Abstract
1) Why did you do this activity, project, research?
To address a recognised need in workforce development, a committee of the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL) facilitated the establishment of the Value and Impact community of practice (the community) between 2016 and 2017. The aim being to create a structure that allows those working in Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand university libraries to promote best practice and build common capability in planning, performance, evaluation, and measurement across a range of activity.
2) How did you do this?
Membership was (and is) extended to those with roles focusing on quality, standards, analytics, communications, or marketing and those with an interest in developing their understanding of these topics. To set boundaries and expectations members operate within a ‘term of reference’ and volunteer to facilitate online meetings which are held every six weeks. These activities are supplemented by a web site and email list serve. A core group of members play a guardianship role to oversee the operations and liaise with CAUL.
In walking the talk, an annual survey of members gathers performance measures that are reported to CAUL with examples of specific benefits and shared initiatives. Feedback is used to improve the operations of the community and determine topics for upcoming meetings. The data and manaakitanga (support and care for each other) has driven these librarians to meet regularly as a community.
3) What did you discover? What are the limitations?
Meetings offer a chance for a ‘round robin’ to share practice and trouble shoot, or instead cover a special topic with members or visiting experts presenting and facilitating discussion. Information sharing sessions are popular, members are generous, and competition and hierarchy are not evident. At least 75% of the membership consistently report that they have contact with members of the community outside of the meetings and that the community contributes to building their capability.
4) How have findings been applied? What lessons did you learn? What is the potential value to the wider performance measurement/assessment/user experience library community?
In acknowledging the additional workload that the community activities require, the guardians are currently working with CAUL to hand over administrative overheads. To date, CAUL’s support is in offering efficiencies and embedding maturity to operations.
The community’s operating template and lessons learned will be of value to those seeking to build community beyond a one-off professional development engagement. This talk will inspire delegates to extend the energy and enlightenment from this conference into their practice to develop similar initiatives.