Consulting and Consultants have always been a 'given' in the Iowa Library Community. But I wonder if you know how endangered they actually are! The Iowa Library community of consultants and their staff are dwindling, and this means that our own consultant, Bonnie with her trusty help, Janie, have had to scramble to keep up with the demand. (i.e. NW staff has gone from 7 fte to just 2 in less than 10 years) You all probably know the results of that: the birth of the Northwest Consultant Team. This year's PLA was a once in a Blue Moon chance for us to showcase this surprisingly fresh idea. And Surprise! Systems and consultants from all across the country who find themselves in the same dire state of short-handedness came to find out 'how it's done'!
As many as 10 states passed through Bonnie's round table "Rethinking our Workforce", all sharing the same tale of financial cuts to library consulting. This economic fact makes Northwest's team approach to consulting a very Cool idea indeed! Both Dave Netz, a NW library board member, and Tena Hansen were there to field questions as well as to offer thoughts from a board member/consultant point of view along with Bonnie who spearheaded the whole thing. All those who stopped in asked great questions, but what delighted us the most was that with all the questions, our team already had answers!
Not only did Northwest offer a great new strategy for consulting, but we learned as well! There will always be ways to improve our service to our clients (That's you guys!) and to improve the quality of our team and we picked up some great ideas from those who stopped in to chat with us.
Join us in more 'outside the box' thinking as we seek ways to meet needs and improve the quality of our services.
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