ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 640/C&RL News Staffing a W eb-based inform ation system By Anita Lowry, Paul Soderdahl, and Barbara I. Dewey The University o f Iowa Libraries- Wide Information System T he University of Iowa Libraries, like many research libraries throughout the country, is developing a Web-based information system for delivering information, communicating with clients, facilitating use of the Internet and other electronic resources, and as a teaching tool. This article describes an action-oriented team structure developed to implement the Univer­ sity of Iowa Libraries-Wide Information System (LWIS). Our approach takes into consideration the fact that we do not have sufficient staff to devote solely to this project. Therefore, a struc­ ture was designed to take advantage of staff expertise and knowledge and provide a “part- time” opportunity for many people to contrib­ ute to the development of LWIS. (Ed. note: Visit the UI Web site at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/.) Creating LWIS LWIS is an integrated and expandable system that makes use o f the World Wide Web to de­ liver information generated by the libraries and to direct users, via a gateway, to information obtainable through the Internet. LWIS is a key part o f the new University o f Iowa Campus- Wide Information System. Currently, LWIS con­ tains four main sections: • University of Iowa Libraries Information; • Gateway to the Internet; • OASIS (University o f Iowa Libraries on­ line catalog); and • University of Iowa Home Page. Technically sophisticated development work on LWIS, headquartered in the libraries’ award- winning Information Arcade, has already been accomplished by Paul Soderdahl, team leader for LWIS and multimedia (MM), and other staff from throughout the library system.1 Ongoing work needs to be done to expand LWIS, add important information links, and move the sys­ tem forward as new technological innovations occur. However, harnessing scarce human re­ sources to quickly and efficiently expand LWIS to its full potential is a continuing challenge. To this end, Anita Lowry, former head o f infor­ mation, research, and instructional services (IRIS), and Paul Soderdahl developed an orga­ nization plan to enable LWIS to reach its full potential. (Ed. note: Anita Lowry died last July.) The plan was reviewed by the libraries’ gov­ erning bodies and is now in place. The archi­ tecture fits with the Libraries commitment to a fluid, team-based organization that can work quickly and change rapidly as needs arise. Staff, working within the new structure, are now ad­ dressing the following areas identified as high priority for the LWIS for the immediate future: • Educating libraries’ staff about LWIS (pro­ grams for this purpose, offered during fall 1995 were planned by Janice Simmons-Welburn, co­ ordinator for personnel and diversity services). • Increasing the amount of information pro­ vided by LWIS and ensuring that it is accurate, up-to-date, and presented in appropriate for­ mats (e.g., expanded homepages for all library departments, inclusion of the Libraries News­ letter and other librarywide information, more “links” in the Gateway to the Internet, etc.). The late Anita Lowry was head of information, research, and instructional services at the University of Iowa; Paul Soderdahl is acting team leader of LWIS and multimedia at UI, e-mail: paul-soderdahl@ uiowa.edu; and Barbara I. Dewey is director of information and research services at UI, e-mail: barbara­ dewey@uiowa.edu. http://unvw.lib.uiowa.edu/ November 1996/641 642/C&RL News • Expanding the offerings and capabilities o f LWIS in the areas of interactive user educa­ tion (e.g., Library Explorer, a SuperCard-based library instruction program), interactive services (e.g., forms for interlibrary loan and reserve material requests), the Gateway to the Internet (e.g., making it keyword-searchable), and the interface with OASIS and interaction user edu­ cation. A particularly important goal is to con­ vert Library Explorer so that it is accessible through LWIS. Library Explorer is a sophisti­ cated hypermedia tutorial designed to help stu­ dents learn to choose information sources and finding tools appropriate to their purpose, lo­ cate books and other materials using the on­ line catalog and the card catalog, as well as find periodical and newspaper articles using electronic and print indexes and abstracts. It was created by staff members from the Univer­ sity Libraries and Information Technology Ser­ vices. A grant from the University o f Iowa Com­ munity Credit Union made the conversion possible. D evelo ping LWIS The organizational structure described below was created to support a significant LWIS develop­ ment effort during 1995–96. Approximately 42 individuals including librarians, technologists, library support staff, and nonlibrary staff, the equivalent of about 4.25 FTE staff are working on the project. Their work is designed to: • establish basic policies and guidelines for the design and use of LWIS; • provide expert and timely advice on is­ sues o f policy and procedure to the team leader for LWIS and multimedia; • move forward quickly with the develop­ ment and implementation of a graphical “wel­ come screen,” updated and enhanced home­ pages for individual libraries and departments as well as for the libraries as a whole, an ex­ panded Gateway to the Internet, the conver­ sion of Library Explorer, and the OASIS-LWIS connections; • increase staff knowledge o f and involve­ ment with LWIS; • effectively provide three levels o f sup­ port for staff contributing to LWIS including: 1) helping train library staff how to select, create, markup, and place materials directly into LWIS themselves; 2) helping train library staff how to select, create, and markup materials for LWIS, but having Information