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Reference and Information Services
3 (2-2)
Product management: a new
skill for reference
librarians?.
Author: Smith, Rebecca A.
Source: Reference & User Services Quarterly v. 39
no2 (Winter 1999) p. 121-7
ISSN: 0033-7072 Number: BLIB00004524
Copyright:
The magazine publisher is the copyright holder of this article and it is reproduced
with permission. Further reproduction of this article in violation of the copyright is
prohibited.
The broad range of offerings and the intese competition characteristic of today's
marketplace present interesting challenges to the creators and providers of goods
and services. Hammer and Champy said of service sector commerce, "consumers
expect and demand more, because they know they can get more."(FN1) The rapid
advances in computing and telecommunications, coupled with the far-reaching
changes in work patterns in our society, have created a demand for services not
only more rich in content but also more flexible in delivery. Retail customers, for
example, expect to get their goods quickly and at their convenience. Generally,
convenience is defined as being able to place orders for goods at any hour, on any
day, using the desktop or telephone, and having the products delivered by overnight
express to almost any location. The success in this environment of firms such as
Land's End, MacWarehouse, and Amazon.com has fostered a heightened level of
expectation among consumers.
This expectation generates pressure on service-sector organizations (such as
banks, information services, and libraries) to act with equal speed and flexibility.
These organizations have reacted in many innovative ways, none more important
than emphasizing customer support. An important aspect of customer support often
involves product management. Product management could prove to be a new
competency for academic reference librarians/information specialists in the future,
especially if they plan to be central to a university's priorities.
THE CLIMATECHANGING TECHNOLOGY AND SERVICE DELIVERY
OPTIONSThe rapid evolution of computing technology in financial institutions has
revolutionized the nature of banking services. As recently as the late 1970s, the vast
majority of customers had to go inside the main bank to check account balances,
obtain cash, make deposits, and perform transfers from one account to another. In
response to social and environmental trends, banks extended to their customers
similar services at branch banks and drive-through facilities, but these innovations
were fundamentally a limited extension of access to human-mediated service.
Technology changed this in the 1980s. The automatic teller machine (ATM) offered
menu-driven services, once exclusively provided by tellers, without the time
restrictions of banking hours. Currently, banks offer such services as electronic
fund transfers and bill paying over the Internet, so that customers can perform these
duties at their home or office. The Gartner Group recently reported that financial
institutions spent nearly $32 billion in 1998 on technology and communications, up
7 percent from the previous year.(FN2) Banks are now looking at technologies that
support releasing data over wireless pocket-sized communications tools.(FN3) This
immediate access to bank accounts has empowered customers, who now perceive
opportunities in managing their resources more efficiently and without much cost.
The Internet has created parallels in the delivery of services for library and bank
customers. In the library environment, the rapid evolution of electronic tools has
made it possible for libraries to offer a full range of services. In the late 1960s and
1970s, corporate and academic librarians searched commercial databases, such
as Lockheed's DIALOG and Mead Data Central's LEXIS, to retrieve citations or
abstracts of documents. The citations or abstracts were printed online at the
librarian's computer or sent to the user through the mail. Document delivery modes
evolved so that in the mid-1980s the content could be transmitted at higher data
speeds, captured, downloaded, and then mailed electronically to the user's desktop.
In the late 1980s, libraries began offering CD-ROMs so that users could come to the
library and perform searches themselves, keeping online searching costs down.
Technology in the early 1990s pushed the envelope with the advent of Mosiac and
the World Wide Web. The proliferation of Internet portals, commonly known as
search engines, has challenged librarians to keep up to date in order to point the
remote user to the appropriate tools. The now-chaotic Web is becoming more
ubiquitous with content aggregators, such as Primark and OCLC, as well as bits of
free data on organizational and personal home pages. Libraries can offer a
potentially unlimited number of databases to the end-user, and the user might not
ever need to come to the library.
