Crisis Management: Coping with Critical Vacancies

Registrants will receive viewing information before the conference.

Understanding and managing the growing and changing world of electronic resources and technical services is a daunting task, but it is vastly more challenging when key positions become vacant or remain unfilled. While most changes in libraries are difficult to anticipate, vacancies are a certainty for which there can and should be contingency plans. Chris Vidas will share his current experience with leading an Electronic Resources Team that lost a critical member while simultaneously undergoing changes in unit leadership. He will offer tips on how to prepare for expected and unexpected changes in personnel, how to manage prolonged vacancies, and how to set the stage for replacing key positions. In addition, he will share the strategies and techniques that his current unit and a previous unit utilized to stay afloat while short-staffed and lacking essential expertise. While his team is using this as a learning experience, valuable insight has already been gleaned that can help other librarians to prepare for and manage similar inevitable staffing crises.