Statewide Public Library Development Projects

The State Library of Victoria and Public Libraries Victoria Network are seeking Expressions of Interest from Victorian public library services to participate in the next stage of the Being The Best We Can project.

Being The Best We Can is an organisational self-evaluation and improvement framework created especially for Victorian public libraries to use in monitoring and assessing library services. The Project Workgroup and Australian Continuous Improvement Group developed the Being The Best We Can Framework and Toolkit with assistance from representatives of the Scottish Library and Information Council. The Framework is inspired by Building on success: a public library quality improvement matrix for Scotland and builds towards the Australian Business Excellence Framework. The key result areas of the Framework strongly align with the principal roles of public libraries as identified in Libraries Building Communities.

Melton Library and Information Service and Yarra Plenty Regional Library have successfully piloted the Being The Best We Can Framework and Toolkit. Click on the library service name to hear about their experiences and benefits of the self-evaluation process along with their final reports.

Stage Two of the project involves supporting another seven Victorian public libraries to test the Framework and Toolkit. Upon completion of Stage Two, the Framework and Toolkit will be reviewed, and the final version published and distributed.

Benefits

Being The Best We Can enables libraries to:

• Take stock of current performance, answering the key questions: How well are we doing? How do we know? What are we going to do now?
• Identify and understand key strengths and areas for improvement.
• Share best practice and establish benchmarks for services to aspire to.
• Demonstrate the relevance and value of the library service to community and key stakeholders.

The process involves:

• Self-evaluation by libraries, using the Being the Best We Can Framework and Toolkit.
• External verification of the self-evaluation process and outcomes, conducted by two peers to provide an impartial, independent and thorough review of the library’s evidence.

Being The Best We Can results in a written report, with peer review comments and a service improvement action plan, that can be used to demonstrate the library’s performance and point the way to further improvement.

Library services participating in Stage Two of Being The Best We Can will receive a copy of the Framework and Toolkit and be supported with training and guidance from Australian Continuous Improvement Group and the Statewide Public Library Development Projects team.

Required commitment

The Being The Best We Can self-evaluation process requires a dedicated and significant commitment of time and staff resources to complete as the self-evaluation process is conducted over a 14-week period. Libraries participating in Stage Two of Being The Best We Can must conduct and complete the process outlined below between October 2009 and March 2010. See below for the recommended schedule with indicative times.

To be considered for inclusion in Stage Two of the project, library service managers from participating library services are required to be a Peer Reviewer, which involves conducting at least one peer review of another participating library service.

There is no charge to participate, as training and guidance provided by Australian Continuous Improvement Group is covered by Statewide Public Library Development Project funding.

Express your interest

To express your interest in participating in Stage Two of the Being The Best We Can project, please complete the Expression of Interest form.

Library service managers/CEOs should email their completed Expression of Interest to Melanie McCarten, Senior Project Manager, Vicnet, at mmccarten@slv.vic.gov.au by COB Thursday 27 August 2009.

The Being The Best We Can Workgroup will select seven library services to participate in Stage Two of the project, ensuring a mix of single municipality and regional corporations as well as metropolitan and rural library services. Library services will be notified of their inclusion by Monday 7 September 2009.

Recommended schedule (with indicative times)

The indicative times outlined in this table are based on the approaches by the two pilot libraries. Time and resource requirements are naturally dependent on the approach taken by the library service including the size of the team participating.

Week 1

Staff orientation

Determine scope, select evaluation team

Presentation to management and staff to introduce the concept and benefits of conducting the Being The Best We Can self-evaluation process

(1–1.5 hours)

Week 2

Training and preliminary self-evaluation:

• The Self-evaluation Framework – the five Key Result Areas
• How to conduct a self-assessment
• Finding the evidence base
• Identifying strengths and areas for improvement
• Developing an improvement plan

Initial workshop and preliminary evaluation with evaluation team supported by Australian Continuous Improvement Group and Statewide Public Library Development Projects team

(1 day)

From Week 3

Gather evidence against key result areas

Assess evidence and assign preliminary performance ratings

The team refines the evaluation by:

• engaging with staff and management to verify assessments
• researching and reviewing evidence
• reviewing key strengths and areas for improvement 
• reviewing performance ratings
• drafting an evaluation report

(7–10 days over 7 weeks)

By Week 10

External reviewers:

• Review the evidence
• Visit libraries and observe activities
• Provide feedback to library management team, staff and stakeholder representatives

Peer reviewers and project facilitators visit and meet with the evaluation team, visit service locations to view evidence and verify evaluation findings and performance ratings

(1 day)

By Week 12

External reviewers provide feedback to library management team

(1 hour)

By Week 14

Complete written report on self-evaluation

Evaluation team presents final report to management and staff (1 hour)

Commence implementing the improvement plan

Library service takes improvement action plan forward into business planning and service delivery cycle

Last updated 1008 days ago by Administrator