THE CLIENTSUSER NEEDS FOR INFORMATIONWith users' abilities to do more
from their home base, the Internet now is perceived as a more convenient substitute
for materials found in the library. The Wall Street Journal Interactive (WSJIA), for
example, is free if an individual subscribes to the print newspaper. This database
allows the user to search for articles, obtain stock quotes, or examine detailed job
advertisements. In the academic world, which now mirrors the corporate sector,
business professors and students subscribe to products such as WSJIA, even if the
library has a subscription. Because of the perception that the Internet is free or
inexpensive, these same users, as reported widely throughout the literature, first
look for information using the Web, even if the sites are questionable in content and
it takes them hours to perform the research. A recent survey by Geffert and
Christensen suggests that in fact that incoming students think the material on the
Internet is just as reliable as books and articles in the library.(FN4).
In contrast to undergraduates, experienced researchers expect information to be
both accurate and organized for them in order to increase their productivity. Those
in the economics or business disciplines, for example, prefer their data to be in a
time series. Professors and Ph.D. students, in particular, want a historical archive
of articles or working papers when possible. The researcher might start with the
Internet because it is readily available. The proliferation of books, serials, and
datafiles produces reams of information and users are often unsure where to begin.
As librarian Michael Lavin commented about business research, "All researchers
must confront an inescapable fact: Information is a boundless resource and no one
can acquire all possible information on a given topic. The sheer mass of available
data makes research difficult and most material unearthed in a search will be
irrelevant to the user's immediate needs."(FN5) Moreover, academic researchers
have discovered that they have many choices not only regarding delivery mode but
also the content of the information tools. Information is a highly segmented
commodity. Adrian Slywotzky aptly pointed out in his book, Value Creation, that
customers are brand switching to high-level substitutes.(FN6) Users can buy slices
of data from proprietary databases that often include numeric data that can be
arranged in many different formats. Vendors frequently market and sell these
products directly to the users, such as the Wharton Research Data Services
(WRDS) data retrieval system, which provides interfaces to Institutional Brokers'
Estimates (I/B/E/S), and Standard & Poor's COMPUSTAT databases.
Vendors directly selling to the users sometimes appall academic librarians, who see
their role as mediators of information being bypassed. However, librarians need to
recognize that this new environment has created a plethora of choices and
capabilities for end-users. If academic librarians hope to compete successfully in
the information marketplace, they will have to restructure reference service. Enyart
and Smith already have suggested that reference staff, in maintaining their status as
a major delivery vehicle, need to consider themselves a marketing force.(FN7) The
front-line staff can scan the environs to find out what services and products
university clientele have identified as their information priorities. With marketing as
a primary function, one of the new services to be horizontally integrated is
managing product lines for the library. Reference librarians are evolving into more
than just subject specialists who are familiar with print materials; they are the
"product managers" of all kinds of resources. They are the experts to whom users
can turn when they need specialized information. However, if users within the
institution cannot obtain the information in a timely manner, they will bypass the
library and not see it as a necessary service or resource. An administrator
expressed it well: "If I am a student who needs to hop on a database that I can get
in my own department but can't get in the library, then in my own mind the library
will not be central to my needs."(FN8).
THE SOLUTION OF BUSINESSTHE EVOLUTION OF PRODUCT
MANAGEMENTThe rapid advances in computing and telecommunications have
created a demand for services not only more rich in content but also more flexible in
delivery. An important aspect of customer support often involves product
management, loosely defined as becoming knowledgeable about a product and then
implementing its most effective use within an organization. Product managers (PMs)
in marketing organizations are those who are "responsible for a product, product
line, or several distinct products in a group."(FN9) They continually evaluate the
performance of their products, devise appropriate policies, and consider the
potential market. Procter & Gamble first employed product managers in 1927. One
of their new soaps, Camay, was not selling well in the marketplace. One of the
employees was assigned to focus on the development and promotion of Camay.
This initiative was successful, paving the way for additional product
managers.(FN10) Many companies that manufacture consumer and information
products, as well as those who distribute them in the retail sector, employ product
managers or buyers (as they are known in the retailing industry).
