Here is my farm. The farm is located in rural Northwestern Pennsylvania, about an hour from Lake Erie. There is no name for the area! The closest town is about 8 miles and has a population of about 300 or 5,000, depending on which direction you travel.
The farm is home to two dogs, 40 head of cattle, and an array of wildlife that amazes visitors. We have hundreds of birds, a flock of turkeys, flocks of ducks and geese, deer, bear, feral cats, and a few others. The dairy farm was purchased by my grandfather and my father took over the farm upon adulthood. I was born and raised there. As an adult I took over as the Operational Manager of the farm.
What does that mean?
It means running the day-to-day activities such as milking, caring for the animals, and disking, plowing, planting, mowing, and wrapping the bales of hay. It means budgeting, creating spreadsheets of services, inventory, expenses, and so forth. It is organizing the days, helpers, and resources. It is dealing with those entities that the farm relies upon: people that deliver, such as feed, gas, seed, and supplies; people that remove, such as milk, animals, garbage, and other used supplies; and people that provide services, such as the veterinarian, painters, animal care, tractor repair, and so on. The farm relies on so many people and entities and they have to be organized, paid, and keep abreast of what is needed. The farm is regularly inspected as well, and the operational manager must ensure that the supplies are in order, the facility is clean, the milk's bacteria count is low, and the cows are in good health. The operational manager must work with government representatives to ensure that the farm is in good working order and is following the many regulations and requirements set out by the governing bodies. It requires a great deal of planning: fields must be planted and harvested, cows must be impregnated and calves delivered, and supplies must be onsite when needed. This requires a great deal of organization and social astuteness, or otherwise bulls might not arrive in time for the breeding season (you want all the calves born in the spring), the milk tank may overflow, or the fields not be ready for harvest before the harsh winters.
And that is what a library requires as well.
Inventory, online and onsite resources, and staff are all essential. Patrons come to the library in order to find books, articles, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and sometimes for staples, tape, and simply help. Staff are onsite to assist them, but they also require many things to be great at their jobs. The Library Director is the one that ensures that all of this runs smoothly.
Budget It's all about the budget. For a farm, income is sparse in the lean months so you have to plan accordingly. Calves are born in the late winter to spring and that means little milk production (the main source of income). Mid-summer is the highest income, and all the months in between the income goes up and down. It is crucial to plan ahead. Equipment payments for us were July and December (thousands of dollars each). Feed must be purchased monthly, regardless of income. People that we contract on our farm must be paid regardless of income (in fact, they are often hired during months that the income is low). Seed, fertilizer, and fuel must be purchased in the spring, when the income is at its lowest. So the operational manager must plan out the year well in advance, knowing what will be purchased and when.
And that can be exactly how a librarian works as well. Faculty may request materials at inopportune times, but when they really need them for their classes. The Library Director must consider such purchases, without necessarily knowing when they will arise. But they must also ensure that all moneys are used appropriately before the end of the fiscal year so as all invoices are tallied well before the end dates.For example, iInventory of office supplies, book mending materials, and cataloging materials are used throughout the year, but can be purchased in bulk if the Director is careful to keep track of what has been used in the past and can anticipate future changes. At Haskell Library, at the University of Pittsburgh at Titusville, I was solely responsible for inventory and this is how I managed that responsibility. I carefully calculated what was used and when and how it related to our budget. This is ideal so as to allow the purchases to be made when money is available, but not necessarily when the supplies are need. But it is also crucial to not overstock. Ink can dry out, paper colors can fade. Books become outdated. Curriculum changes. Knowing what is needed when is crucial.
I provide examples of some of my spreadsheets and organizational materials here.
Faculty and Community Leader Contact The Library Director must have regular contact with faculty so as to know how the curriculum will likely change for classes. If a program is being eliminated, a topic is being added to a class, or any number of changes are made, then the library must know these.
For a farm, it works in much the same way. We have to keep abreast of changes to regulation, weather pattern changes, and new technologies. Knowledge really is power.
For the library, having copies of assignment sheets and syllabi are crucial as well. They give the library a heads up of which students will walk in the door asking for what information. If a history professor requires students to read modern biographies of a specific set of historical figures, then the library should have some of these biographies. If the nursing students must access the DSM-5, then the library should carry at least one copy.
The Library Director must attend faculty meetings, department meetings, and campus events where faculty are present and presenting. This will allow the librarian to keep abreast of the new trends within their own system.
For the Public Library, this will mean meeting with local authorities, school boards, and area professionals to be sure that they know what trends are hitting their town.
More Information
Want more ideas? If you're keen on Library as related to running a farm, maybe you'd also enjoy my thoughts on a basic Strategic Plan for an academic library. I give ideas for what steps to take in order to bring more patrons to the library with different types of programming and welcoming faculty and staff into the library community by including them in library tasks such as Collection Development, educational programming, and related endeavors. You could check out my views on Organizing a library.
Or you can view some of my past efforts with Instruction in the Library.