January
23, 2018
By
Douglas Crane
About the
Author: DOUGLAS CRANE is Director of the Palm Beach County (FL) Library System
(PBCLS). Contact Douglas at craned@pbclibrary.org or through his blog,
www.efficientlibrarian.com.
Efficient: 1.
Being or involving the immediate agent in producing an effect; 2. Productive of
desired effects; especially: productive without waste.1 “I didn’t need one
ounce more of creativity and intelligence than I already was born with—the issue
was where I was pointing it.” —David Allen2
I believe
that the future of librarianship belongs to the Efficient Librarian. Let me
start with a story. There is a librarian, let’s call him DC. DC has worked in
public libraries his entire life, starting as a shelver and then moving his way
up through clerical work until he completed his MLS. He travels to a new
library system far away from his hometown to be a children’s librarian. DC is
soon promoted to electronic resources coordinator where he designed the website
and developed computer training classes. Later on, he received another
promotion to branch manager of a 30,000-square-foot building with more than
thirty staff members. DC has served on many committees, is comfortable with
public speaking, and now has important supervisory and managerial experience.
Everything
looks rosy, except for one problem: DC is perpetually disorganized. He runs up
against deadlines and misplaces important papers. DC feels his career is out of
focus. He can do the expected work easily enough, but often feels bored after
it is done. DC recalls a conversation with a colleague early in his career when
one day in frustration he said, “I don’t know what I am supposed to do.” What
DC meant was that after completing his assigned work, he didn’t know what to do
with his discretionary time. It felt like he was missing a piece to the puzzle.
Unfortunately, his colleague said that she felt the same way at times, but
could offer no pertinent advice beyond commiseration.
I tell you
this story because I am DC. I have worked at the Palm Beach County (FL) Library
System (PBCLS) in southeast Florida for the past nineteen years after moving
down from my hometown of Toronto. I don’t think my story is unusual. In fact, I
am confident that it is common across librarianship, but not unique to it. The
challenge I was facing was the burden of knowledge work.
An
Oversimplified Modern History of Librarianship
When I
started shelving books in Toronto in the mid-1990s, public libraries still
followed a model that had served well for most of the twentieth century. To put
it simply, libraries were educational facilities focused primarily around
books. Building and managing physical collections was a key component of
librarianship, while teams of paraprofessionals managed the circulation of the
material. Our role was to provide the community with access to knowledge, and
that knowledge was found in physical books, newspapers, and magazines. This
collection made us the only game in town if the public wanted the knowledge.
The daily tasks of librarians and paraprofessionals were well defined by long
standing policies, procedures, and best practices that generally made the work
routine and predictable.
This model
was disrupted by the rapid growth of the Internet. Public Internet computers
appeared in libraries during the late 1990s and early 2000s. With the arrival
of Google and Wikipedia, the public now had a second option for information,
one that was fast and cheap. While librarians bemoaned the quality of freely
available online information, it did not stop the public from taking their
general reference questions to these virtual sources.
A second
disruption occurred in 2007 when the Great Recession caused library budgets to
come under severe attack. As property tax revenues dwindled, some cities and
counties started raiding library money to fund other services. Money for
collections and staffing disappeared. Politicians began to openly question the
need for public libraries in the Internet age, rationalizing that since
information was free online there was no need to pay millions of dollars to
support buildings full of books.
Both
disruptions forced library workers to redefine our role in the community. With
diminished resources and time, we are forced to do more with less. At its core,
these disruptions have changed the nature of how we approach our work. This
leads to basic questions around how our profession, buildings, and resources
serve the digital age resident. I believe the answer lies in a better
understanding of librarianship as knowledge work.
Challenge
of Knowledge Work
The first
work experience for most people is in a widget job. A widget job is one where
the work arrives predefined. A library shelver is an example. A shelver arrives
at work to find carts of returned books. They organize the carts and then
shelves the books in the stacks. An empty cart tells them the work is done.
This is repeated for the next few hours and then the shelver goes home for the
day, not thinking about the job until the next shift. It may be boring work,
but it is clearly defined, non-stressful, and filled with success.
