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Matt Barnes of R2 Consulting, LLC
"Creating the Capacity for Change: Transforming Library Workflows and Organization," the 2008
Minitex/OCLC User Group meeting, was clearly a case of the right topic at the right time—160
people from 52 institutions registered for the event! Hosting the session in all three states made
it somewhat easier and more affordable for folks to attend.
Rick Lugg and Matt Barnes, from R2 Consulting, LLC, made a compelling argument for a careful evaluation
of current technical services processes, workflow and resource allocation with the objective of addressing
the question: "Where might we find or create additional capacity by changing what we do and how we do it?"
One recommendation is to create a "mainstream"—a critical mass of similar activity that is processed
in as linear a fashion as possible—and to expand and automate it as much as possible.
While reminding us why we can't just keep doing what we've always done, they emphasized that going through
this sort of workflow analysis enables us to make reasoned judgements on when to say "just say no" so that
we "just say yes" to other roles and opportunities and functions that will better serve our users and move
our libraries toward greatness.