Best of Core Forum: Navigating Institutional Change Through Collaboration and Use of Management Tools

Description: Over the past two years, the Collection Services department of our library faced numerous staff impacts including retirements, staff shortages, hiring freezes and potential budget cuts. To maintain access to library materials for our nearly 60,000 students, faculty and staff the department engaged in a collaborative approach. Utilizing management tools such as The Management Center’s MOCHA Framework, unit leads identified critical tasks that needed to be re-assigned. Series of conversations with department heads and staff resulted in coverage of tasks, and over time, rebalancing of duties until key positions were hired.

Presenters will briefly describe the challenges faced by our institution and the collaborative methodologies we used to address them. We will discuss The Management Center’s MOCHA Framework and how we used it to reassign critical work and support staff. Attendees will be given an opportunity to discuss challenges facing their institutions and practice using the MOCHA Framework.

This webinar was previously presented in-person as a session at the 2025 Core Forum. We are hosting this webinar, with the session adapted and presented live as a virtual event, to extend its reach.

Learning Outcomes: 

At the end of the webinar, attendees will be able to:

• Discuss two ways to form internal collaborations to address institutional change;
• Use the MOCHA Framework to create potential assignments for a critical task; and
• Identify two new resources that can be utilized to support navigating institutional change.

Who Should Attend: Managers/supervisors/department heads or those who have an interest in management in library settings. 

 

Presenter:

Dana Lema is currently an Assistant Librarian and the Discovery Unit Lead for the University of Arizona Libraries (UAL). She obtained her MLIS from San Jose State University. Her unit oversees all electronic resource, cataloging and library systems work for UAL. Her research interests include library management leadership trends and topics in user access and discovery.

Cindy Elliott is the Collection Management Unit Lead and librarian at the University of Arizona Libraries. Her unit manages the acquisition of library materials and the renewal of ongoing resources. Her research interests include collection management, acquisitions, licensing, collection assessment and electronic resources management.

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