How Do I Do That?: Thinking About Documentation as a New Hire After a Long-Term Employee Retires

Registrants will receive viewing information before the conference.

When a key player in a department retires after 30 or more years on the job, key knowledge can be lost and the workflows may be left in limbo until a new person is hired. Moving into these situations can be challenging. What expectations were left by the former occupant? What is the state of the documentation? Where is there room for updates? Do current processes support the current goals of the department and library? Let’s look at how a new Acquisitions Librarian navigated these waters during their first few months. This presentation will discuss how the new hire figured out which processes and workflows needed to be tackled first, what new ideas could most easily be deployed, and what was succeeding as is. Since Acquisitions works closely with many areas of the library, the presenter will also touch on how other’s insight and knowledge was gathered and helped inform what was pursued first. Attendees will be able to engage in some brief Think, Pair, Shares over the course of the session focused on current views of documentation in their own workplaces.