The Situation
The New England Public Library in Hope, NH has become an "unofficial" after school daycare center for
many of the local children. Since the library is located near the Hope Elementary School, the library becomes a free
and convenient place for children to await their parents at the end of the school day. Some children are left there for considerable
periods of time, up to 4 hours, 5 days a week and often become bored. The library does not have the staff needed to supervise the children,
or the money available to provide for additional personnel. Many parents cannot afford the daycare the elementary school provides, $5/hour,
so the library is their only viable alternative.
Yovits' Theory and Model
Rational
Solution
Conclusion
Bibliography
The Situation
This situation has led to several problems. First of all, there is the issue of the children's safety. The library staff has no legal way of
keeping them within the building, or from leaving the building with someone other than their parent. A second issue is that the children
can become disruptive to the other patrons and they tend to monopolize the few computers that are accessible to the public.
To address these issues we can us Yovits' Theory and Model to solve the situation.
The Model:
Generalized Information System (Yovits' Model)
This system is comprised of four functions:
In the entire information flow, the key function is Decision Making. It acts as an input-output process between the IAD and the E, respectively.
When necessary information is stored, the DM decides, within a particular time, on observable actions and eventually makes decisions that result in these
actions. These actions are executed (E) and observed and measured, causing a transformation (T). The data produced
returns to the IAD. At this time, the data and/or feedback, is considered neither positive or negative information.
Once again, the process will continue with decision-making and observable actions.
This model allows for the development and analysis of information flow, as well as, generating feedback by quantifying
the data. To start this information flow, the decision makers look to the external environment or situation.
There are three types of information collected:
A Decision Maker (DM) will operate in three ways. The first way, based on his limited knowledge of the information, he determines a
specific model that will change the information into actions. Next, he may change the actions as he gathers more
information involving them. Finally, as he analyzes the feedback, he will construct new models to improve the
observable actions. This process may prove the original model was appropriate for the previous information or
aid in the development of a more successful model.
The Execution (E) function changes the DM's decisions into appropriate actions to meet the needs of the external
environment. In this part of the model, the E does not store, but rather transforms the information to observable
actions. These actions are quantities that are measured. These actions lead to the Transformation function (T).
This device measures the observable actions and changes it into data. This function processes the data back to the
IAD, or frequently called the ìinformation systemî.
The Information Acquisition and Dissemination (IAD) function collects, stores, and disseminates the data for the
decision-maker. It will collect the data on the particular activity, from the external environment, as well as references,
reports and tables. To store the data it will filter, reconstruct, select, reject, analyze, sequence, order, predict and display
the data. Finally, the disseminated data becomes information and returns it to the decision-maker who will continue the
information flow again.
The open- looped system of the Generalized Information System (Yovits Model) permits the Director of the library to develop and analyze, as well as, generate feedback by quantifying the data, and then continue the information flow to make more decisions. As the community grows, the dynamics change causing the needs for the program to change. The Director will use this model to alter the classes based on the information she receives from the library patrons and her staff. The diagram below illustrates the process by using the Yovits' Model.
The External Environment in our model is the daycare situation stated above . The Information Acquisition and
Dissemination occurs when a librarian witnesses the unsupervised children and receives complaints from patrons. She passes this
information onto the Director and her colleagues. To determine why parents allow their children to stay alone
at the library instead of using the elementary school's daycare, the staff makes inquiries at the school and to the parents.
The Director distributed a survey. The survey allows the
librarians to receive feedback from the parents about their idea of an after school program.
The staff discovers that the daycare at the school is too expensive for most parents and the library is a free alternative for them.
Using this information, the library staff discusses the possibility of offering their own after school program for $10 per child per class .
They contact local businesses to see if they are willing to sponsor a class through donations of supplies, money and time.
The staff also adjusts the library's budget to find money in support of the program.
To initiate the Decision Maker's function, the staff discusses the types of classes, determines the number of volunteers needed,
and develops a schedule. The schedule, is distributed. Parents sign their child up for
a variety of activities that includes arts and crafts, sports, and games (outside the library) and story time for the younger children.
Over a limited amount of time, the parents return the sign-up sheet. An area of the library is set aside for the activities to prevent
disturbing the other patrons. These events represent the Observable Actions portion of the model.
The Transformation part of the model represents the changes that made within the library. As the program continues the
library staff creates an evaluation for parents to complete to determine the
success of the program and future class to offer. The staff confers with patrons for reactions towards the activities and the success
in preventing disruption within the library.
This information gathering returns the model to the Information Acquisition and Dissemination phase. Since Yovitsí model
is an open-loop system, the librarians are able to use it to keep collecting data and make adjustments as required.
In order to keep the children from disturbing library patrons the library should offer a series of after school programs. This will keep the children occupied and will be a less expensive alternative for families who cannot afford the daycare programs offered by the elementary school. In order to make sure the programs will not take up much of the budget the librarians find volunteers to run the programs and/or donate supplies. The parents sign their children up for activities. This gives the children something constructive to do while waiting for their parents to pick them up. It also makes sure the children will not leave the library by themselves or with someone who is not their parent. The library also creates surveys to get feedback and opinions from the children, parents and other patrons about which programs are working.
We utilized The Generalized Information System (Yovits' Model) to address the situation of unattended children at the library. By issuing initial survey, we obtained data feedback from the patrons, allowing us to act upon the suggestions for classes to offer. The survey results also found that the majority of patrons were willing to pay $10 per child for the programs, as well as finding volunteers to staff the programs. This money purchased equipment and supplies for the classes. At the conclusion of each class, the instructor distributed an additional survey to the parents to generate on-going feedback. Although this process is in the early stages, the library staff intends on continuously reviewing the data to improve the programs.
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