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Improving Circulation Services Through StaffInvolvementCynthia M. Kisby a & Marcus D. Kilman aa University of Central Florida Libraries, P.O. Box 162666, Orlando, FL, 32816-2666 E-mail:b University of Central Florida Libraries, P.O. Box 162666, Orlando, FL, 32816-2666 E-mail:

Version of record first published: 12 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Cynthia M. Kisby & Marcus D. Kilman (2008): Improving Circulation Services Through Staff Involvement,Journal of Access Services, 5:1-2, 103-112

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15367960802198390

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Improving Circulation ServicesThrough Staff Involvement

Cynthia M. KisbyMarcus D. Kilman

SUMMARY. The Circulation Services Department at the University ofCentral Florida Libraries reports on leadership and training initiativesthat resulted in a number of service-enhancing projects implemented bya highly motivated and involved staff. Key elements in reinvigoratingthe department included a change in leadership philosophy, increasedcommunication and training, and efforts to encourage employee com-mitment. The improvements included a space-saving and less confusingshelving reorganization. Staff suggested training to improve group func-tioning and patron service. The article includes a brief review of selectedmotivation theories behind these changes and discusses how the theoriesmight be applied in other libraries.

KEYWORDS. Circulation services, shelving activities, staff training,motivating staff, empowerment, management, mystery shopper

Cynthia M. Kisby is Personnel Librarian (E-mail: ckisby@mail. ucf.edu); andMarcus D. Kilman is Head of Circulation Services (E-mail: mkilman@mail.ucf.edu), bothat University of Central Florida Libraries, P.O. Box 162666, Orlando, FL 32816-2666.

[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: “Improving Circulation Services Through Staff Involvement.” Kisby,Cynthia, and Marcus D. Kilman. Co-published simultaneously in Journal of Access Services (The HaworthInformation Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press) Vol. 5, No. 1/2, 2007, pp. 103-112; and: Best Practicesin Access Services (ed: Lori L. Driscoll, and W. Bede Mitchell) The Haworth Information Press, an imprint ofThe Haworth Press, 2007, pp. 103-112. Single or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee fromThe Haworth Document Delivery Service [1-800-HAWORTH, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address:docdelivery@haworthpress.com].

Available online at http://jas.haworthpress.com© 2007 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1080/15367960802198473 103

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT

Upon becoming the Department Head for the Circulation Services atthe University of Central Florida’s main library in September, 2004 thenew leader was advised by the Associate Director of Public Servicesthat there were some areas of service and other employee issues withinthe department in need of attention. Those areas needing improvementimpacted not just quality of service at the Circulation Desks, but alsostaff morale and attitude, and, in turn staff attendance and tardiness. Infact, at that time the normal staffing level of ten permanent full time em-ployees was down to five permanent and one temporary employee. Itshould be pointed out that most of these problems were not related tostaff capability or desire.

At that time the Circulation Department included four units; circulation,reserves, stacks, and bills and fines. In addition, the circulation unit consistsof two shifts, those working Monday through Friday days and those work-ing evenings/weekends. Another significant factor was a lack of communi-cation or a sense of team unity between these different groups. Other thancoordinating their overlapping shifts to ensure complete coverage at thepublic service desks, there was little cooperation between the differentunits and shifts. The units did not share any common projects or goals anddid not get involved in the work of each other’s units.

DEVELOPING A PLAN FOR CHANGE

In order to bring about positive change in employee attitudes and im-prove morale in the department, and as a result, improve services topatrons it seemed that several items were critical to success. Theseincluded:

1. communication2. training3. empowerment4. buy-in5. commitment

The highest level of success, in this case the best possible patron ser-vice, could only be accomplished through the involvement, commitment,and direct actions of the staff. In order to get that sort of commitment the

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staff must buy in to the idea of accomplishing common goals. Buy-inrequires a staff that is empowered to make decisions and take ownershipof objectives. The ability to make the best decisions comes from propertraining and the knowledge that their input, concerns, or suggestions arelistened to, evaluated fairly, and acted upon. Empowerment of staff alsomeans giving up some control as department head. A supervisor can be-come more comfortable with empowerment and delegation by beingvery clear about expected outcomes and deadlines, scheduling regularfeedback and progress checks, and asking the employee to paraphraseback his understanding of the assignment. Responsibility should not begiven to someone unless he/she is also given the authority required tosucceed. The combination of authority with responsibility enhancesbuy-in, attitudes, and morale.

