Every Time Someone Retires, You're Starting Over

As the Director of a multi-campus library, you would assume that I know everything possible about my department's history, role within the college, and internal processes, right?

Wrong! In fact, when I began in my role as Academic Librarian and also during most of my time as Director, there was one person I relied on more than any other to answer my questions: the library technician that had been there for over 10 years.

That's right, it wasn't my boss, the previous Director, or even my peers in the field. The library technician, who was often looked over by administration due to her lower role, held an immense amount of institutional knowledge that was absolutely key to my decision-making and management. Thanks to her, I understood the rapport that existed, or needed to be created, between our departments and others. I learned about the historicity of the library's role and how the archival collections had lost their needed recognition. I knew about the day to day processes and why they had been created when others failed.

Of course, this doesn't mean that I relied only on her institutional knowledge. There were times I disagreed with her assertions or decided to do something that had failed in the past to see what would happen this time. However, the difference was that I wasn't starting from zero. I was building off a foundation to create a brighter future for our department based on reliable information, not guesswork or personal preference.

When she announced her retirement, we made a plan to document every piece of information that she had in her brain. Everything from her Outlook QuickParts to the history of our laptop loaning program went into a position binder that was passed on to the next library technician so that they could be successful and our department could continue moving forward.

Now I ask you: how much essential information has walked out the door when someone retires or leaves? What processes are constantly being re-created and what mistakes are being repeated over and over because your institutional knowledge has been lost? Who in your institution are you overlooking that has that important information?

If you're ready to chat about a way to manage this essential but often unwritten information so that your institution, program, or department can build up instead of constantly re-starting, book a free 30-minute virtual meeting with me and let's get to work.