Marketing departments, whether they are in manufacturing companies or financial
institutions, are organized as product management teams. Each team consists of
program, product, and resource managers. Program managers create, implement,
and monitor strategies and plans, and make changes when necessary. Product
managers are generally matrixed along with functional managers who are
responsible for market research, advertising, and sales. Together, functional and
product managers share accountability for the following activities: planning for the
long term; devising the annual marketing plan; developing advertising plans with
agencies; and stimulating and sustaining support of the sales force. Product
managers continually evaluate the performance of their products, devise
appropriate use procedures and consider other potential markets. They talk with
customers and obtain feedback from them about their priorities. PMs also introduce
new products in order to replace those that are entering the decline phase of their
life cycles. These managers ensure that the mix of the available products is right, in
terms of similar kinds of products and their targets. They also work with other
product managers to coordinate product lines and ensure that the products offered
align with the company's overall marketing strategy.
Product management is not a new concept to librarianship. In their 1984 landmark
study concerning the future education of librarians, Griffiths et al. set forth job
descriptions and competencies that would be needed for information professionals
in the twenty-first century. They asserted that one necessary competency would be
product management.(FN11) However, they saw product management more as a
skill set in the area of corporate information centers. The corporate information
specialist with these skills would supervise the loading of tapes or created in-house
databases to fit the clientele's information needs. This person would also track
usage to ensure that it had all of the functionality the database promised to deliver.
For academic reference librarians, this study suggested that competencies should
include knowledge of available vendor-supplied systems, services, and products to
support reference; knowledge of the contracting process, both in general and within
the organization; knowledge of methods to evaluate systems, services, and
products; and knowledge of public relations techniques. If taken broadly, these
criteria are similar to what a product manager would do within an academic library:
being proactive in seeking and championing all kinds of products.
The product management reported at Procter & Gamblearose when a particular
product line needed extra care and the attention of an expert. In the 1990s many
academic libraries, such as Texas A&M University (TAMU), branched out to meet
the increasing needs of their constituents and in the process restructured services.
TAMU's West Campus Library is a concrete example of how restructuring impacted
their services and resulted in product management.
AN ACADEMIC LIBRARY REACTIONRESTRUCTURING OF REFERENCE
SERVICES AT TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITYFollowing the trend of many academic
libraries in the 1970s, Texas A&M University centralized public services. Reference
librarians attempted to answer any user question, often out of their field of expertise
or subject background. Under this service model, some faculty and students were
frustrated because they were not able to find specific data needed for research or,
even worse, felt their research priorities were misunderstood. Users had good
reason for this concern: generalist librarians did not have the academic or subject
background to provide help for the in-depth service required.
Texas A&M University's campus experienced enormous growth, so that it needed a
branch library to serve ten thousand additional users. West Campus Library
(WCL), a special library offering subject expertise to business and agriculture
users, signaled a fundamental shift in the delivery of library services. The library
started with fourteen databases managed by one person who also did training and
documentation. Within eighteen months, the WCL LAN was connected to the LAN
in the main library, and the rapid expansion in the number of databases
demonstrated that the control span was too difficult for one person to handle.
In order to fulfill the demand for services, all of the reference librarians were asked
to share the responsibility for the WCL databases. Product management then
became one of their core duties. Additionally, WCL adopted the tiered-service
model similar to other models created by Babson College and Baker Library at
Harvard University.(FN12) The WCL reference librarians became liaisons to twelve
departments in the colleges of business and agriculture. Collection development,
previously the province of bibliographers at the main library, was gradually
reassigned to WCL liaisons. Over a four-year period, the WCL reference
department moved from a relative traditional model of service to one in which the
broader concept of product management redefined their responsibilities.
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT WITHIN AN ACADEMIC LIBRARY CONTEXTThe library
product management process contains five facets: discovery (conferences, product
flyers, Web pages); evaluation (vendor contact, product comparison); initial
negotiation (with concert with a functional manager); implementation (systems group
involvement, help sheet development, staff training); and troubleshooting (which also
gives customer feedback) (figure 1).
