Managing Project Scope and Expectations

Scenario Description

A faculty member in the humanities just learned about a colleague’s newly released digital exhibit and approaches the library, expressing an interest in developing a similar project. When you investigate further, you see that the project she was inspired by is a grant funded, multi-year project with an extensive project team, including several librarians. In contrast, your library doesn’t have the capacity to support a project to the same extent. Additionally, this faculty member does not have any project funding and is vague about whether her research assistant would be able to commit time to this project.

As you prepare for a follow-up consultation, you are concerned that the faculty member may have unreasonable expectations. You are also unsure how to talk about the support the library can provide. You feel pressure for the library to seem relevant to the faculty member—not to mention appearing capable yourself—and you worry that you won’t be able to offer enough to satisfy the faculty member.

Discussion Questions

  1. The patron’s context
    • Their prior knowledge is:
    • Their motivation is:
  2. Your context
    • Your prior knowledge is:
    • Your motivation is:
  3. How might you approach your consultation with this faculty member? Are there colleague(s) you could see yourself asking to join?
  4. How might your approach to this consultation be similar to or different from how you would approach a reference interview?
  5. What follow up questions would you ask to learn more?
  6. Are there any referrals you could make (inside or outside the library)?
  7. How would you respond if she reacts in the way you fear the most—becoming frustrated or calling the library irrelevant?