BW Guide2 Library Science Doku Wiki

This page is read only. You can view the source, but not change it. Ask your administrator if you think this is wrong.
Week 7:
7/3-7/9
Management
(Domain 6)
Readings in Canvas Discussion post

Millar discusses many of the constraints that affect the operation and management of an archival institution in the chapter titled “Managing the Institution.” She refers to these as frameworks and identifies legislative, regulatory, and administrative among them. She highlights the need to develop an institutional vision, perform a goal audit using SWOT, establish a policy framework, deal with administrative aspects including financial requirements, income generation, facilities management, information technology requirements, and labor practices. She concludes with the need to measure the inputs, outputs, and outcomes of the archival institution. (Millar, 2010). And the various elements she highlights in these areas can be fruitfully augmented by studying materials from domains as diverse as political economy to informatics to institutional psychology as well as all the best practices and domain specific knowledge that makes up the Body of Knowledge for archival science and practice.

I would like to apply some insights from the management theory known as TOC (Theory of Constraints) (developed by Eliyahu Goldratt as a way to improve operational efficiencies at manufacturing plants and later applied more broadly to any organization as a way to achieve management guided by focused, continuous improvement of its goals) to the question of this week’s discussion: What do you believe are the most essential components of a “managerial vision” in the archives setting?

The most fundamental task is to be a good steward of the archival entity and begin any consideration of “managerial vision” with acknowledging the need to safeguard the continuing existence of the archival entity. Simply state, keep it alive and help it thrive. This is the foundational imperative of management and holds even more true for an entity that is meant to collect, protect, respect, and preserve the past. An entire network of constraints define and make possible the mission of the archival entity. Budget, rules, social conditions, quality of staff and volunteers, the overall economy, social conditions of the surrounding community, the political climate, archival ideologies and practices, and thousands more that we could identify with more time and need. Each archival entity will have a different mix of constraints depending on the time, place, resources, and goals and it will manifest its responses in idiosyncratic policies and actions depending on which constraints it focuses on most.

There will be many similar constraints in the domain of archival institutions but the mix will vary in strength for each individual entity – but this will create similarities and echoes of practice. Overlaid over these typical constraints will be factors unique to each institution including the collection materials with special feature and rules from donors. The social character of the surrounding community will also shape constraints unique to the archival entity. These are the elements Millar identifies as frameworks and we can think of them as bundles of similar constraints.

So what then is purpose or goal of archival entity?

Essentially an archival entity is defined by the various projects it undertakes. Without projects, we would be discussing a warehouse for records. The purpose of an archive is to add value to the collections under its control. The archival entity becomes a constraint for its collection(s) – acting as a container (Holding the collection) and constraining how the collection will be used and who and under what terms can have access to it. It plays the dual function of providing access and distributing that access under the guidance of its policies, those of its patron entity, professional ethics, and administrative practices.

So beyond the foundational, existential constraints, the primary reason for the archive to exist is to manage various projects in its scope of mandate and guide the output of the various products of its projects – finding aids, indexes, transcriptions, digitized representations, research services, community outreach, etc. in a similar vein. The manager should be working to generate the most qualitative outputs possible within the given constraints of resources and rules while safeguarding the existential health of the archive in terms of continued inputs of money, volunteers, collection materials, patrons, and reputation.

There is no single management vision that can succeed for long because the constraints and the constraints of the larger context shift and evolve over time. If a source of money that has been tapped from decades goes away, the management vision will need to adjust in unpredictable ways to find and receive new money and that many mean a change in the character of the archival entity. It may mean reduced services. It may mean decommissioning. And within this foundational management role are many control processes: facility management, regulatory compliance, collection integrity, worker/volunteer management, budgetary management, information technology, security, etc.

Ideally, the manager of an archival entity tackles the most urgent bottlenecks to efficient operation and as they are addressed successfully moves to the next bottleneck in process of continuous, focused improvement. Awareness of constraints is the most fundamental aspect of managerial vision and reflects a keen ability to understand how the whole system interacts and where are the most potent leverage points to keep it alive and thriving.

By focusing on constraints, management of an archival entity can assume a more intuitive character. This is the essence of seeing as opposed to merely looking.

And if you prefer a more spiritual expression of this idea, I would recommend The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Mushashi - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Five_Rings (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. - which has become a classic business management and strategy guide for Japanese and American managers.  

And for more food for thought from a modern systems-oriented mindset, I recommend the work of Donella Meadows - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_leverage_points (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. 

----------------

Goldratt, E. M. Theory of constraints. Great Barrington, MA: North River Press.

Meadows, D. H. 2008. Thinking in systems; A primer. Vermont, USA: Chelsea Green Publishing.

Millar, L. A. (2010). Archives: principles and practices. New York: Neal-Schuman.