The challenge
is that we do not stay in widget jobs. As our careers advance, we make the
shift towards knowledge work. The term “knowledge work” was coined by Peter
Drucker in his 1959 book, Landmarks of Tomorrow, and later fleshed out in the
1966 book, The Effective Executive.3 Knowledge work shows up undefined and it
is the knowledge worker who must decide what the work is and how it is to be
done.
A shelver’s
productivity can be easily measured in terms of carts finished and accuracy of
shelving, but how does one measure a librarian? While there are certain widget
features to the job, such as a desk schedule, success at work is not easily
measured. For example, should off desk time be spent weeding the collection,
researching new entertainers for the activity schedule, or creating
bibliographies on hot topics? The librarian has to make executive decisions on
how to spend the time and also determine what success looks like for each of
these tasks. What does a well-weeded collection look like? Is it better to find
entertainers who pack the house or those with unique musical abilities? How
many books should be on that bibliography and what is an eye-catching design?
Knowledge work gets tricky very fast and we haven’t even pondered all the
challenges that supervisors, managers, and directors encounter in their daily
work. The knowledge worker has days where it feels like lots of energy is spent
with little demonstrated success.
The role of a
library worker has changed due to the twin disruptions of the Internet and
diminished budgets. With more information available from our smart devices than
can be contained in our physical collections, we are no longer the guardians
and gatekeepers of knowledge. With less money available, setting clear budget
priorities is essential. We are in a period of professional reevaluation where
we cannot afford to be passive observers. We must actively lead the change. To
face the challenge of knowledge work, we need to become Efficient Librarians.
What
is an Efficient Librarian?
An Efficient
Librarian is an elite knowledge worker navigating the complexity of the
post-Internet information world. The Efficient Librarian combines the skill
sets of a librarian with the best productivity and efficiency practices to
become a powerful consultant and decision-maker. He or she masters the ability
to traverse the streams of information flowing throughout our increasingly
digital world and then in turn helps others learn these skills. To start on the
path, an Efficient Librarian recognizes and masters three types of engagement:
1. Defining
and organizing personal workflow systems.
2. Developing
personal knowledge management skills.
3. Invoking
the power of “next action” thinking.
By mastering
each type, an Efficient Librarian reduces unnecessary stress, brings focus to
work, curates his or her own knowledge stores, and drives sustained momentum
for positive change.
Defining
and Organizing Personal Workflow Systems
What started
me on the path of the Efficient Librarian was the discovery of the book Getting
Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity (2001) by David Allen.4 I came
across the audiobook on the shelf in 2011 and was immediately drawn to it as a
possible solution to my disorganization. I checked it out and listened to it on
the ride home. Hearing Allen’s calm voice as he read his book reassured me that
I had found the solution to my woes. Over the next two weeks I reorganized my
office along the Getting Things Done (GTD) principles. Piles of paper on my
desk were filed or trashed. The email inbox went down to zero. My work gained
clear edges and my capacity for creativity widened. It invigorated my career
and I was promoted to director of branch services in 2013 and then library
director of the entire system in 2014. I would not be where I am professionally
without this skill set.
At its most
fundamental level, an Efficient Librarian is a master of their own work space.
Most likely when you first read the word “efficient” it brought to mind the
definition of being productive without waste. I am confident that everyone has
had an experience of taking a process that was ineffective and finding a way to
make it more productive. I believe that librarians should be naturals for this
work. After all, our profession has been dedicated to the organization and
preservation of information since the days of scrolls at the Library of
Alexandria. We developed elaborate classification systems and institutions designed
to make information freely accessible. Unfortunately, while we took great pains
to organize our physical collections, librarians in general don’t seem to do
better than other professions in organizing their own personal work spaces.
