Avoiding the ax: how to keep from being downsized or outsourced

Information Outlook, Oct, 1997 by Mary Ellen Bates

There are no guarantees, of course. Some excellent library managers have lost their jobs, despite their best efforts. For those, however, who are in a position in which it is not foreordained that the library is to be dosed, the following may provide some guidance in not only how to prevent the library staff from being downsized or outsourced but also how to strengthen the position of the library for future development.

First, remember that the library always has competition. Whether it's college interns who surf the Net and claim to be able to find "everything you need...for free" or the good old boys' network, there are always alternative sources for information within an organization. In fact, the toughest competition may be the "ignorance is bliss" syndrome, those whom Guy St. Clair calls the "information indifferent" - the people who decide that either they can find the information themselves or that they'll just do without.

And, although information has intrinsic value, no special library or information center is guaranteed its existence. Just because it has been around for years does not guarantee it will be around next year. With the possible exception of academic libraries (since most accrediting programs require an adequate library), no organization has to have a library in order to conduct its business. It may not be able to compete adequately in the long run without a library, but that in itself doesn't guarantee that a library will not be dosed or downsized.

Think Like a CFO

Since every organization has a financial bottom line, it's critical that library managers understand the organization's financial drivers. Is it short-term revenue enhancement? Long-term growth? Is the organization at the top of its niche - the company with the largest market share, the leading association in the field, a government agency that has seen its Congressional support grow? Is the organization expanding in new regions or new markets? What parts of the organization are growing? The answers to these questions will determine where the money will flow within the organization.

Every librarian should be able to read the parent organization's annual report, including the financial footnotes and technical jargon. Read the quarterly reports; read the reports that go out to major stakeholders, whether that's shareholders, financial donors, trustees, or members of Congress. If reading financial reports feels like reading the ingredients on a can of Cheez Whiz, this is a great opportunity to get to know the "shareholder relations" office or equivalent.

Identify the key profit centers within the organization, keeping in mind that even non-profit or not-for-profit organizations have centers that drive, define, and establish the funding for the organization. Decide how the library can become essential to these profit centers and develop a plan to accomplish your goal.

Read the periodicals the executives read. That probably includes The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and one or two major industry magazines. While you don't have to read all of them cover to cover, it's important to at least skim the major stories. Understand the financial environment in which your upper management lives and learn to think that way.

Identify your key executives and, more importantly, identify the person who controls the purse-strings two levels above you. Establish a relationship with that person, and make sure he or she understands what the library does, who it serves, and what your strategic plan for the next three years is. (That plan does reflect the priorities of your organization, doesn't it? And it focuses on the areas that have been identified by the latest annual report as being mission-critical, doesn't it?)

Making the Information Center Downsize-Resistant

Thinking like upper management, you know that it's always better to be part of the revenue-generating side of the organization rather than part of the overhead. If the library is not already associated directly with the income side of the equation, determine how you can define the library itself as a profit center. Can you charge back by the project? How about setting up Information Center Subscriptions, by which subscribing departments or groups get value-added service (in-depth reference services, fast turnaround, proactive environmental monitoring, and so on) and non-subscribers get minimum service? Can you charge back each budget area at the beginning of the fiscal year, based on usage from the past year? Even if this is just internal dollars flowing from one department to another, it establishes the value of the information center and means that you represent a source of income to the executive to whom you report rather than one more place where the budget can be cut if needed.

Identify the key patrons of the library, particularly those who could successfully lobby for you. This doesn't mean the friendly sort who come in every day to read the sports pages; it means the people who depend on the library for their information and who are themselves part of the revenue-generating side of the organization. Form a Library Board of Directors, a Library Brain Trust, or a Library Advisory Council. This group isn't your new boss and it's definitely not a Friends of the Library group. These are members of your SWAT team - the people who remind upper management of how the newest product couldn't have been developed without the research provided by the library; the people who provide you with an early warning system to alert you to new directions of the company or threats to the library; the people who will lobby for you year in and year out.