The legislative language requires the
identification of recommended staffing for the new organization, including roles and
responsibilities.
The plan must also include a strategy for creating the new organization and transitioning
FCLA and CCLA services with the least
disruption to library users and library operations. There are several key steps and milestones required to create the new organization as illustrated in the timeline.
Strategic Plan
Values
User needs drive the design of library services.
Goals
Florida’s academic libraries have the capacity and agility to respond to emerging technologies.
The new organization cannot legally be formed until legislative action is taken, making July 1, 2012, the most likely start date for official activities. However, there are key activities that must occur between when the plan is submitted on January 1, 2012, and when the organizational activities can officially begin.
As soon as possible after submitting this plan, the Chancellors should charter a transition team. The Interim Director, as detailed in Section 5, Governance, page 16 should lead this transition team.
The transition team should begin the advance planning and setup required of the new
organization. This team should also conduct the tactical and detailed work associated with implementing the tasks contained in this plan, while at the same time ensuring a smooth transition of services and resources from FCLA and CCLA to the new organization.
The transition team must address a number of critical legal, fiscal, contractual, and human resources issues that are inherent in a
transformation of this magnitude. These issues, identified in Section 10, Proposed Operational Budget, page 62, all have fiscal ramifications. The transition team should consist of no more than 10 members, with equal representation from both university and college sectors including:
The Interim Director,
Representatives from the Chancellors’ offices,
Institutional representation, CCLA and FCLA executive staff.
Legal, human resource, and fiscal experts from both the FCS and SUS will need to supplement the team’s efforts.
In parallel with these transition efforts, the transition team should conduct activities associated with naming and branding the new organization. Because the organization will support all public institutions of higher education in Florida in a new way, and will receive national recognition and attention, the name and
branding of the organization must ensure it reflects a fresh, new, and innovative approach. Options for branding efforts include contracting with a private firm, using the existing marketing talent within Florida’s higher education system, or including it as an evaluation factor when selecting the contract institution.
Once the Board of Directors is operationalized, the transition team’s activities will decrease and possibly cease.
Once selected, the new Executive Director should then begin focusing on tasks such as establishing an internal organizational structure, developing position descriptions, establishing policies and procedures, and making staff decisions. These efforts must be based on the proposed guiding principles and the internal functional areas described in this section. At this point, the Executive Director should also
oversee the creation of a detailed internal organizational chart.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
When creating and operating the new
organization, the new Executive Director should adhere to the following guiding principles. REPRESENTATION
The new organization must include libraries of all sizes and missions, ranging from large to small institutions in both rural and
metropolitan areas.
The new organization must support the delivery of library services to all public higher education institutions and their students and faculty.
The new organization should be flexible enough to allow for the potential future inclusion of other organizations, such as private colleges and universities. The new organization must provide
equitable services to all member institutions. FISCAL RESPONSIBILITIES
The new organization must establish accounting and time reporting systems to
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provide its governing, advisory, and legislative stakeholders with return on investment data for each service it delivers. The new organization must continue to seek
statewide funding from the state for the cost- effective procurement of eResources. ACCOUNTABILITY
The new organization must implement new and existing services as approved by the Board of Directors.
The new organization must support the information needs of students, faculty, library staff and administration, and institutional administration.
Transparency, quality, and service must guide the new organization. The new organization must measure its performance by metrics to quantify its outcomes and results.
OPERATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES The new organization should base its
internal structure on the services it delivers. Ongoing and initial project management is
critical to ensure the successful transition of existing services to the new organization and to avoid any lapse in services to library users.
FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION
As the new organization is created, it must support the functional areas identified in the following diagram. The higher education libraries identified this initial set of functional requirements (i.e., core services). Section 7, Functional Requirements, page 35, provides further details.
Content Delivery Digital Collections and Archives Discovery Tool
eResources and eBooks Library Management System
Support Service and Help Desk Statistics and Reporting Training and Consultation
New/Enhanced Services New Initiatives
Other Legislatively Mandated Functions
Product Development and Service Enhancements
Internal Operations Administrative Services Infrastructure Support