Change Implementation – Managing the Transition of a Librarian Service Towards a Sustainable Future

ABSTRACT

An essential component of the academic knowledge infrastructure is the services provided by the library to its community of students, staff, and stakeholders. The University of Queensland library recently transitioned from a service model of individual discipline focused librarians to one where Outreach Librarians and Learning & Research Librarians deliver services with an explicit team approach, enabling the future vision of the Library to be seen as an essential component of the academic knowledge infrastructure of UQ. The transition took place over an extended 18-month period, with ten project groups formed from the librarian group to focus on service review and to reconsider the operational processes to implement the required changes. This paper is about the whole approach of transition to change, and the intention of sharing so others will find practical help, as methodical management of the transition was a key factor to enable the change.

KEYWORDS:

• change
• managing change
• librarian
• sustainable
• academic library; library services

Acknowledgements

The authors of this paper would like to acknowledge the contribution of our colleagues in the Transition Team – Jackie Devenish, Jane Moore and Michael Whiteway. We would also like to acknowledge colleagues from the Library – Caroline Williams, Amberyn Thomas, Julie Oates, Lucy Behm, Felicity Berends, Rachael Harrison, Thomas Palmer and Tracey Powell, and many thanks to the entire Librarian team who all contributed and provided feedback to the work.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Larkin

Maria Larkin has worked at the University of Queensland Library since 2015 in various roles, including as Liaison Librarian for the Agriculture and Food Science and Veterinary Science schools. Maria worked on the transition project, and is now a Faculty Service Team member, engaging as an Outreach Librarian with the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at UQ.

Loretta Atkinson

Loretta Atkinson joined the University of Queensland Library in 2004 and since that time has worked in a range of roles across the Library. Most recently Loretta worked on a project focussing on client-facing activities and services to transition the liaison librarian model to a team-based approach for collaborating and partnering with stakeholders. Loretta is currently the Senior Manager, Faculty Services Librarian team outreaching with the Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine.