providing training.
Someone suggested that better awareness and publicity of existing training opportunities was needed.
There was also a comment that the library should also be vocal about influencing the type of training and curriculum offered by library schools including SIS.

Measures of Success

The group discussed ways in which the library could determine what skills would be needed five years from now.

It was suggested that one way of assessing this would be to consider they types of projects the library would want to be working on.
Someone suggested that one measure of success was simply to do a project and to see if it came out well. Another member complemented this suggestion by commenting that being successful the second time around was a measure of success and cited the success of the Voyager implementation versus that of NOTIS before it as a success.
There was also some discussion of a need for outcomes and examples for competencies. One member commented that after each project, groups should be debriefed to find out their impressions on how the project went and what they would do differently given the chance.
- The conversation then turned to differences in competency and skill development between professional and paraprofessional staff. A couple of people in our group emphasized that these should be similar if not the same.
- One member of the group highlighted that staff development plans during employee reviews serve a skill development function. Staff members both professional and non- should be indicating their goals and interests for skill development as part of their annual reviews. Each year during the follow up review, their success should be reviewed and noted.
- Yet another member of the group commented that promotion was another measure of success and that for paraprofessional, graduating into an MLS Program might too be a marker.
Near the end of our time, there was a brief discussion about recruitment, impending retirements and “succession planning”.
Apprenticeships and a training program for non-MLS post-docs were among the suggestions for recruitment.
With regards to succession planning, one suggestion was for the library to look at the skills we would be losing through retirement in the coming years and seek to train, identify or recruit for them.

Additional comments received after the session

The library should "Ensure that staff have time to examine innovative
ideas that may not be specifically being pursued by the library at the
moment."
The library should use "participation in projects as a way
to train people."
Unless there are adequate funds and clear administraive and managerial support Priority 9 cannot happen."