Innovation and change: transforming United Nations libraries

摘要

It's difficult to stop doing what you've always done, to move on to new imperatives, particularly if change is not forced on you. For the United Nations Headquarters' library (named the Dag Hammarskjoeld Library after the second Secretary-General of the UN), change came about as the result of increased marginalization of its services which forced a reflection on the relevancy of the Library's activities. Despite surveys that showed that clients were pleased with the Library's services, budgets had been cut continually over the years, and staff were frequently not replaced when they left the organization. Library staff felt they were unappreciated within their own department, the Department of Public Information. Like many other libraries in organizations, clients did not need to come to the library, preferring to access information and a wide range of electronic resources available through their office desktops. It became clear that there was a rationale for these trends and that either the Library changed its way of doing business or it would be out of business. A number of audits and reviews of services were carried out; however, nothing was altered significantly until the Library was re-organized in 2004. At that time, a new structure was put into place creating a Knowledge Sharing Section that provided the impetus to launch a number of new initiatives that transformed the service from being process-oriented to a consulting, coaching approach. Library staff were now in direct contact with staff throughout the organization who rarely, if ever, used the Library. This transformation from a traditional library environment required the constant involvement of staff at all levels, a sustained dialogue, and a learning programme to introduce staff to new concepts, skills and expertise. Training staff -many of whom had been primarily involved in processing activities - in interviewing and coaching techniques, was the first challenge which led to an increased awareness of the need for a major shift in the Library's focus. Throughout this process, library professionals became more acquainted with the core work of the organization and a number of them proposed changes to existing services or the creation of brand new ones.