We continue to put pieces of the necessary infrastructure in place to support the project moving forward. Up until now PLS has carried the responsibility for project management and coordination using existing resources and a small injection of external contract support. However the project is now moving into a more resource intensive phase which is beyond the existing resources of PLS. On this basis we recently advertised throughout the public service for a suitably experienced change manager. Jo Freeman, who is currently the PLS Business Development Manager has successfully won the position.
What will Jo’s role be? While the selection and technical implementation of a shared LMS is a big job, the much larger component of this project is the change management aspects. And given that many of the changes need to be thought through now it is important that we get someone into this role as the 1st dedicated project resource. We are looking to assist the consortium to develop policies, principles and rules to operate seamlessly. We acknowledge that there will be a need for changing workflows in all participating libraries which will involve both staff training and implementation. There will also need to be information provided to the community etc.
It is our expectation that Jo will work as the “glue” between all of the libraries going live, the technical implementation team and the vendor to support and in some cases lead the changes. Jo has already commenced doing some of this through her support for the Interim User Group and her involvement with the Evaluation Team as the project’s probity officer. As we get closer to implementation Jo’s work will step up and her presence will be more visible to participating libraries.
If you want to know more about this role or the project please drop me a comment on this blog or give me a call.
We anticipate that we will be appointing a library systems expert / project officer late this year in preparation for the finalisation of a project plan with the selected LMS vendor. I will keep you posted about this appointment as we get closer to the time when they will come on-line.
