Page 114 - DLIS406_ACADEMIC_LIBRARY_SYSTEM

Unit 11: Budgets

Notes

Library’s External Environment
The Community

Library’s Internal
Environment
Staff, Structure, Resources,
Activities

The internal library audit will enable you to begin to match the interests and needs of your
library community with the capacity of your library. This analysis will move you logically
towards a consideration of your vision and the goals and objectives you will employ to work
towards that vision, all of which will be considered in the following module, Visions, Goals
and Objectives.
A thorough and systematic audit of your library’s internal system would include consideration
and assessment of all of its components. This module includes 2 activities to help you begin
the process of your internal library audit. Instructions for each of these activities and a link
to the worksheets for each activity are provided below. Before you begin these activities,
however, browse the following questions intended to help you determine what further internal
areas or components you may need to examine during your audit:
Role and purpose:
• What is the role of the library in the community?
• What is the libary’s purpose?

Organizational structure:
• How are decisions and policies made?
• How does the staff work together and communicate? What are the library’s lines of
communication?
• What is the library’s technical structure (processes, procedures, and techniques).

• What is the library’s informal staff structure (leadership style, politics, status, rewards,
ideologies)?
Staffing:
• How many people, including volunteers and board members, work for your library?
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of your library staff? What special areas of
expertise does your library staff possess?
• What types of training and education does your library staff need? What training and
education resources are available and accessible by your staff?
Fiscal resources:
• What is the library’s annual budget?

• What are funding sources for the library?

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