Researcher’s Corner: Rightsizing
Rightsizing was not a term I had heard before coming across Kathleen Baril’s article. Like many folks, I’ve been thinking and worrying about economic uncertainty, possible recessions, and shaky funding in libraries. I was interested to read about this conceptual alternative to downsizing, and I think you will be to.
If this post whets your appetite and you’d like to read more, see the following citation:
Baril, K. (2025). Staffing rightsizing: analyzing staffing studies to inform potential rightsizing practices. Reference Services Review, 53(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-03-2024-0013
Rightsizing in Libraries
As academic institutions continue to face uncertainty with the upcoming demographic cliff in enrollment or due to recent changes in federal funding, institutions are looking for ways to reduce costs. Often when more drastic cuts are needed, institutions turn to personnel cuts to quickly reduce costs which is what is commonly called downsizing. Rightsizing is a more measured approach which is invested in both long and short term goals for the organization and tries to align the work of the unit to the organization’s goals. It is a carefully planned activity involving analysis of work. Rightsizing may or may not reduce costs or personnel as part of the analysis process.
Rightsizing can occur at any time but in libraries optimal times for rightsizing might be: the creation of new strategic plans or directions, a change in leadership, change in technology, the need to improve the user experience, retirements or current staff leaving positions. Any rightsizing activity should improve the library’s activities which could be an improvement in the efficiency of workflows or the improvement of the library’s services.
The library literature is mostly concerned with working with the effects of downsizing but some examples of rightsizing can be found. For example, there are several studies that looked at trends in staffing and expenditures. These trends could possibly assist libraries to benchmark their staffing and expenditures to advocate for more staffing or a larger budget. Libraries could rightsize on a macro level using this data.
Another approach found in the literature for determining staffing was activity analysis. In these studies, libraries analyzed tasks or a particular task within a unit to determine what staffing was needed and to find ways to be more efficient in the completion of the task. For example, several researchers (Fuller and Dryden, 2015 and Meert-Williston and Sandieson, 2019), analyzed their chat reference transcripts and looked at the questions being asked and who could best answer those questions. From this data, they could determine who needed to monitor their chat reference. There are various activities that could be analyzed in the library including how books are cataloged, activities at service points such as the circulation and reference desks, and how workflows are conducted for interlibrary loan. Activity analysis could be made fairly easy if data is already being collected (like the chat transcripts).
Another approach to rightsizing is for an organization to move to outsourcing. This practice can be controversial as often it is used to reduce costs by reducing staffing. This practice can be used in an ethical manner though for short-term projects or projects where specialized expertise is needed. For example, Michalak (2023) describes how his library utilized an outside vendor for a large deselection project. The vendor’s expertise in data analysis enabled the library to more easily identify good candidates for deselection and allowed for more efficient removal of materials. Oftentimes, especially for smaller libraries, budgeting to use an outside vendor to accomplish a task may be worth the extra money versus trying to train a staff member for a one-time task.
Rightsizing is an important practice as it aligns current work practices with the institution’s current strategic goals and vision. Even for libraries which are not part of a larger institution, as strategic directions change, work practices will need to develop to meet new directions. Whether it be analyzing smaller activities or looking at larger trends, embedding rightsizing into a library’s activities can enable it to be more nimble to address a variety of changes. Rightsizing can also enable libraries to maintain efficient services and mindfully manage their resources to best serve their users.
References:
Baril, Kathleen. 2025. “Staffing Rightsizing: Analyzing Staffing Studies to Inform Potential Rightsizing Practices.” Reference Services Review 53 (1): 43–51. Available at: doi:10.1108/RSR-03-2024-0013.
Fuller, K. and Dryden, N.H. (2015), “Chat Reference Analysis to Determine Accuracy and Staffing Needs at One Academic Library”, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 20 No. 3–4, pp. 163–181. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2015.1106999.
Meert-Williston, D. and Sandieson, R. (2019), “Online Chat Reference: Question Type and the Implication for Staffing in a Large Academic Library”, The Reference Librarian, Vol 60 No. 1, pp. 51–61. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/02763877.2018.1515688.
Michalak, R. (2023), “Outsourcing Technical Services to Streamline Collection Management: A Case Study of an Academic Library’s Book Reduction Project”, Journal of Library Administration, Vol. 63 No. 5, pp. 682–699. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2023.2219604.
Kathleen Baril is the director of the undergraduate library at Ohio Northern University. She enjoys working at a small academic library where she can work in a variety of areas: instruction, marketing, outreach, management and facilities planning. She considers herself lucky to work with colleagues both inside and outside the library who are student-centered and always looking for better ways to teach.