Arcade staff put the materials into LWIS; and 3) helping train library staff how to create documents in appropriate electronic formats (via word-processing or scan­ ning), but having Information Arcade staff pro­ vide the necessary markup and/or hypertext scripting for LWIS and having them put the materials into LWIS. The n e w o rg a n iz a tio n a l structure The following individuals and groups were identified to carry out activities leading to suc­ cessful completion o f LWIS goals: LWIS liaison: liaison between the LWIS Advisory Group and Executive Council. The coliaisons are the director of information and research services and the director of informa­ tion systems and technology. Team leader for LWIS and multimedia (IRIS): manages LWIS and oversees policy de­ velopment, planning, and implementation of the system. Duties include chairing the LWIS Advisory Group; working closely with mem­ bers of the LWIS working groups and other librarians providing information on LWIS; de­ signing and implementing new uses of the LWIS for information delivery and user education; acting as system administrator; performing soft­ ware and hardware installation and trouble­ shooting; providing training and technical sup­ port for staff; and giving presentations, teaching instructional sessions, and leading workshops on use o f the system. This person will also participate in the Campus Home Page Design Team and serve in liaison and advisory capaci­ ties to the University Campus-Wide Informa­ tion System. LWIS Advisory Group: chaired by the team leader, this group consists of librarians from each o f the working groups (noted below) and addresses major LWIS-wide issues, such as de­ signing the welcome screen for public work­ stations, approving guidelines for departmen­ tal homepages and for gateway resource selection, using LWIS as an interface to elec­ tronic resources including OASIS, making rec­ ommendations regarding staff and user educa­ tion, and promoting LWIS. When necessary, individual working groups will bring recom­ mendations to the Advisory Group for approval, and the Advisory Group will identify those is­ sues that need to come before Executive Council for consideration. The Advisory Group can also advise the team leader on creating additional working groups and disbanding unneeded working groups and will help to ensure that efforts o f working groups are not duplicative. November 1996/643 LW IS w o r k in g g ro u p s fo r 1 9 9 5 –9 6 The LWIS Working Groups, small expert teams, each concentrate on a particular aspect o f LWIS. Their mandate is to encourage and facilitate contributions o f information and ideas from appropriate libraries staff, to make recommen­ dations for changes and enhancements to the areas they are coordinating, and, in some cases, actually to put information into LWIS. Each working group consists o f one or two librar­ ians and an Information Arcade consultant (or the team leader for LWIS and MM). The pur­ pose o f these working groups is to “encourage, initiate, and facilitate,” not to “control,” and they work with other staff members throughout the libraries. The team leader for LWIS and multi- media may disband individual working groups as their work is completed and may form other working groups in response to needs for de­ velopment work in other areas o f LWIS. Main Library Homepage & General Li­ braries Pages: this group is responsible for de­ veloping guidelines for library homepages (in collaboration with the Working Group on De­ partment Home Pages), designing the home­ pages for the Main Library and for the Univer­ sity Libraries, creating the navigational structure for how users access general information about the libraries (including items such as the reor­ ganization report, newsletter, Friends o f the Library information, librarywide announce­ ments, etc.), and designing a routine to ensure that those pages remain accurate and current. Members include a special collections librar­ ian, a user education librarian for Hardin Health Sciences Library, and an Information Arcade consultant. Department Homepages: this group is re­ sponsible for developing guidelines for library homepages (in collaboration with the Working Group on the Main Library Homepage), ensur­ ing that each o f the departmental units are rep­ resented on LWIS, meeting with librarians from the various units to discuss the different levels o f support available (levels 1– 3 above), and providing guidelines to ensure that the pages remain current, accurate, and maintain a con­ sistent look and feel. Members include the head o f the Business Library, the electronic services team liaison for health sciences, and two Infor­ mation Arcade consultants. Gateway to the Internet: this group is re­ sponsible for creating and maintaining a pro­ cedure for gateway selectors to add and re­ move items from the Gateway to the Internet and to oversee that the gateway links remain current, as well as designing the user interface for accessing the gateway (including the layout o f the pages, the navigational scheme, and whatever search interfaces might be desired). This group is also responsible for developing the “general” sections o f the gateway and for assisting selectors in identifying and organiz­ ing links to resources for the subject section of the gateway. Members include the humanities bibliographer, the head o f information, research, and instructional services, and two Information Arcade consultants. Library Explorer: this group is responsible for porting Library Explorer from a stand-alone Macintosh application to LWIS (including pro­ posing any interface changes that might be desired or necessitated) and for updating Li­ brary Explorer as needed. Members include the user education coordinator and an Information Arcade consultant. Access Services: this group is responsible for