Walking the tightrope: balancing everyday work responsibilities with managing a multi-phase project

Abstract

The existence of academic libraries is attributable to the value librarians are adding to teaching, learning, and knowledge production. To be able to achieve this, the library must ensure that the information needs of its researchers and students are timely and successfully met by its range of products and service offerings. Apart from access to extensive and sustainable information resources, the library is however also mandated to provide intentionally designed physical spaces that adapt to users’ diverse needs, stimulate collaboration, innovation, and knowledge creation, and support student success and engagement. Although most information resources are now digital, and the library aims to invest in electronic format, some information resources are still only available in print format, and past investments in information resources were mainly in print format. With the library being the custodian of these collections, librarians are obligated to ensure effective management, sustainability, and preservation for current and future generations. With more than 50 percent of library spaces taken over by print collections, finding solutions to open these spaces, while still safeguarding these investments and assuring continued access to carefully collected knowledge, was central to a multi-phase project to relocating the paper journal collection of the University of Pretoria Libraries. This project came with quite a few challenges and imposed an exercise in planning, managing, and adjusting complex workflow procedures. This paper will report on the approach followed by the team to ensure the effective and efficient execution of the project. The importance of developing and implementing the most effective workflows will be emphasized, and recommendations for skills development will be made.