2012 Best Practices for Government Libraries

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BEST PRACTICES 2012
Consider having more than one staff member attend the visit, if possible.
Two sets of eyes, ears, and understandings are preferable to one. It’s also
good to designate an official notetaker from among your staff for the
meeting.
Each visit will take up to two hours, not counting travel time.
Shortly after the visit, schedule a debrief to compare notes on what you
heard and saw.
Take careful note (and collect business cards, if possible) of the people you
talk to. You will want to write a thank you email to those who spent time
with you and you may have some follow-up questions.
Are there any potential issues?
Some libraries may not want to benchmark right now and/or the timing is
bad for scheduling a benchmarking meeting. Libraries that are getting ready
to move or those with several staff vacancies may not be able to benchmark
for a few months. Back off if it seems clear that a library cannot benchmark
at the present time.
Each library you visit will have a different comfort level with what information
they can share. Financial information, like the overall library budget or the
library content budget, or some personnel information may be off limits.