Planning for success: repurposing, retooling and reprioritising with results

Libraries are highly dynamic workplaces which must respond to changing environmental, social and technological trends. Therefore, libraries have changed significantly over time. Formerly librarians served as guardians and providers of knowledge, they now serve as teachers who facilitate information resource usage. As librarians' roles are increasingly complex, involving emerging technologies and exponential knowledge growth, organizations must provide lifelong learning strategies if workplace performance outcomes are to satisfy present and potential stakeholder communities. A multi-faceted organizational system emerged out of an inclusive one year strategic planning process. One result is the creation of a user-centered information literacy program that has both knowledge management and instructional resources components. These parts comprise a decision support system which furthers the continuous improvement of the campus' information literacy instruction efforts. This organizational strategy ensures that librarians capture insights generated through conversations with faculty and students, both before and after instructional episodes. In addition, librarians purposefully learn from their interactions with each other, as they experiment with new approaches, because 'successes' are also captured in their knowledge database. The co-authors will present the organizational planning process including resultant repurposing, retooling, and reprioritizing. The new leadership role of the library management team will be explained. Also, the new information literacy and learning librarian's role in encouraging continuous improvement will be illustrated in light of the ongoing evaluation process. Finally, the efficacy of this organizational approach for reframing the past and newly framing the future will be explored through presentation of an outside evaluator's results, to be completed in November 2007. While discussion will focus on tertiary TAFE campus contexts, the authors will propose that this learning system, based in dialogue and fostered by evidence, is transferable to other institutional settings.