The Library Joint Departmental Committee (JDC) is a group of sixteen enthusiastic individuals who have joined together to improve services and the culture of the workplace in the Yale University Library. Springing out of the language of the current contract between Yale and its Unions, the Library JDC is committed to developing, improving, and recognizing Best Practices throughout the Library. Like our colleagues who participate in other JDCs across campus, we are developing strong partnerships between labor and management that are based on an emphasis on two-way communication, increased productivity, improvements to customer satisfaction, and an environment of enhanced employee satisfaction.

The contract language that led to the formation of our JDC is new, but the principals that underlie it are already well-developed in the Library. In 2002-03 the Library undertook a strategic planning exercise under the leadership of our University Librarian, Alice Prochaska. This planning process produced the Library's current mission statement and vision, and it also articulated the core values of integrity, respect, excellence, creativity and flexibility, and open communication as being essential to the Library and its future. During the strategic planning process, a Microcosm group that included members of Local 34, managers, librarians, and administrators worked together to incorporate our mission, vision, and values into the daily life of the Library. The Microcosm group's final report with recommendations for "Organizational Flexibility and Agility" was adopted in 2003 and became one of the four pillars of the Library's strategic plan. Shortly after the adoption of the strategic plan, the Microcosm Group was succeeded by a Library-wide Communications Committee, which continues to draw on the expertise of staff at all levels as it works toward the successful implementation of the strategic plan.

Members of the JDC are excited about investigating and implementing Best Practices within the Library, and we need your help! If you have suggestions and ideas that can benefit the Library, please share them with us. A suggestion box appears on this page, as does contact information for all Library JDC members, who welcome your input. In addition, please check this website regularly for news about the Library JDC and for minutes of JDC meetings that record the committee's deliberations and progress on the group's initiatives. Working together and with your input, the members of the JDC are striving to make the Library a center of Best Practices at Yale.

(not pictured: Ken Crilly)

Links · Best Practices · Library Human Resources · Library Mission - Vision - Values · Best Practices at Yale: A New Beginning (video) · Best Practices Clerical and Technical Communications Group · Visitor and Observer Policy · Five project proposals · Six recommendations · Final Report of the PTO committee Meeting Minutes · May 3, 2005 · May 17, 2005 · June 7, 2005 · June 14, 2005 · June 28, 2005 · July 12, 2005 · July 26, 2005 · August 9, 2005 · August 23, 2005 · September 6, 2005 · September 20, 2005 · October 4, 2005 · November 1, 2005 · November 29, 2005 · December 13 , 2005 · December 21, 2005 · January 10 , 2006 · January 24, 2006 · February 7, 2006 · February 21, 2006 · March 7, 2006 · April 4, 2006 · April 11, 2006 · April 18, 2006 · May 2, 2006 · May 16, 2006 · May 30 , 2006 · June 13, 2006 · August 9, 2006 · August 22 , 2006 · September 5, 2006 · September 19, 2006 · October 17, 2006 · November 14, 2006 · November 28, 2006 · December 12, 2006 · January 9, 2007 · February 6 , 2007 · March 6 , 2007 · May 1, 2007 · May 29, 2007 · June 12, 2007 · September 18, 2007 · October 16, 2007 · January 22, 2008 · February 26, 2008 · March 18, 2008 · April 14, 2008