Perfecting Best Practices to Address Future Challenges in a Geographically Dispersed Hospital Library System

Background: An inter-regional library committee was formed to review and compare varying administrative processes and best practices across geographically dispersed hospital libraries. Strategic decisions were made as to what would comprise a core set of standardized policies that govern all libraries, and a set of procedures or best practices addressing the steps involved to carry out the tasks. Best practices will be used to streamline our services, consistently align with our policies and support the mission of the organization. Standardizing procedures will eliminate redundancy and outdated services as well as improve customer service.

Description: The Standards and Policies committee identified the need for procedures that aligned with the approved library policies - namely, Education and Information Services, Library Space Management, Library Technology, Resource Management, Scope of Services and Unauthorized Users. The project involved gathering team-based feedback about identified best practice areas, creating templates and examples of procedures, and drafting the procedures. In addition, the project included using cloud-based collaboration software to review and reconcile the team’s comments before aligning them to their respective policy and submitting the final procedures to the National Library Committee for approval. We called upon the collective experience and expertise of the regional librarians to establish best practices that will streamline our work and reduce administrative complications. The procedures developed include an on-boarding checklist for new employees, inventory and weeding, and streamlining work in our integrated library system.

Conclusion: A triennial review of the existing library policies by all librarians coincided with the procedures project. After receiving extensive comments and feedback, the committee revised and updated the policies which facilitated the creation of the procedures. The validated and approved policies and procedures provide a consistent and positive impact on the day-to-day operations of the libraries, regardless of their geographic location. The success of our efforts continues to strengthen the unity of our inter-regional department by the harmonization of various tasks, which ensures greater productivity and consistency in the services offered to our patrons.