Communication

We embarked on this road to change with a series of departmentmeetings where the goals of improving customer service were laid outas well as the belief that it could only be through staff ideas and actionsthat we could succeed. It was important that staff felt free to expresstheir views and concerns and to also know that the “open door” policywas just that. While some changes that directly affected public serviceat the desks were made immediately as an initial step, working groupsfrom the department staff were formed to look at modifying the depart-ment’s student assistant guidelines, with the clear understanding thateveryone would be held to a higher standard than the student assistants.Regular department meetings to solicit input and suggestions for posi-tive change followed up by emails for clarification and discussion, plusencouraging staff to take advantage of the “open door” policy allowedplans for improvement to develop and mature. Specific ideas for im-provement would then be finalized by consensus of the department as awhole at regular department meetings. As staff became more accustomto having the power to make positive change, their willingness anddesire to assume even more responsibility and “ownership” of the de-partment naturally increased.

Training

With the assistance of the Human Resources Librarian, a series ofmonthly training sessions was also implemented. The emphasis of these

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training sessions was customer service, dealing with change, and team-building. One of the more interesting training sessions was the MysteryShopper program arranged through the UCF Human Resources Office.After meeting with Human Resources trainers to coach them on somemore “difficult” circulation questions and patron issues, the HR staffmade trips to the library or called in with questions, with the goal of be-ing a “problem” patron. Staff was not made aware of the Mystery Shop-per program until the results were presented to the staff by HumanResources at one of our regularly scheduled training sessions. Respon-sibility for responding to and making changes based upon the MysteryShopper program was assumed by and successfully accomplished bythe staff.

The Circulation Department Head also asked that Human Resourcesprovide the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator survey, believing that under-standing the strengths and weaknesses of different basic personalitytypes would help staff be more understanding of each other and our pa-trons and thus help in providing better service. To assist staff in provid-ing better patron service during library hours when the reference desk isnot staffed by librarians, several of the staff asked if the reference librar-ians would be willing to provide some instruction on searching severalof the more commonly used databases. Two very beneficial trainingsessions were planned and conducted, as a result of this suggestion staffwas better able to respond to patron questions on how to search librarydatabases during hours the reference desk is closed.

Buy-In and More

Once the group was well into the training sessions, it was decided totackle a complete revision of the department’s policies and proceduresmanual as well as development of a departmental mission statement andgoals. Again, working groups within the department were set up, witheach group responsible for developing some particular portion(s) of therevisions. In follow-up sessions, the draft revisions were discussed as awhole, modified as necessary, and implemented. The department’s mis-sion statement and goals have been posted on the web and are availableat the public service desks.

As a direct result of the successful implementation of the improve-ment plans, and more importantly the dedication and efforts of staff,many changes within the department have been successfully imple-mented. Customer service is much better, staff morale is higher and in-stances of tardiness and absences have decreased. There are other

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examples where staff suggestions and initiatives resulting from this newdirection in leadership have made significant contributions to both thedepartment and the library.

IMPROVEMENTS AND BENEFITS

One of the most visible improvements is a reorganization of the lay-out of the stacks on the third floor of the library where the “flow” of thematerials by call number range was confusing to patrons. As patronsfollowed the ranges of shelves by call number, when they would leavethe HX call number range and walk straight across an open area to theclosest range of books, they would find themselves in the M call numberrange. The K call numbered books were at the opposite corner of thebuilding. This resulted in many complaints about not being able to lo-cate materials on this floor. The stacks staff approached the departmenthead with the idea of reorganizing the third floor to create a more logicalcall number “flow” of the collection. They also proposed adding someadditional shelving in the HC–HX call number range at the same timeby constructing new shelving in some available spaces and narrowingsome aisles. The staff was asked why they wanted to take on this projectand if they fully realized the significance of the effort involved. Theirresponse to the “why” was that they wanted to make it easier for stu-dents to find materials on the third floor. They had also worked out aproposal that included the estimated numbers of staff and student hoursrequired and a time-frame to complete the project. It is important to notethat currently our stacks are estimated to be 98 percent filled to capacityand this shift involved almost twelve thousand shelves of books. Oncecompleted, over 550 critically needed new shelves were added to thefloor and, due to the near-capacity status of the stacks, each book wasshifted at lease twice, so roughly 500,000 books were shifted. Stafffrom the other Circulation units and even other library departments vol-unteered to help out, so it was truly a team effort. The layout of the thirdfloor is now much more logical, resulting in less confusion for patronsand far fewer complaints.

