NAHSL: News

Melis Lydston: Bridging the Gap Between Librarians and Administrators: How to Clarify and Demonstrate Your Library's Value

Reflections from a 2025 NAHSL MLA Scholarship winner.

Thank you to the NAHSL Professional Development Committee whose support allowed me to attend my very first MLA Annual Meeting! I attended virtually and was immediately drawn to the panel called "Transforming Perceptions: Showcasing Your Library as a Value-Driven Partner" after recent layoffs rocked our institution. The talk was unique because it featured not just library directors (Melissa Rethlefsen at the University of New Mexico and Michelle Kraft at the Cleveland Clinic) but also a VP of Finance (Rebecca Napier at the University of New Mexico). Here are my biggest takeaways from that session:

• Couple your library's data with a narrative for the biggest impact. Anecdotal stories on their own are insufficient and lack data. Data without context is dry and lacks meaning. Instead, weave salient data points into a story.
• Anecdotes on their own will work, however, for donors. Michelle told donors about a patient who had triple bypass surgery and would walk to the library and silently thank the library staff for the information they provided to his doctor. That story secured their donation.
• Get creative with the data you collect. Melissa and Michelle spoke about tracking gate counts, minimum salaries, instruction sessions, literature searches, and doc del transactions. But they also had more creative ideas. Michelle spearheaded a project after noticing open access costs were scattered across line items in various budgets. By tracking and consolidating those items, she was able to save the hospital 1.7 million through OA agreements. They also spoke about keeping track of bibliometrics for staff and providing them during annual review time.
• Link the library's data to larger objectives, like compliance requirements, your supervisor's goals, yearly benchmarks, and/or your organization's strategic plan. The speakers offered practical suggestions for this. One was leveraging the library's participation in residents' education, since education in residency programs correlates to Medicare reimbursement. Another was proving how the library contributes to "community benefit," something organizations must demonstrate to maintain tax-exempt status, by working with your finance team. Also, ICMJE, LCME and various centers of excellence include objectives that map to library science, which you can cite when justifying library expenses.
• De-jargonize your library's work! The audience was reminded that words like ILL and ILS integrations are meaningless to administrators. Instead, say, "We're moving to a completely new platform that the entire library runs on" or use metaphors for things like streaming services to clarify licensing and subscriptions.
• Create a brand strategy for your library and think about aesthetics. If your information isn't visually appealing, people won't take it in. Overall, it was a useful session that got me thinking about how to make the achievements of our library more visible and easily understood by folks outside the library. 

Melis Lydston

Knowledge Specialist for Research & Instruction
Treadwell Library