Simplify Your Library Workflows – Discover How Today
In academic libraries, meaningful change rarely begins with technology itself. More often, it begins with a question asked quietly at a reference desk, at a technical services meeting, or over coffee with a colleague: Is there a better way to do this?
That same question echoes throughout the experiences documented in this new whitepaper, “Empowering Librarians: The Impact of Library Open Workflows” where librarians across continents reflect on their journeys toward more agile, collaborative and user centered operations.
For the team at the Bavarian State Library, the story began with a sense of constraint. Routine requests accumulated into long queues, each one tied to the availability of technical support, slowing the pace of daily work and constraining staff autonomy. When Peter Heller encountered Library Open Workflows during an IGeLU presentation, what stood out to him was not merely a new feature but an invitation to rethink how librarians could shape their own processes.
“The flexibility struck me immediately — it added a level of customization and efficiency that supported our day-today work.” Peter Heller, System Librarian, Bavarian State Library
By giving staff a safe space to experiment, free from the risk of breaking delicate scripts or overly complex systems , LibOW sparked a shift. It became a catalyst for renewed professional agency, enabling colleagues across departments to explore, iterate and design solutions that reflected their own operational expertise.
That flexibility quickly translated into practical wins. One of the most popular examples was a workflow related to PO Lines. According to Heller, “It was quick to build, but saved my colleagues a number of mouse clicks every time they dealt with an item. One coworker even thanked me with a box of chocolates— it showed just how meaningful these small automations can be.”
At the University of Kentucky, the narrative took a different shape yet carried the same undercurrent. A winter storm would traditionally trigger a cascade of manual updates to branch hours, all resting on one systems librarian’s shoulders. Through LibOW, Jason Griffith transformed this recurring challenge into an opportunity for distributed leadership.
Stories from the Los Rios Community College District reveal a third thread: collaboration as a form of stewardship. By replacing fragile custom scripts with adaptable, transparent workflows, librarians created space for experimentation while honoring long standing commitments to accuracy and operational reliability.
Like Jeff Karlsen, Technical Services Librarian at Sacramento City College explained: “LibOW has dramatically increased my development speed, improved existing automations, and made it much easier to schedule and respond to inputs like form submissions — without the fear of breaking fragile scripts.”
Together, these libraries form more than a case study. They constitute a collective narrative of librarians learning from one another, testing boundaries, and redefining what it means to shape library technology.
Explore what could be possible also for your academic library:
- Bavarian State Library: Staff build workflows independently, reducing reliance on IT and speeding up processes across teams.
- University of Kentucky: Automated branch hours and integrated external tools for seamless service.
- Los Rios Community College District: Made automation easy for non-technical staff, improving efficiency across multiple libraries.
Library Open Workflows (LibOW) makes automation easy. This no-code platform lets staff create and run workflows independently. From metadata updates to user record management, LibOW removes repetitive tasks and complexity. Its drag-and-drop interface saves time, boosts efficiency and empowers innovation. If you are seeking not just tools but perspectives that illuminate new paths forward, this new whitepaper offers an academically rich and inspiring body of practitioner knowledge. Download your free version here and see how libraries worldwide are already benefiting.
