NISO Training Series: Project Management for the Information Community: Managing and Communicating the Process, April 12, 2019, Session Eight: Applying Project Management to Academic Libraries

NISO runs two, eight-week online training series each year, typically designed to provide early to mid-career information professionals with guidance on specific aspects of their roles, which they can then put into practice in their day-to-day work. Each session is recorded, shared immediately with participants, and made openly available after two years.

Kate McCready is the Director of the Content Services department at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Kate provides oversight for the University of Minnesota’s Interlibrary Loan borrowing efforts, facilitating our affiliates reuse of published content through copyright permissions, while also providing publishing services and infrastructure that support the creation, production, and dissemination of UMN faculty and instructor produced digital scholarship. Formerly, she engaged heavily in project management work as the director of Experts@Minnesota which creates profiles for University of Minnesota faculty to allow for research networking and the discovery of our institution’s expertise. She has also been the project manager for EthicShare, a research environment created for the field of bioethics by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Bioethics, University Libraries, and Department of Computer Science that now resides at Johns Hopkins University. In 2017, Kate and Kirsten Clark co-chaired the University Libraries’ Project Management Processes Task Force, which created lightweight project management standards for their organization. Kate is a librarian, with an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Kirsten Clark is Director for Access and Information Services Department at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Staff in her department focus on a variety of services and subject specialties including Course Reserves, Undergraduate Services, User Experience, Security, Government Publications, Maps/GIS, Access Services, Collections Management, and Information Services. Before coming to the University, she worked as project manager for an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant, Government Information in the 21st Century, focusing on development of a government information train-the-trainer program for five states in the Southwest. She serves on the LLAMA Project Team: Project Management which is currently conducting an environmental scan of project management practices in libraries. In 2017, Kirsten and Kate McCready co-chaired the University Libraries’ Project Management Processes Task Force, which created lightweight project management standards for their organization.

Maureen Adamson is an information industry consultant offering business planning grounded in market research and market insights, optimizing knowledge of appropriate enabling technologies to deliver on business and organizational goals. Projects often include qualitative and quantitative market research and analysis of market needs, trends, and value propositions. Assignments can also include product / service development. Her approach to business planning and project management focuses on the importance of understanding goals and context, clear objectives and communications. This includes bringing marketing and technical knowledge into the planning process to ensure strategic goals are pre-eminent in development.