POLICY IMPLEMENTATION IN LIBRARIES AND INFO CENTRES

By Edger Mtitu
(System Librarian University of Iringa)
May 2nd, 2016
An Overview;
A

policy

formulation

is

basically

accompanied

or

originated

with

certain

problem/difficulties that stimulates for it to be created.

However for a policy to be implemented it needs things like: Regulations
Laws
Human Resources
Financial Resources
Planning (Priorities) for further implementation and;
Monitoring
What is a Policy?
Lasswell and Kaplan (2014) define policy as a projected program of goals, values
and practices. This means that there is need to have a clear direction with clear
objective with both moral and economical attributes with clear action plan.
Birkland (2010) defines policy as a statement by a government or institution of what
it intends to do for the public. He further added that, a policy can be a law,
regulation, order or decision.

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Policy in Libraries and Info Centres;

Can be defined as a frame work/blue print or roadmap through which an
information centre is guided in the managements of its facility such as staff,
resources and technology. Also a Policy is made to respond in various
problems.
Why do we have Policies?
There are several reasons to why we have policies;
Without policy there is no control in an organization.
Policy assists you in making and conducting your business activities correctly
and consistently.
Without policy there is no proper decision making in an organization.
Policies are there for guiding or directing on what to do and what not to do
in your organization.
Benefits of a written and updated policy are:
i.

Helping staff making to make decisions more efficiently.

ii.

To provide instructions on how to do various tasks through a job descriptions

and procedures manual.

iii.

To create confidence and reduce bias in decision making.

iv.

To protect staff from acting in a manner that might endanger their

employment.

v.

They help staff to initiate actions and take responsibility without constant
reference to the management.

vi.

Increases the accountability of the staff and organizations.

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vii.

The creation of policies is a good evidence of pro-active and forward-thinking

management

viii.
ix.

Policy provides general guidance in an organization to achieve its mission.

Policy

provides

mechanisms

on

how

to

achieve

the

organizations

goal/objectives and mission.

Policy Development;
Some steps to follow when developing a policy for organization or library are:i.

Identify and define the problem. (Think of the problem that necessitates
policy development).

Why having human resource/library policy?

To improve the knowledge, skills and consequently.
To improve performance of the Info Center/Library.
To retain the workers-motivations.
To maintain fair communication and sense team work in the library or an

organization.
Understanding what particular job requirements through job description.
ii.

Appoint a person to work on this or coordinating the policy development.

iii.

Make/Conduct a research to find out the specific pertaining problem.

Read documents pertaining to the problem.
Reading other organizations policies related to your policy.
Conduct the in-house survey through interviews to observe what is needed
to the staff to be included in the policy.
Seek for the legal advice.

iv.

Prepare a discussion paper/policy draft one sample.

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v.

Make consultations by circulating your discussion paper/policy draft one

sample to the people such as your organizations legal officer and
organizational management in order to collect some views and advices that
will finally be added to modify the created policy.

vi.

Develop a draft policy based on the views and advice from the legal officer
and management (as consulted on the above step number V).

vii.

Conduct consultations for proof reading the developed policy.

viii.

Adopt the policy based on the above proof readings and corrections.

ix.

Conduct the in-house communication by telling your fellow library staff

members/organization to what extent will they benefit from adopted policy.

Policy Implementation tools/Requirements;

i.

Legal framework (For policy implementation). Whereby there must be the

legal under the government that explains how to go about while
implementing any policy and these can be;
a) The Constitution This is the supreme law of the land. Thus, the
implementation of any policy should not violate the national
constitution.
b) Acts/Chatter This is the legal system of instructions for establishing
an institution/University that is approved and signed by the President
of the State; the law instruct everything on how to run an
institution/university since failure to that the university/institution can
be burned by the government from operating.
c) Regulations Are official rules or orders formulated to reinforce an
activity and normally they identify the problems.
d) Procedures manual These are step-by-step guide on how an activity
should be done.
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ii.

Strategic plan for policy implementations which includes the budget, human
resource, tools etc.

Reference
Lasswell and Kaplan (2014) Library policy. Montana: Montana State Library Press.
Birkland (2010). Connections policy and guidelines for libraries. McGraw Hill: Boston.

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