Here is an example of how the product management process might work in the
selection and acquisition of a database for the library. In the discovery phase, the
PM finds out about certain products during a conference, receives a flyer, views a
product on the Web, or perhaps hears about certain databases from listservs such
as SLABF-L or BUSLIB-L. With the approval of the resource manager, who is often
the head of collection development or the library director, the PM shepherds the
evaluation of the database by contacting the vendor, arranging for demonstrations
and trial installation. The PM then tests the database, often consulting with selected
library faculty and users. The PM considers pricing, indexing, licensing, platform,
technologies of the clientele, sources within the database, and comparable
products. If there is support to obtain a subscription to the database, the PM goes
back to the resource manager to seek available monies. If the budget allows, and
depending whether the product manager is very knowledgeable and confident about
dealing with vendors, the PM could initiate the negotiation process. However, it is
more common for the product manager to hand negotiations off to a functional
manager, in this case, the electronic coordinator for database licensing. The
coordinator shores up the final details with the vendor.
Once the library administration and university attorneys have finalized the contract,
the implementation mode consists of working with the library systems group for
installation. If the documentation that accompanies the product is nonexistent or
inadequate, it is up to the product manager to develop help sheets and other user
aids. The need for additional documentation is particularly acute for numeric
databases where the use can involve many specific steps. The product manager
then gives the help sheet to the reference team, which reviews it for clarity and
content. If the database is heavily serial-oriented, a list of its indexed publications is
put into a notebook accessible in the reference area.
After databases have been made accessible on the library's system, the product
managers then work with a quality control person. This staff member checks all of
the databases that are on the LAN on a weekly basis and reports any problems to
the library systems staff and any databases that are not functioning properly to the
PMs. When there is a problem that cannot be fixed by local systems staff, the PM
performs the troubleshooting for problems related to such issues as licensing,
timeliness, or basic functionality of the product. In performing these tasks, a
product manager might need to interact with a wide number of parties, ranging from
the library's own acquisitions staff to vendors.
Lastly, the product manager promotes the products by giving or arranging for
training on the new databases, as well as sending e-mails to the business and
agriculture library representatives. Comments or questions about the new databases
are fed back to the vendors if improvements are repeatedly suggested.
THE PAYOFFTHE CHALLENGES AND BENEFITS OF PRODUCT
MANAGEMENTThe process of product management brings new challenges. There
is considerable followup, not to mention overlap on some subject specialties. For
example, a specific Web site purchased for one area can apply to another. In that
case, the nonproduct manager, liaison, or reference librarian, who might not be as
familiar with a certain product, inadvertently could mislead the user about the
potential of the content. The product manager or liaison might not find out about this
before the user has left the building.
As mentioned earlier, liaisons would manage print products as well as databases.
As a result, the product management of many platforms will become more
intertwined as each liaison obtains customer feedback from the various
departments. But another challenge is that product managers will not always agree
with each other on which products to retain or promote, especially if the product
manager has certain biases about particular products. One product manager might
like some of the products of a certain vendor but believe the repackaging brings too
much overlap and repetition. If another product manager likes that vendor and wants
to buy many products, but does not understand about the business practices of the
company, that product manager could be spending more out of the budget than
intended. The supervisor has to be certain that there are enough resources
available for each product manager and work out the conflicts in philosophies of
resource allocation. Product management, particularly with knowledge work,
requires a great deal of team effort, although it might be more like what Drucker has
described as "jazz-combo" in nature.(FN13) All of this leads to strategic planning for
the business unit and a process to determine how it fits within the goals of the
library.
The benefits of product management outweigh the challenges, especially in
attempting to keep up with many of the products on the market. It is easier to spread
knowledge around the team, where each specialist is an expert on several
databases or subjects and can cross-train the others on the team. Training, an
essential part of product management, is particularly important in a tiered-service
environment. The front-line staff is expected to know the basics of many databases
because the users are anticipating immediate service when they call or walk in the
room. Front-line staff members, who provide general customer support, can get the
user started; a product manager can help with specific strategies. Time savings and
accuracy, coupled with making the user feel welcome to ask questions, are
attributes of good service. Experiencing this, there is a good probability the user
may return for more suggestions for sources to consult when other projects arise.
