big picture. Where to begin? It is a truth almost universally acknowledged that you must look at the situation in your own library without expecting it to be just like the situations in other libraries; but that is only a partial truth. We in the Technical Services field have been particularly good about sharing our resources no matter what our individual idiosyncrasies: cataloging records from centralized databases (whether cards from LC or electronic records from OCLC or RLIN), how-to manuals passed freely or published on Web pages, or the tell-tale signs of procedures evident in another library's online catalog. Miss Manager would like to suggest a six-step procedure for analyzing and fixing your workflow (and she does this despite her loathing of the selfhelp-book-of-the-month approach that it suggests; but observe that Miss Manager is not making any assertions about the efficacy of this procedure for making you wealthy, slender, or alluring).

1. Read what is available in library-related writings on workflow or efficiency in the library workplace. This is unfortunately an imperfectly-defined research area, and it is still tricky to navigate around the terminology. Just as an example, the following titles showed up in a search in the Library Literature database at FirstSearch using the subject term "workflow":

   "OCLC and Innovative Interfaces, Inc.: a Passport connection." (workflow of the authority section at the University of Oregon Library): OCLC Systems & Services v. 11 no2 ('95) p. 16-19.

   "'Keep them doggies rollin';' or, Using series authority records to improve cataloging and processing workflow." (at Trinity University; workshop report from the 1994 NASIG Conference) The Serials Librarian v. 25 no3-4 ('95) p. 277-81.

2. Read what is available in general and business publications on workplace efficiency or workflow. These will not be specifically devoted to libraries, but there may be some good general principles that could be applied to our kind of work. The caveat here is that there will be more chaff and less wheat.

   In both steps 1 and 2, it may be worth posting a question on your favorite technical services listserv to ask whether others have come across particularly helpful articles or books or Web resources on the subject of workflow or workplace efficiency. You may end up with not only a list of helpful resources, but the beginning of a great bibliography on the subject you can share with the rest of us!

3. Theories are fine, of course, but you have to ride the horse you have, not the one you want. Go public with your needs: put out a question on the TS listserv, spell out what your problem is and ask for advice. Look at the Technical Services manuals from other libraries (especially libraries with similar staff sizes and the same ILS) to get new ideas or to "test drive" a procedure you haven't done before.

4. Get advice from individual colleagues whom you find to be particularly good at some activity. If Adelle is clearly a very knowledgeable Acquisitions Librarian who seems to have a real handle on dealing with egregious publishing practices, ask for advice. If Bernice's department puts out 100 more cataloging records per month than yours of the same size, see if Bernice will share some of her secrets with you. Most people will not go out of their way to proclaim their own expertise but are perfectly happy to share it if they are asked.

5. Bring the new ideas home to your Department. Get input first of all from the staff who will be affected by any changes. Ask for their advice (really do ask for advice; don't give them the impression that you have a done deal in hand and that you are just going through the motions of getting their input).

6. Compile all of the theories and individual suggestions into a definite plan for doing things in your department, that is, write up a new workflow. Then try it. Tinker with it, toss it out and start over, ask for follow up advice, and share your experiences with your colleagues.

Miss Manager is aware of the burden this activity will place on anyone who tries it. The unfortunate truth about looking at workflow or any other big-picture activity is that it must be done in the midst of keeping up with all the individual details that go into the day of a Technical Services Librarian. Even if you were to find a ready-made plan that sounds too good to fail, you will still have to tailor it to the needs of your own library. But if enough of us work on the problem and share our successes and pitfalls, we will make life easier on ourselves and earn the gratitude of future Technical Services managers.

Dear Miss Manager:
I am in a dilemma! I am the head of a Technical Services Department in an academic law library. Six months ago the law school hired a new library director. This was done without input from anybody in Technical Services. The new director is a very prominent scholar, but he doesn't know very much about the inner workings of the library. He seems to be completely uninterested in the work we do in Technical Services. Morale is low, and our work is beginning to suffer; but no one outside the department seems to care! Do I do something about correcting this problem before it gets worse; or do I live with it and not raise any issues that will get us into a worse position?

Sincerely,
Nervous in New England

Dear Nervous,
Before getting to the specifics of your case, Miss Manager would just like to make clear that at least in some law schools things need not have reached this point. That is to say you might have forestalled some of this current difficulty by both giving some input into the decision on a new director and working with the new director soon after he began. Miss Manager is not one to insinuate anything on scant evidence, but is there some fault on your own side here? As a department head you have a responsibility to make it clear that the work your department does is important to the mission of the whole library and the whole law school. If that work is unknown outside your department, who will come to such an understanding spontaneously? One need not go to tacky extremes; one need only engage in an occasional conversation with patrons (law students and professors), have a good working relationship with other library departments and with your director.

It may very well be that your director is an utter ogre and would like to eliminate the whole department and hire trained chimpanzees to do what he assumes must be such unimportant work, in which case you should despair. But, if he is merely ignorant about the value of the work being done in the department, your first attempt should be to educate him. It may not be best to do this with a memo. The written word can sometimes be too sharp, even if sharpness is not meant. Try to discuss the matter with him face-to-face, in a friendly and enthusiastic way. Don't try to change his mind all at once.

First, introduce him to the idea of the work in Technical Services and its impact on the rest of the library. A nice chart or a sample of some significant statistics, attractively presented, may be in order here; or route him an appropriate article that highlights some significant element in TS that you would like to emphasize. Then ask him to lunch or for a brief (15-minute) meeting to discuss. Never assume an air of superior knowledge in all of this. Remember that you know more about TS than he does, but also remember that esoterica will not impress him. Procedures that will make his library work better will.

Secondly, send him an occasional email (don't inundate him!) with an interesting web site or with some brief message about a current TS concern. This will help to keep him aware of TS issues as he is going through his day and juggling all the other concerns in his director's life (which are plenty). Do you have a good working relationship with your Public Services colleagues? If not, that may be an even more fundamental place to begin making the same educative effort. If you do have a good rapport with your reference and circulation friends, induce them to emphasize as subtly as possible the value they place on good TS work. If your director is very public services-oriented, this may make him take notice.

Some people would call all of this "public relations." Miss Manager eschews that terminology. It has the odor of the advertising agency with all of its reliance on visceral persuasion and duplicity. Miss Manager prefers to think that the honest presentation of facts politely delivered will do much more to earn the true respect of those who are merely unaware of the good work going on in your department.

Dear Miss Manager:
Why is it that you sometimes end your sentences with prepositions? I find this to be grammatically offensive.

Sincerely,
Picayune in Pennsylvania