At the risk
of being cliché, the public has considered librarianship to be a relaxed
profession. If you want to make a librarian angry, ask if they spent the entire
workday sitting around reading books! Busy times on the service desk or with
back-to-back meetings are often balanced by quiet nights and periods of
uninterrupted time in the mornings. However, with diminished staffing, most
library workers are struggling to find time to finish their tasks. Efficiency
arises out of recognition of compressed time. A person needs to see that
expending a little time up front helps save a lot more time later when it is
needed. For example, we sort papers we want to keep into labeled file folders
in order to make them easier to find later. Alas, it is human nature to be
lazy. People don’t care about efficiency when time is abundant. If there is not
enough pay off on the back end to do the upfront work to create efficiencies,
most people won’t do it.
More and
more, I believe library workers are recognizing that time is a precious resource.
There are only so many hours in the workday and our action list is longer than
the time available. Constrained budgets make library staffing tight. The buzz
of electronic communications often pushes us to respond faster. The many
competing factors on our time mean that we need to prioritize the important
over the trivial. Librarians, like all professionals, make inefficient use of
their time when they fail to organize their own workflow in advance. This eats
into the time we can spend on things that truly matter.
To that end,
an Efficient Librarian acknowledges the difference between widget and knowledge
work. The widget type work includes sitting on the service desk waiting for the
public to ask a question, working on book order lists, or filling out monthly
reports. As a knowledge worker, librarians are faced with the challenge of
continually redefining their work. We must evaluate our environment, make
executive decisions based on priorities, and seek out the resources needed to
accomplish our goals. Knowledge work is psychologically challenging and
stressful, but it carries with it the capacity to innovate in new and exciting
ways which can lead to deeper personal rewards.
According to
Allen there are five stages of workflow.5 First, we capture information as it
comes to us, such as in email, phone message, or notes from a meeting. Second,
we have to clarify what it means.
For example,
is it trash that can be tossed, reference to store, or a message that requires
a response? Third, if not completed immediately, the information must be
organized in a system so that it can be found later, such as with file folders
or timed reminders. Fourth, the system must be reviewed on a regular basis to
ensure it is clean and up to date. Finally, we must engage with our work and
get things done. Understanding the best practices for each of these five stages
is vital to mastering workflow.
An Efficient
Librarian creates clean edges to her work. It all starts with an organized desk
and a clearly defined physical inbox to identify new input. One habit-changing
practice is to empty the inbox regularly and use it only to place new items
that have yet to be processed. An Efficient Librarian pays attention to how
time is spent and looks for ways to declutter surroundings and simplify
systems. For me, mastering workflow and creating systems that were tight,
clean, and quick was a key to my transition. I believe that the application of
these principles saves me weeks of time every year to focus on creative and
exciting work that takes me along new innovative paths. This unleashing of
energy is needed to revitalize our profession in the face of changing times.
For example,
a small change that made a huge difference for me was turning off new email
alerts, such as notification vibrations, pop-up windows, and sounds. According
to a study by behavioral economist Dan Ariely, only eleven percent of email
requires immediate attention.6 New message notification alerts mostly serve to
distract people from their primary task just to chase down content that is most
likely destined for the trash. I turned off all my new message alerts a few
years ago and instantly noticed a change in my depth and length of focus.
Action
Steps
Read a book
on personal productivity, such as Getting Things Done. Assess your own
productivity practices and implement improvements based on the analysis. Some
important best practices suggested in Allen’s book:7
•Get things
out of your head and into a system—don’t use your mind to remember details that
can be quickly forgotten.
•Have defined
inboxes and capture tools such as notepads to trap new input. • Empty all
inboxes on a regular basis—every 24 to 48 hours.
•Separate
actions, waiting for items, someday/maybes, and reference into clear folders.
•Review your
workflow system regularly to keep it clean.
Developing
Personal Knowledge Management Skills and Systems
The concept
of widget work implies that there is a tangible item that is manufactured or
moved through the organization’s system to produce a specific end. In a public
library, books are often considered the primary widget. Whether we are
collecting them, circulating them, weeding them, or using them for research,
physical books remain fundamental to our work. However, for all the effort we
put into moving them around, more and more of our material is becoming
electronic. The library of the future is shifting away from the physical
collection, which challenges the public perception of our work given that most
people associate libraries with books. I would argue since librarians are
knowledge workers, books were never our primary widget. Instead that honor goes
to notes.
