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SCC Library, 5-Year Program Review: 2014-2019

Written by SCC Library faculty; submitted July 2019 to the SCC Library Dean and VP of Instruction

Principle 7: Management/Administration/Leadership

Libraries engage in continuous planning and assessment to inform resource allocation and to meet their mission effectively and efficiently.

Discussion

For the past several years, CCS Library Services has been under the administration of the District. As such, it’s been required that our strategic planning outcomes align with the District’s mission and values, not those of the college. At the start of each year, outcomes and key performance indicators have been established. Library faculty and administration have participated in the annual revision of the CCS Libraries Strategic Plan (2016-2018). 

Performance Indicator 7.2 
Library personnel participate in campus decision making needed for effective library management.

During the time that Library Services has been under the administration of the District, our director has had individual meetings with the president, but hasn't participated in dean's meetings at SCC. Library faculty serve on various committees which play a role in campus decision making such as SCC Core Theme Teams, Tech Fee Committee, Council of Chairs, and Instructional Leadership Council. Though faculty have not served on the Facilities Committee, we would like the opportunity to do so.

Performance Indicator 7.4 
The Library's budget is sufficient to provide resources to meet the reasonable expectations of Library users when balanced against other institutional needs.

Several problems surrounding the SCC Library budget have had a negative impact on the library's ability to provide resources:

  • Due, in part, to issues resulting from the implementation of CTC Link, we have been unable to determine an actual budget amount for several years.
  • Librarians were not informed about the budget estimate which our administration was using to make decisions.

  • Under the umbrella of the District, annual funds available were either flat or decreased each year; the decisions made about resource allocations and personnel in response to budget cuts did not include formal input from campus constituents. 
  • Decisions to renew individual databases or purchase individual resources were made ad-hoc and without full context of the collection as a whole or the full budget. Discussions with administration regarding budget resulted in the creation of annual “wish lists” but did not address the complexity of comprehensive, long-term collection planning.
  • Annual increases in the price of digital resource subscriptions combined with our flat/decreasing budget resulted in trade-offs that were not well-planned.
  • Internal decision-making processes of library administration compounded the lack of clarity about budget planning for resources, and student library fees were spent without regard for the fee's college of origin.
  • Additional funding sources from the colleges may have been unavailable to the library due to our district affiliation. As an example, regular replacement rotation cycles for student laptops have been interrupted; currently, we're unaware of plans to support regular replacement of these heavily used laptops upon which students depend.

Uncertainty about the budget and lack of transparency about allocation decisions have left librarians unable to conscientiously develop the collection. We have concerns about the currency and subject balance of the physical collection, and about the coordination of digital resources whose subscription renewals don't synchronize with the budget cycle.

Recommendations

Budget

  • Develop a system where transparent and timely budget information is available at-will for planning and decision-making.
  • Streamline digital subscriptions to coincide with the budget timeline for more effective planning.
  • Where the current budget is insufficient, identify and procure external funding for projects and resources.

Strategic planning

  • Engage in strategic planning which is aligned with the college's needs and which meaningfully informs student-centered library services.

Functionally, the library's annual, District-aligned strategic planning was not seen by library personnel as informing the provision of student-centered services. Going forward, we wish to engage in planning which is more meaningful.

Because the recently announced library reorganization (May 2019) will return the administration of the library to the college, we anticipate facing no impediments to aligning our departmental outcomes with the mission, values, themes, and college-wide learning outcomes of SCC instead of with the CCS District's operational values.