creating homepages for the various access services units, and designing and implement­ ing interactive forms (including forms for on­ line renewal, recall, retrieve and hold storage items, interlibrary loan, and reserve). Members include the coordinator for access services and the team leader for LWIS and multimedia. OASIS-LWIS Connections: this group is responsible for creating the navigational struc­ ture for OASIS (the libraries’ online catalog) user education documents on LWIS and design­ ing a system to ensure that those pages remain accurate and current, as well as examining the issues and alternatives for using LWIS to search OASIS and other bibliographic databases. Mem­ bers include the head o f the OASIS Office and the team leader for LWIS and multimedia. Staff Education: this group is responsible for developing ways to use LWIS to provide information and materials for staff education. Members include the coordinator for person­ nel and diversity programs and the team leader for LWIS and multimedia. LWIS Technical Support: this group en­ sures appropriate technical support for the project. It consists o f a document markup as­ sistant to provide html markup support for LWIS materials, a gateway links assistant who regu­ larly verifies that all gateway links are active and notifies the Gateway to the Internet Work­ ing Group when “broken” links are discovered, a technical support assistant to provide assis- (.Staffing cont. on page 650) 650/ C&RL News clean off your desk regularly, you will usually know where to find something in a hurry. 2) Handle each piece of paper or file only once, if possible. To avoid procrastination, use the measles method: every time you handle a piece o f paper, put a dot in the comer. This gives a powerful visual clue to move things along, especially after three or four dots appear.2 3) As you examine each piece of paper or file received, decide which should be kept, referred or delegated to someone else, or tossed in the trash. Put those items needing action into three piles for efficient handling such as A (ur­ gent), B (soon), and C (reading).3 The A items will usually relate to high-priority tasks. 4) Promptly file important papers and other items that need to be retained after noting any actions already taken and the date. Each time you add new material to a file, take a minute to dispose o f superseded items. Keep only items you expect to need in the future. W h a t o th e r tim e m a n a g e m e n t sk ills a r e u se fu l? There are many ways to find time for high- priority responsibilities and tasks. Some librar­ ians work at home one day a week, while oth­ ers schedule several mornings a week to work on major projects. Here are some additional suggestions: 1) Set aside large blocks of time to allow for uninterrupted work on your highest priority tasks. Use self-discipline to push secondary mat­ ters aside. Estimate how many hours are needed to wrestle with a project, and then take the necessary time to finish it. 2) Minimize unnecessary interruptions by setting fixed times when you will have a “closed door” policy. Post these hours to avoid being interrupted when you want to concentrate on a project. If drop-in visitors arrive, have an in­ terruption-beating phrase rehearsed in advance, such as, “I’m busy now, I’ll get back to you.” 3) Learn to say “no” to low-payoff tasks and activities that are not compatible with your own personal goals and priorities, or those o f the library. If this is difficult, practice in front o f a mirror. It often helps to briefly explain your rationale when declining someone’s request, or to offer them alternative options. 4) Avoid procrastination when tasks need to be done. Focus on only one high-priority task at a time. Break the task into individual components and concrete steps, and then plan a schedule for completing the project. Start on one small, identifiable portion and reward your­ self after each accomplishment. 5) Use visible reminders or give yourself a penalty by agreeing to give up something if you do not start your task by a certain time. Conclusion Although time management is not a panacea for many o f the problems plaguing librarians in the 20th century, using these techniques can help you gain increased satisfaction from work. Time management skills can also help librar­ ians deal more effectively with job stresses and assist with balancing professional and personal priorities. Ultimately, librarians who use effec­ tive time management techniques can become more productive, thereby experiencing in­ creased self-esteem and career satisfaction. N otes 1. Lynne Wenig, The A to Z o f Time Manage­ ment (Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1993), 49. 2. J. Wesley Cochran, Time Management Handbook f o r Librarians (N ew York: Green­ wood, 1992), 37. 3. Dian Walster, Managing Time: A How-to- Do-It Manual f o r Librarians (New York: Neal- Schuman, 1993), 94. ■ (Staffing cont. from page 643) tance with Web systems administration, back­ ups, implementation of new software, markup and scripting, etc. Information Arcade student assistants are assigned to these activities. S u m m a ry The organizational structure described here has enabled the libraries to move forward in LWIS development. A new libraries homepage, a de­ partmental libraries homepage template, a new Gateway to the Internet, the converted Library Explorer Program, revised Information Arcade homepages, and a new staff Web site (which provides a way for library administrative of­ fices and departments to publish data for use within their units and throughout the libraries) were unveiled at the spring 1996 Staff Tech­ nology Fair. LWIS development is truly a systemwide accomplishment for the University o f Iowa Libraries. N ote 1. The Information Arcade name is regis­ tered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.