Notes are the
basic unit of knowledge management. I define a note very broadly as an
“information artifact with perceived value.” Notes come in many shapes, sizes,
and formats. It can be a yellow sticky reminder to buy milk, a memo updating
the dress code, points taken down on legal pad from a staff meeting, or a
full-length report on homelessness. Notes don’t even have to be physical.
Emails, photos, audio recordings, and videos are all notes under this
definition. Since they are so plentiful, the care and management of notes is
the key challenge of knowledge work, which is addressed by the field of
personal knowledge management.
With any note
that is created or obtained the Efficient Librarian must answer a question: Is
it actionable? Actionable means is there something that must be done in
response to the note. If the answer is yes, then the Efficient Librarian must
decide on the next action. However, for most notes no action is required. What
happens then? Many non-actionable notes are placed in piles, like ghosts
haunting your desk. Every note needs to find a home or else it becomes a piece
of clutter. According to GTD, when no action is required there are three
possible places for the note to go.8 The first is the trash, and my best guess
is that half the notes we receive have no value and should be trashed as
quickly as possible. A few notes will fall into a category of “someday/maybe.”
Examples of these can be advertisements for training programs, ideas for
service improvements down the road, or even lists of sites to visit on
vacations that are yet to be planned. All these notes can go into a folder for
examination at a later time. The rest of the notes with no action are ones to
save for later reference and need to be filed.
The art of
effective filing is often overlooked. The Efficient Librarian understands the
value that a clean and accessible filing system has on work and peace of mind.
The merging of actionable and non-actionable items into the same space is a creativity killer. Think about it from
this perspective, have you ever lost an important note? You swore it was placed
on the corner of your desk next to a pile of reference files, but it is no
longer there. How long did you spend searching for that note and did you ever
find it? Then think about how many times this has happened to you over the
course of a month. This is waste we can ill afford to spend in an era where
time if precious. Note that mismanagement is a self-inflicted productivity
wound. An effective filing system is one into which notes can quickly be placed
and then easily retrieved when needed.
How should
notes be organized? Keep in mind that the best practices for filing are
different for physical notes than electronic notes. In the case of physical
notes, there are a few basic rules as articulated in Getting Things Done:
•Keep filing
cabinets within swivel distance of your chair.
•Have a fresh
stack of folders at your desk so that new files can be made quickly.
•Work with a
simple A-Z system.
•Purge your
filing cabinets once a year to ensure there is space for new notes
The point of
filing is to move inactive notes out of the way to create space to work on
actionable items, much like a chef cleans up ingredients of prior dishes from
their counter to focus on their next recipe. For a knowledge worker, clear
space on the desk for actionable items is a must for productive work.
When
computers were first developed, the concept of files and folders was copied
from the physical world. This served well in the early days of Windows PCs and
Macs as a bridgett bring office workers into the virtual world and used limited
computing power to good advantage. However, modern computer speeds have changed
the game, especially with email.
In the book,
Algorithms to Live By, the authors cite a study showing that power searching is
the most effective way to search for emails.10 Also, the volume of electronic
notes is much larger than paper. A 2015 study estimated that the average
employee gets ninety-two emails a day. This volume was projected to grow to
almost 111 messages in 2018.11
In electronic
filing, it is better to run as lean as possible by dividing the non-actionable
items into only a few categories. In email, this could mean taking the “Inbox
Zero” approach advocated by Merlin mann of having just one reference folder for
anything that needs to be archived as opposed to creating dozens of topical
folders.12 A refinement would be creating a small number of folders to store
messages from the most frequent senders to cut down on power searching noise.
How do
personal knowledge management skills enable the Efficient Librarian to function
at a higher level? Consider that librarians have long worked in a high-volume
information environment, especially when you include our large collection of
public resources.