There are other examples of staff initiative and motivation. Stafffrom the circulation and stacks units initiated and proposed to the li-brary administration a plan to consolidate the entire bound collection ofperiodicals to the third floor of the library, where the current issues andmicrofilm/fiche issues are housed. Currently, the bound periodicals areintegrated with the general collection, on the other four floors of the li-

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brary with a portion of the general collection being on the third floor.Moving the general collection materials from the third floor to the otherfloors and then consolidating the bound periodical from the other fourfloors onto the third would require the shifting of almost 55,000 shelvesof materials. When presenting this proposal to the library’s administra-tion, circulation staff clearly stated their goal, and thus their motivation,was to make it easier for patrons to locate and use the periodical collec-tion. In preparing for their proposal to library administration, staff hadsuccessfully completed a literature search to determine what was pub-lished regarding this issue of segregated or integrated bound periodicalcollections and had even conducted a user survey of students and fac-ulty to determine patron preferences. This proposal is currently underconsideration for possible inclusion within a plan to renovate the mainfloor of the library.

Circulation staff members have also initiated, developed, and imple-mented new and improved methods for training and evaluating depart-mental student assistants. The lost and found procedures were updatedand revised at the initiative of the staff. Many of these departmental ini-tiatives have been collaboratively developed by members of differentunits or shifts and all are a tribute to the dedication and commitment ofthe outstanding members of the Circulation Department team.

MOTIVATION THEORIES BEHIND THE CHANGES

If this experience demonstrates a best practice in staff empowerment,one might wonder if this transition could be replicated in other libraries.During this evolution a key question was, “can we motivate our em-ployees?” Current theories tell us that individuals cannot motivate oth-ers; people can only motivate themselves. However, managers andsupervisors can indeed use many strategies to create a satisfying workenvironment that could motivate individuals to commit and contribute.The difference is worth investigating.

The exploration of motivation leads down a psychological and philo-sophical path that many prefer not to follow. It is common for librariansto believe that, “We’re all professionals and we shouldn’t have to standover people and tell them what to do.” It is also common for supervisorsto conclude that motivating others is just too personal and complex, andtherefore not a good use of time. What follows is an attempt to summa-rize, simplify, and make practical some of the motivation theories.

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The Pleasure/Pain Principle

Many philosophers, going as far back as Aristotle, have concludedthat people will seek pleasure and avoid pain. This is a time-tested prin-ciple that holds true in most cases. Managers could accept this basic as-sumption and extrapolate it to mean that employees will do what makesthem happy. The next hurdle for a manager intending to motivate peo-ple would be to discover what makes each employee happy. This ischallenging since everyone has different values, needs, and wants. For-tunately, there is an abundance of research that has surveyed worksatisfaction and peak performance.

Flow

The work of Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pro-nounced “chick-sent-me-high-ee”) on peak performance provides amanageable framework for considering motivational factors. His re-search identifies a “flow” experience, a type of effortless action thatstands out for individuals as the best performance of their lives. This issuch a positive experience that people willingly seek to recreate it. For-tunately, the factors related to “flow” can easily be replicated to create apleasant experience in the work environment. Then, involvement in thework itself intrinsically motivates employees to do more of the same,producing a type of commitment.

Of the eight factors identified in this research, the four that can becontrolled to some degree by most library managers are the following:clear goals, immediate feedback, balanced challenge and skill level, andbeing in control. The other four factors are more a result of being in the“flow” state, not necessarily contributing to achieving the state: concen-tration deepens, only the present matters, loss of ego, and lost sense oftime.

Clear goals about library tasks give meaning and relevance to thework and make it easier to buy in to a project. This is why it is helpfulfor new employees to be oriented to the functions of all other depart-ments and to understand how their work impacts the whole. The goal ismade clearer when the reason for doing it is explained. An example ofthe second “flow” factor, immediate feedback, was studied in computergames where the player develops skills and advances or fails in areal-time environment. The gamer does not have to wait for a weeklymeeting or an annual evaluation to judge his progress on a project. Mo-tivation is enhanced when an employee has a clear set of expectations to

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measure against and regular feedback from a supervisor. This theorywas applied at UCF in the form of increased communication in theCirculation Department.

A critical factor in the “flow” experience, and in developing commit-ment or the intrinsic motivation to persist, is achieving a good balancebetween an employee’s skill level and the challenges of the work as-signment. If the work opportunity is too easy, the employee will bebored or apathetic. If the challenges of work are too difficult, the em-ployee will become frustrated or anxious. This finding emphasizes thatan important task for managers is to assess employee abilities and pro-vide appropriate training opportunities. The Circulation DepartmentHead involved both library and campus Human Resources in helpingstaff develop skills to meet new challenges.

