Presenter

Gary Pearce, Director, Academic Services, Monash University Library

Description

The Academic Services Portfolio at Monash University Library has recently realigned its operating and service delivery model to better support institutional priorities and research and education needs. Optimizing library services and the examination of organizational models is an enduring topic of interest to libraries and was the focus of a recent RLP research support leadership roundtable discussion. This presentation offers an informative case study of how one institution has implemented change to adopt a more strategic focus, scale services more effectively and to align with and be responsive to university needs and opportunities. 

Much of this work occurred in the wake of a larger change process at Monash University Library beginning in 2021 which saw the Library and its staff develop professional support services to the Monash community introduction via a tiered service delivery model. The Academic Services realignment enhances and further supports the change journey the Library has been on over several years.

In this presentation, Gary Pearce will focus on this latest strategic realignment at Monash University Library, enabling and scaling better service delivery for an institution with nearly 80,000 students and 17,000 staff members. Some of the background to this included a move away from resource intensive education support toward a professional support service model. The Monash realignment was informed also by an investigation of practices across Australia's Group of Eight (Go8) universities, which comprise the country's most research-intensive institutions. Evidence from this benchmarking exercise informed strategic decision making and helped overcome organizational complacency. 

The presentation will discuss the introduction of new Library Business Partner roles to facilitate strategic and One Library engagement with the University faculties. It  will also describe how it introduced a more functional focus on education and research support, how library roles were refocused on library domain expertise rather than subject specialization, how the library now employs team-based agile working methods, and how these changes build organizational capacity and resilience in support of institutional research and education goals. 

This webinar will be of interest to library leaders and anyone seeking to learn more about the provision of research support services.

All affiliates of OCLC Research Library Partnership organizations are invited to participate in live sessions. The recording is available to all.