Writing it all down: the evolution of future-proofing library workflows

Abstract

With resource sharing staff staying an average of 3-5 years, capturing policies and procedures to facilitate onboarding and strengthen institutional memory is key in building consistent workflows. Creating documentation was a multi-stage process executed over several years. Initially, the staff supervisor wrote office policies and assigned staff to write step-by-step guides for common workflows. These were kept in shared storage and evaluated and updated periodically. During pandemic closures, mind-mapping in MindManager aided gap analysis to prioritize areas of the workflow not yet documented. Most recently, this documentation moved into Microsoft Teams which both limits inadvertent alteration and facilitates searchability.

Keywords:

• Workflow documentation
• staff training
• onboarding
• institutional memory
• resource sharing
• interlibrary loan

Disclosure statement

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