Calling It Quits: How to Evaluate Library Services and Decide What to Stop Doing

Scheduled: Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 1:00pm–2:30pm, Central Time

As we recover from a period of disruption with COVID and simultaneously head into a new era of fiscal uncertainty, library leaders need to realign service offerings with current organizational priorities and resources. In this interactive session, we will introduce a new model that we designed and applied at our large research library to redefine, reevaluate, and right-size research service offerings to better align with current staffing levels and support work-life balance for staff. Our model includes: (1) a rubric designed to aid in the evaluation of service offerings against available resources and campus needs; (2) a reusable checklist to support the sunsetting of services; and (3) a service template to clarify ongoing services for internal and external audiences. In our session, participants will use our model to engage in hands-on learning as they assess the sustainability and resource levels of the service offerings at their own institution. They will be positioned to identify potential service changes and to develop internal and external communication strategies for supported change. We will also infuse our session with suggestions for change management practices that center people and support them as individuals.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Develop awareness of a model for evaluating their libraries’ services in order to set priorities and plan improvements.
• Consider different factors and stakeholders in order to align their libraries’ services with larger institutional or local priorities.
• Identify best practices from change management in order to effectively lead their teams and libraries through challenging processes.

Audience

Library managers and directors who oversee the work of teams or services.

Presenter(s):

Erinn Aspinall, MSI, AHIP, is the Senior Director of the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Libraries (HSL).  In this role, she guides HSL initiatives and Services, ensuring that resources align with strategic priorities, that program development is guided by continuous improvement, and that users have a consistent experience across HSL’s full range of services.  On an occasion or two, this has meant that she has had to close long-standing services while balancing the needs of library staff and key partners.

Danya Leebaw, MLIS, is the Director of Social Sciences at the University of Minnesota Libraries. Her department includes subject librarians, the Map Library, the Mapping Prejudice Project, and the Government Publications Library. Previously, she was a social sciences librarian at Carleton College and a business librarian at Emory University. Her research is primarily concerned with management and labor issues for academic librarians, typically through a worker-centered, critical theoretical lens.

Emma Molls, MLIS, is the Director of Open Research & Publishing (ORP) at the University of Minnesota. The department includes research data services, research information management, open access publishing, and is home to the Data Curation Network. Emma previously served as the publishing librarian at the University of Minnesota and as a social science and scholarly communication librarian at Iowa State University. Emma’s most recent interests included implications of AI in peer review and diamond open access.