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Recently, OERI'S Library Programs' State Programs Division held regional workshops for its major customers--state library personnel who administer the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA). The workshops focused on customer needs and ways of improving services such as program administration, LSCA products and services, and technological applications to program administration, dissemination and information sharing, and fiscal management.
Some of the questions we asked our customers were: What has the Office of Library Programs done well that you use? How can we redesign the reporting and evaluation process without losing critical information? Answers to these questions and suggestions and comments from the sessions are now being evaluated and synthesized so that they can be shared with workshop participants.
Preliminary findings from the workshops indicate a desire for more visits by program staff; annual regional or national meetings to foster communication and learning among state program staff; electronic communcation of applications and reports that could be accessible to all; additional training for new state coordinators; and shorter, clearer, better indexed regulations. Over the next few months, LP staff will begin to group areas of need and form partnerships to move toward the development of customer service standards and measures of customer satisfaction.
The workshops were held in Seattle, Washington; Springfield, Illinois; Newton, Massachusetts; and Austin, Texas. The 80-plus attendees included state librarians, LSCA coordinators, fiscal officers, and other state library personnel. Participants received updates on new regulations, an overview of current legislative options for the future of the programs, and an opportunity to contribute to the redesign of the administrative process.
For more information about customer service initiatives in Library Programs, contact Robert Klassen at (202) 219-2293.
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