As the number
of possible locations to find information has grown it became easy to default
to a simple search solution, such as Google. Our profession has always sought
to clarify for the public the best sources for information, which is why we
have long known that Internet search engines are the start of a complicated
search, not the only step. As we find quality sources of information and useful
artifacts with each research round, maintaining our files become very useful to
save time on the next research question. Streamlined electronic and paper
filing systems improve the quality of our work. Also, efficient filing systems
reduce administrative oversight costs associated with knowledge work. When you
can always find the file needed quickly and return it just as quickly, your
system will reduce stress and save time.
Action
Steps
Dividing
actionable from non-actionable items and archiving notes in any format are
important skills for the development of personal knowledge management systems.
Here are a few steps to help you get going:
•Take every
item on your desk that is not equipment, supplies, or decoration and place them
in your inbox. Process these items one at a time to determine which are
actionable and which are not.
•Place
actionable items into a folder called “action.” Delay working on these items
until your inbox is clear.
•Trash as
many notes as you can. While this is plainly evident for physical notes, even
electronic notes carry psychic weight that slows down your system.
•Archive
anything that is non-actionable. If you need more storage space, purge first
and then acquire more room if necessary.
•Be
disciplined in keeping a clear space on your desk in which you only work on
actionable items.
•At the end
of the day, place this material back in a folder so that you leave with a clear
space.
Invoking
the Power of “Next Action” Thinking
Identifying
and implementing improvements to personal and organizational workflows produce
powerful results. However, the best systems in the world are only useful if
they free up energy for productive next actions. An Efficient Librarian
understands the implications of the first part of the definition of the word
“efficient” given at the start of this article which is to be the agent that
produces an effect. An agent by definition is one who acts. Therefore, an
Efficient Librarian is very mindful of his or her actions.
Most people
decide their next action at work by reacting to their surroundings. Crisis and
stress tend to focus the mind on the most urgent needs. People may
subconsciously allow crisis to enter their lives to narrow their action
choices. To illustrate, think about what would happen if you discover that the
building is on fire. Your next action would be very simple—get out! No need to
think about that one. While it does help to simplify decision making, crisis is
an unhealthy way to live from day to day due to the accumulated stress.
Therefore, an Efficient Librarian purposefully moves past crisis to make
meaningful action decisions when things first show up, rather than when they
start to blow up.
To do this
successfully requires a new way of thinking. A huge improvement opportunity
embedded in GTD is to identify the next physical action needed to move
forward.13 Physical actions are movements that an outside observer could see
being done. Examples include making a phone call, typing an email, talking to a
coworker, and drafting a memo with pen and paper. Too often people respond to a
situation by saying they will “think about it” or “plan around it”—neither of
which constitute physical actions. Instead, these phrases are typically signs
of procrastination that is exasperated by messy desks and overflowing inboxes.
The Efficient Librarian who has mastered personal workflow systems usually finds
that next action thinking becomes easier. The time saved through better
organization creates a space of calm in which you can make better decisions.
Equally
important, next action thinking allows for greater clarity of success criteria.
A knowledge worker must determine what success looks and feels like for each of
their projects. Next action thinking forces the Efficient Librarian to consider
the physical actions needed to move towards their goal. When we take a
vacation, say a drive to Disney World, we see in our mind’s eye Cinderella’s
castle with Mickey Mouse. No matter what may pop up along the way, when the
goal is clear obstacles become temporary set-backs that will be overcome. The
same is true for work projects. An Efficient Librarian envisions the committee
final report and presentation at the start of the project, making it much
simpler to reach that final destination no matter what surprises appear along
the way.
A very simple
but profound practice of next action thinking is Allen’s famous Two Minute
Rule.14 The premise is simple: once you identify an action that can be done in
less than two minutes, do it immediately. This is done because it would take
longer to manage the item than to simply complete it right away. Also, it
creates a quick victory at work which builds confidence. As Allen writes in his
book, “Many people find that getting into the habit of following the Two Minute
Rule creates a dramatic improvement in their productivity. One vice president
of a large software company told me that it gave him an additional hour a day of
quality discretionary time.”
