In the Hands of Customers: Improving Efficiency & Availability of Materials @ Montgomery County Public Libraries, MD

About the Program

Category: Libraries (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL), MD, implemented a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Model to improve the efficiency of its Collection Management unit. The model began in April 2018 and has been used to perform in-depth analysis of the practices of the Purchasing, Receiving, Fiscal, Selections, Processing and Cataloging sections within Collection Management. The CPI model assisted with establishing workflow metrics for each section and a total “turnaround time” metric for the unit. The Collection Management team was able to identify areas of blockage and redundancy that hinder overall process. The team worked to establish new procedures, to modify workflows for each section and, in some instances, to eliminate wasteful “legacy” practices. Applying the CPI Model resulted in the Collection Management unit reducing the “turnaround time” from months to an average of one week.