The Authority File

How do institutional procurement policies impact spending? When is leasing a good option for libraries? When is buying? What parts of the budget should be allocated on a nine-month versus a twelve-month cycle?

Robert Dugan, co-author of the ACRL title, Financial Management in Academic Libraries: Data-Driven Planning and Budgeting, walks listeners through the warren of budgeting, procurement, and reporting issues surrounding and underlying academic libraries. Using his institution, the University of West Florida, as an example, he discusses how the library helps students navigate textbook affordability, and he provides an insider’s look at his personal internal management information system—the same one he’s been using for decades—to help consolidate reporting into a more streamlined and accessible package.

Why is a library’s budget a political document? Dean of the University Libraries at the University of West Florida and author of the recent book, Financial Management in Academic Libraries, Robert Dugan, explains in this week’s episode that budgets express how library management prioritizes services and programs. Without unlimited resources, libraries have to rank what they do and then commit to doing it based on the funding they receive from the institution. The budget is a statement that promises to use allocated resources to successfully carry out specific services. Further, Dugan explains how to get past the idea that a budget is a constraining document. Rather than stressing out about the lack of funds available to enable all of the services a library must provide, managers, as they become more familiar with their budgets, begin to understand how the budget connects to the strategic plan. In other words, stop fretting about the bottom line. Instead, work with the parts of the budget that can be influenced.

When the decision is made to consolidate the map room or to reallocate the microform and microfiche space to lounge seating, how are those decisions made and why? In this week’s episode, Dean of the University Libraries at the University of West Florida and author of the recent book, Financial Management in Academic Libraries, Robert Dugan, details the process of developing a strategic plan for a university library. He talks about who the stakeholders are, how to develop strategic plans, why they’re important, and he uses his own library’s strategic plan as an example. Dugan also talks through the difference between mission and vision, and how a library’s strategic plan can keep up with a rapidly changing world.

Join us this week for a thoughtful and entertaining discussion on how and why to write a strategic plan for an academic library.

In a world of fluid authorship and textual explosion, the very definition of a document is evolving in unexpected and exciting ways. Old categories give way to new, and items that seemed clearly outside the bounds of textuality are finding their way into the mix. Sound, video, and games all inform our understanding of texts. In this week’s retrospective episode Joe Janes, the author of the book Documents that Changed the Way We Live, offers his perspective on what it means to be a document and talks through the history surrounding the Rosie the Riveter poster and Webster’s Dictionary.

With data breaches like those that struck Equifax, Target, and a host of organizations varying from industrial to governmental, how can libraries best protect their patrons data and, more fundamentally, their privacy? When is it ok to pass along data to a vendor? What policies best reflect the ideals and values of libraries and librarians? In this retrospective episode, Bobbi Newman and Bonnie Tijerina address these issues and many more that face the contemporary librarian.

How do you increase the library’s profile and usefulness for freshmen students? Raymond Pun and Meggan Houlihan, authors of The First Year Experience Cookbook, published by ACRL, offer some ideas on collaborating with other organizations on campus, coordinating activities for freshmen around information literacy, and tools for strengthening librarians’ instructional services. In this special retrospective featuring selected highlights from The Authority File’s many episodes, Bill Mickey, editorial director at Choice, dives into all of that and more.

Leslie Madden, Laura Carscaddon, and Denita Hampton talk with Mark Derks about how library managers can navigate change in their libraries and help their employees approach change with positive attitudes.

Leslie Madden, Laura Carscaddon, and Denita Hampton talk with Mark Derks about constructing work teams and Eileen Wasserman’s methods for respectful interaction in the workplace.

Mark Derks continues his conversation with Leslie Madden, Laura Carscaddon, and Denita Hampton. They discuss the Meyers-Briggs Personality Type test and team-building tips from their experience at Georgia State University Library.

Mark Derks, filling in for Bill Mickey, talks with Leslie Madden, Laura Carscaddon, and Denita Hampton about their recent book, Now You’re a Manager. They share lessons from their journey into management, and how they worked their way up to their current roles.