The fourth flow factor is the sense of being in control, or empowered.When the skill set is matched to the challenges of the job, the employeehas a sense of being able to cope with the situation and this contributesto a feeling of control. Other ways to offer control to employees includeallowing them to decide how the process gets done as long as the resultis acceptable. Flexibility in scheduling the order of tasks and personalwork time can enhance worker satisfaction. If the situation allows, con-trolling one’s own environment can also contribute to a sense of controland therefore motivation. As previously described, the Circulation staffmembers were given appropriate authority to manage their proposedprojects.

Other Motivation Theories

All of the “flow” factors are compatible with other research on moti-vation. For example, Frederick Herzberg identified the following fac-tors that lead to job satisfaction: achievement, recognition, the workitself, responsibility, advancement, growth. A sense of achievement co-mes with knowing what the goals are. An employee could be achievinggoals on a daily basis but if it is not clear that that is what he is doing, hewill have no sense of achievement. Recognition is positive feedback.The work itself as identified by Herzberg is the same concept asCsikszentmihalyi’s whole “flow” experience. The work is motivatingwhen the skill level and challenges are well balanced. Herzberg’s factorof responsibility is comparable to having a sense of control. Increasingcontrol over the work is similar to increasing responsibility. The “flow”research suggests that managers encourage an environment where anemployee is advanced for developing skills and growing, both satisfiers

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that Herzberg identified. It is comforting to see research in this area thatis not contradictory and can be practiced in the field.

The “flow” research is primarily about how work itself can be in-trinsically rewarding. Other individual values that drive behaviorcan encompass a wide variety of needs as categorized by a pioneer inmotivation, Abraham Maslow. Maslow describes a hierarchy ofneeds that progresses from survival, safety, interpersonal, and es-teem up to self-actualization needs. The discussion of commitmentto the work itself as a motivator could be considered a fairly highlevel need and is most likely at the top of Maslow’s pyramid. If an in-dividual is able to use his unique skills and abilities to contribute to agreater good, that person has to some extent fulfilled his highestself-actualization need according to Maslow. The esteem need iscomparable to recognition and positive feedback. The interpersonal,social, or belonging needs represent other values that some employ-ees may seek to fulfill in the work environment. Survival and secu-rity needs such as food, housing, and insurance are generally met bysalary. A supervisor who is aware of the level and type of needs of hisemployees can attempt to create an environment that fulfills thoseneeds.

INTEGRATING THEORY AND PRACTICE

Can the theories of motivation described above explain the actual,successful changes at the University of Central Florida’s CirculationDepartment? As the departmental changes were being implemented,some clear goals were established and staff was presented with theopportunity to get involved and to affect the direction of the depart-ment and how those goals were implemented. Staff members couldhave chosen to take the more “painful” course of resisting or fight-ing the changes, but when given the chance to directly impact thechanges and to have control, participating in creating changes moreto their own liking made the path of cooperation the more pleasur-able route. Because staff members were being asked to modify pro-cedures around their own position descriptions in order to improvecustomer service, they were able to maintain a comfortable skilllevel. Once the changes were being incorporated and staff was re-ceiving the recognition for their achievements from the library’s ad-ministrators and their peers, they responded with their owninitiatives for improvements. Staff members were fueled by their

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own sense of accomplishments and self-satisfaction in the realiza-tion that it was within their power to shape and make significantchanges for the betterment of the Library.

CONCLUSIONS:WHAT OTHER LIBRARIES CAN DO

The experiences described here offer evidence that sharing or dele-gating leadership responsibilities and building consensus have a posi-tive impact on employee buy-in and morale and ultimately customerservice. Consider the basic assumption that employees will naturallyseek pleasure as they define it. In order to achieve library goals, i.e. en-hance services, managers might link institutional goals to employee sat-isfaction. This could be achieved by making the workplace as pleasantand attractive as possible, imbuing the job with meaning and value byclarifying common goals, providing training so that employees have theskills required to meet daily challenges, allowing as much control andauthority as appropriate, and rewarding positive behavior through regularcommunication and praise for a job well done.

REFERENCES

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Ev-eryday Life, New York, NY: Basic Books/Harper Collins.

Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2003). Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making ofMeaning, New York, NY: Viking.

Herzberg, F. (2003). “One more time: How do you motivate employees?,” HarvardBusiness Review, January, p 87-96 (reprint from January-February 1968).

Rooks, D. C. (1988). Motivating Today’s Library Staff, Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.

Received: 02/19/07Revised: 03/25/07

Accepted: 04/23/07

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