By Scott Muir
Rowan University recently incorporated two medical schools. One is a new medical school affiliated with Cooper University Hospital and called Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU). The other school, once part of the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey [UMDNJ], is now know as the Rowan School of Osteopathic Medicine (Rowan SOM). CMSRU, located in downtown Camden, admitted its first class in August, 2012 and now has a total enrollment of 114 students. Rowan SOM, located in Stratford, has an enrollment of over 600 students."The impacts of these changes on the Rowan University Libraries have been profound. We now have colleagues on two additional campuses. The staff size increased by 50%, going from just under 40 employees to over 60. Having come from an organization that merged the libraries on four campuses into a single entity, I am familiar with many of the considerations. While my experience involved merging four administratively separate campuses of the same organization and this merger involved libraries from previously separate organizations – those principles of merging still apply.
The importance of communication
One of the most important lessons learned from my previous experience is that the need for frequent and regular communication cannot be understated. Some experts suggest that a message must be given as many as eight times before it is thoroughly heard by all parties. One strategy we have been using to improve communication is monthly staff meetings. For logistical reasons, these staff meetings typically are held on each of the three campuses; although we recently held our first meeting with representatives from all three campuses, allowing our Provost to speak about the changes underway at Rowan University. These changes include not only the merger of the two additional campuses, but the state’s designation of Rowan as a research university, and the President’s vision for planned student population growth to essentially double enrollment by the year 2023.
Teams and committees to improve communication
One of the big challenges we face is how to redesign the website to incorporate a new sense of identity. Previously, Rowan University Libraries was known as Library Services and represented two libraries - the Campbell Library and the Music Library - both located on the Glassboro campus. They primarily served a mostly undergraduate population.
Now with an increasing number of graduate programs, and two medical libraries, one allopathic and one osteopathic, the need for a new identity is critical. We must determine how to represent ourselves as a single entity, and yet at the same time, allow each of our campus libraries to maintain its distinctive identity. Students at each of our campus libraries need to be able to easily identify where they are when navigating the Libraries’ website.
“Leading in complex times,” a recent blog post from the Harvard Business Review, stresses the important role of diverse, collaborative teams. We are strengthening representation on teams already in place to resolve problems such as those with our website, and creating new teams with representatives from all libraries. Each of these committees and groups have an implicit charge of improving how we work together, communicate, and collaborate as Rowan University Libraries.
The first new committee formed was the Collections Steering Committee. This committee will look at electronic journals and databases, and purchase of back files. They will not look at the purchase of individual monographic titles. This committee is charged with evaluating resources and how they integrate across all of our campuses. Our goal is to offer the same resources to all of our students, regardless of their location. We also plan to incorporate increased usage data in our decision making and evaluation processes.
We have also recently formed a Library Leadership Team. This team is charged with advising the Associate Provost for Libraries on issues related to vision and future directions. It will hear reports from the various teams and committees and will eventually lead a new strategic planning process. The team will also work with data and assessment in making decisions about the Libraries’ future.
A need was also identified for an Access Services committee. This committee will be looking at issues across all campuses related to interlibrary loan and document delivery, and those of traditional circulation of materials. Policies that were established for the single campus environment need to be revaluated in our new multi-campus environment. This team will document what policies apply in our more matrix like environment and they will look to ways of improving access to requested resources.
Communication and workflows
One area that experienced overwhelming change was that of technical services functions. A number of staff changes and previous losses severely impacted the ability to deliver services as effectively as is needed. The lack of effective communication was clearly evident in the breakdown of workflows. Improvements are especially critical since we are supporting the continued growth in electronic resources and the need to provide access in a manner that does not impact patient care as a component of excellent customer service. This is vital since Rowan University will also continue to provide library services to Cooper Hospital as part of the merger agreement. Work is underway with two consultants to investigate current workflows, recommend changes and specific staff additions, and to prepare for the University’s expectations of a move toward more electronic resources.
Another big challenge we face is to facilitate how we can best work together across of distance of several miles. It is not always feasible to travel to another site for a meeting. We are investigating telecommunication technologies such as video-conferencing to allow us to meet together, even when we are not in the same location.
In an environment of major change, it is vital to understand the best practices and ideas of all libraries before deciding on new models to provide service. We need to listen to our colleagues and share our common and separate experiences to move ourselves to a continuously improving environment. We all have gained a wider diversity of resources and we have greatly increased our pool of talented librarians and staff. Rowan University is becoming a campus in when constant change will become normal. The libraries are preparing to meet those challenges in a growing and changing university at a time when the entire environment of scholarly communications is also undergoing tremendous change.
Scott Muir is Associate Provost of Library Information Services at the Campbell Library at Rowan University.