Eight Weeks to Associateship - Week 3

Week 3: Thinking about management and planning

The focus for this week is part B, where you get to describe your "management and planning responsibilities". This may feel easier for some of you than others! However, it's not a requirement for you to have been in a traditional 'management' role (and as the application form says "Some of the categories below may not be applicable…"), but you may have to think a little more laterally about the kinds of things you have managed.

Let's look through each area. Most of us can pick out one or two areas immediately where we've had experience. Grab your notes, and start jotting things down. For example:
· Staff management: If you managed staff, what was your role, how many people were in the team, were they were permanent or contract, full or part-time, professional, semi- or non-professional roles? What were your responsibilities? Were there performance reviews, salary reviews or even (gulp), disciplinary responsibilities? Were there some things you achieved or supported your staff through, of which you are especially proud of? Perhaps a change management process or a difficult time financially for the organisation?
· Financial management: Have you looked after a budget or had responsibility for the money? Perhaps you managed the binding budget, ensured you kept inside the budget for shelvers or collections, or presented a budget for a project or your department.
· Resource management: This could cover aspects such as managing the upkeep of the collection, maintaining a particular subject or reference collection (physical or virtual), or perhaps the upkeep on the library system or website.
· Implementing and managing appropriate and/or innovative library and information services: Have you started up a new service? It might be an onsite or virtual service that's offered through the website. How about library blogs to keep people up-to-date (internally or externally)?
· Initiating or contributing to projects or changes/improvements in existing services: Are there key areas that you've streamlined? Maybe you've made something faster, more efficient, less prone to mistakes or more cost effective. How about changes in the way the library is organised, or what different roles do?
· Marketing services: What have you done in the way of promotions? Do you send out newsletters to target groups, run the library's Library Week programme, or designed posters to target a particular service? Perhaps you've written up promotions for the local newspaper or library website?
· Evaluating and implementing appropriate technologies: Have you had something automated, changed library systems, or made live reference services available online to customers? How about an online reference tracking system, or making the catalogue mobile-friendly?
· Planning your own work and that of others, setting priorities and aligning with organisational goals and objectives: If you've managed people, how did you set their priorities, and make sure that they're consistent with the goals of the organisation? Do they know what the organisational goals are? How do you prioritise your own work, and how does it contribute to organisational objectives? How do you go about long- and short-term planning for yourself or your team?

There is a lot to think about in this week's task. If you're having some trouble, try taking out the work 'management' and replace it with 'supervision' or think about what you 'look after' in your role. Sometimes we don't think of what we do as being 'management' in the technical sense.

Also consider what you've done outside of work - have you been a treasurer for a SIG? Run a professional committee? Helped to run a weekend school? These activities all contribute to your professional development and your 'management and planning' experience.

Good luck, and talk to you next week!