PLM 1 Term Project

The PLM 1 term project is about creating a topical manual for presentation to your board, as well as a useful tool for you and your staff.  This manual will include your policies, procedures and guidelines around the topic and should be organized for ease of use by the staff.  While you will not have to submit your completed manual, the goal of this exercise is to help you begin the process of putting together manuals so that each manual will get easier to construct. 

Please follow the steps below when creating the documents that you will submit to the instructor:

1. Choose the manual you are going to create.  Please choose from the list or contact the instructor if you would like to create a manual not listed.

• Policy Manual
• Reference / Information Desk Manual
• Circulation Desk Manual
• Collection Management Manual
• Public Access Computers Manual
• Personnel / Human Resources Manual
• Disaster Response Manual
• Building Facilities Manual
• Adult Services Manual
• Youth Services Manual
• Volunteer Manual

2. Put together a Table of Contents for the manual.  This should include an introduction to the manual that explains the purpose and what has been included.  At a minimum, the Table of Contents should include each major section of the manual.  You may also include sub-sections of each area.  Again, each manual should include guidelines as to how each official policy is carried out.  So, this list should be a complete list of everything that is appropriate to the topic, even if you don’t currently have all the documents in written form.

3. Begin to gather the documents you currently have and organize them in the Table of Contents.  Identify the policies and/or procedures that you do follow, but do not currently have in written form.  Finally identify the policies and/or procedures that you need to create and write.  Mark each status on the Table of Contents.

4. Write out one of the identified policies or procedures or guidelines that you currently follow, but do not have in written form.

5. Create and write out one of the newly identified policies or procedures of guidelines that you need for the manual.

6. Submit the following to your instructor:

• Project title sheet, including the manual name, your name and the library’s name.  This should be a separate sheet with only this information on it.
• Project rationale: why did you choose the manual topic you did and what your goal is for creating this manual.
• Manual introduction: what the manual is for and what was included and why
• Table of Contents: what is going to be included in the manual with the work that needs to be done identified (as listed in number 3 above).
• One appropriate policy or procedure that the library already had in place.
• One appropriate policy or procedure or guideline that the library followed but did not have written down.
• One appropriate policy or procedure or guideline that needed to be created for this manual.

7. Additional information:

• Term projects may be completed in teams if you are from the same library.  However, two of each policy/procedure/guideline should be submitted.  Otherwise, each individual should create his/her own manual.
• Each document must be computer-written, preferably in Microsoft Word, and the entire project must be submitted by e-mail.
• Term projects must be submitted to the instructor at least one week before the last class session.