CONCLUSIONBanks have already discovered that technology is a siren song for
the consumer. However, banks recognize they need to offer some amount of human
contact for questions about services, such as about mortgage application
procedures or the use of PC banking services. If the customers cannot receive the
services they desire, they can and will switch banks. Similarly, as Enyart and Smith
have pointed out, "libraries no longer have a monopoly on the provision and
distribution of information. As we face competition for information stewardship, it is
the quality of service we provide that will determine our fate."(FN14).
Product management has been suggested as one of the many new competencies
for academic librarians, allowing them to compete in the marketplace. This skill will
be essential, given that users can already go around the library for some of their
information needs, simply by using existing technologies. However, if users
continue to perceive academic librarians as knowledgeable and service-oriented,
the library will remain central to a university's mission and goals. To this end, Texas
A&M University successfully has integrated product management into its West
Campus Library, with the main library liaisons to soon follow its lead. However,
further study will be needed to measure its full impact on users, since the process
has been implemented only in the last couple of years.
While product management appears to be tedious and laborious at times, the
process is useful because it allows the librarian or product manager to become very
familiar with both the content and some of the technical aspects of the databases. A
recent survey by the Phase 5 Consulting group reported that corporate librarians
spend about 16 percent of their time on product management/development.(FN15)
This figure is comparable to the time spent by WCL librarians on product
management. Thus, expertise is developed for when problems arise or if the user
has specific information needs. Conscientious product management, as another
competency, can increase our knowledge and experience by raising our
effectiveness at the reference desk, developing better library instruction programs,
and promoting more relevant strategic planning for the future.
Added material.
Rebecca A. Smith, Guest Columnist.
Rebecca A. Smith is Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University, College Station;
rebecca-smith@tamu.edu. The author would like to thank Charles Gilreath and
Joseph Zumalt of Texas A&M University and Sharon Sandall for their inspiration and
able assistance. A special acknowledgement belongs to retired director Jane Dodd,
who introduced and practiced product management at West Campus Library.
Figure 1 Product Management Process.
FOOTNOTES1. Michael Hammer and James Champy, Reengineering the
Corporation: A Manifesto for Business Revolution (New York: Harper-Business,
1994).
2. Frank Cerne, "Customer Focus Fuels Banks' Technology Spending Plans," Bank
Technology News (Feb. 1, 1999): 1.
3. Lori Pizzani, "Banks Ponder the Power of New Internet Gadgets," Bank
Technology News (Feb. 1, 1999): 1.
4. Bryan Geffert and Beth Christensen, "Things They Carry: Attitudes toward,
Opinions about, and Knowledge of Libraries and Research among Incoming College
Students," Reference & User Services Quarterly 37 (Spring 1998): 279-89.
5. Michael R. Lavin, Business Information: How to Find It, How to Use It (Phoenix:
Oryx Press, 1987): 4.
6. Adrian Slywotzsky, Value Creation: How to Think Several Moves Ahead of the
Competition (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996).
7. Michael G. Enyart and Rebecca A Smith, "Reference Services: More than
Information Chauffeuring," Special Libraries 87 (Summer 1996): 156-62.
8. Deborah J. Grimes, Academic Library Centrality: User Success through Service,
Access, and Tradition (Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries,
American Library Association, 1998): 81.
9. Philip Kotler, Marketing Management, 4th ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1980): 584-89.
10. Ibid., 585.
11. Jose-Marie Griffiths, Paula Meise Strain, and Ellen A. Sweet, New Directions in
Library and Information Science Education, Final Report. Volume 2.7: Information
Center/Clearinghouse Professional Competencies. (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Center
for Libraries and Education Improvement, 1984 (ED 1.310/2:265860, 1984).
12. L. Allison Ounanian, "The Informerger: A Reference Service Delivery Model,"
Business Information Review 13 (June 1996): 119-28; Allison Ounanian and Karol
Bartlett, "Upstaris, Downstaris: Public Service Initiatives at Baker Library," Business
Information Review 14 (June 1997): 89-95.
13. Peter F. Drucker, Managing in a Time of Great Change (New York: Truman
Talley Books, 1995): 98.
14. Enyart and Smith, "Reference Services: More than Information Chauffeuring,"
160.
15. Doug Church. "Breaking Free of the Reference Shackles," Information Outlook
3 (March 1999): 18-23.
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