Next
Actions
Harness the
power of next action thinking to move your work forward. Some best practices on
this path include:
•Clearly
identify the physical next action needed to move the project forward—remember
someone should be able to see you do the action.
•Determine
what success means on each of your projects and have a clear visual image of it
in your mind.
•Work
immediately on quick actionable items (Allen’s Two Minute Rule).
•Tackle the
ugliest action first before doing anything else—Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog
approach.16
•Have a
designated folder to store reminders of actionable items that can be accessed
quickly when you have discretionary time.
•Subscribe to
my blog to read more about best productivity practices: Efficient Librarian:
Exploring the Intersection of Efficiency and Librarianship
(https://efficientlibrarian.com).
The
Strategic Value of Clear Space
In one of his
podcast lectures, Allen discussed the “strategic value of clear space.”17 That
phrase has stuck with me since I first heard it. You see, many years ago I was
a yoga teacher at a local fitness center. Yoga drew me in not only for the
physical exercise, but for the focus and calmness it brought to my mind. I
found that operating with a quiet mind was a powerful way to live. I believe
that the practice of an Efficient Librarian is the yoga of knowledge work.
An Efficient
Librarian approaches work like an artist with a blank canvas. To create a
masterpiece, the artist must be able to focus fully on his art, being free to
explore new and creative ways to express his inner voice. An artist that is fumbling
around with lost brushes, spilt paint, and misplaced canvases is wasting time
managing the space instead of working in it. Each level of mastery opens up new
opportunities for an Efficient Librarian to practice their craft. Keeping a
clear space (i.e. desk) to work from allows the flow of knowledge work to
creatively emerge.
In the
future, more and more widget jobs will be automated. Author Kevin Kelly
discussed this trend in his 2016 book, The Inevitable. In the chapter on
cognifying he discusses how robots will transform the workplace by absorbing
widget-type tasks.18 This trend places a greater emphasis on the ability of a
person to function as a high-level knowledge worker. Librarians are positioned
to be leaders in understanding, implementing, and training others in the best
practices of knowledge based work. In fact, Kelly eludes to a trend he calls
questioning, where he believes that answers have become so widespread they are
meaningless. The real skill lies in asking the right questions.19 With this
understanding in mind, library workers can unleash a great wave of creativity
and innovation in our communities by helping people ask the right questions.
Therefore, I
call out to the profession to identify the unique opportunity that we now face.
Let’s become a wave of Efficient Librarians who spread out from our libraries
and across our communities to interact with the public where they need us the
most and work to change lives in astounding and powerful ways. This is why I
believe that the future lies with the Efficient Librarian.
References
1.
Merriam-Webster, s.v. “efficient (adj.),” accessed Dec. 6, 2017, www.merriam
-webster.com/dictionary/efficient.
3. Drucker
Institute, “Peter Drucker’s Life and Legacy: Drucker’s Career Timeline and
Bibliography,” accessed Dec. 6, 2017,
www.druckerinstitute.com/peter-druckers-life-and-legacy/druckers-career-timeline-and-bibliography.
4. David
Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (New York:
Penguin Books, 2015).
5. Ibid., 27.
7. Allen,
Getting Things Done, 99–105.
8. Ibid.,
127–31.
9. Ibid.,
100–03.
10. Brian
Christian and Tom Griffiths, Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of
Understanding Human Decisions (New York: Henry Holt, 2016), 73.
11. The
Radicati Group, “Email Statistics Report, 2015–2019,” Mar. 2015, accessed Dec.
7, 2017,
www.radicati.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Email-Statistics-Report-2015-2019-Executive-Summary.pdf.
12. Merlin
Mann, “Inbox Zero,” 43Folders. com, accessed Dec. 7, 2017,
www.43folders.com/izero.
13. Allen,
Getting Things Done, 132–34.
14. Ibid.,
134–37.
15. Ibid.,
135.
16. Brian
Tracy, Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done
in Less Time (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2001), 2–3.
18. Kevin
Kelly, The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will
Shape Our Future (New York: Viking, 2016), 29–60.
19. Ibid.,
269-98.
