Rick Lugg and Ruth Fischer are the founding partners of R2 Consulting, LLC. Since 2000, R2 has become the premier consultancy to academic libraries for workflow analysis, organizational redesign, and strategic planning. R2 projects include all areas of the library, but with particular focus on Collections and Technical Services operations. A major theme in R2's 100+ projects to date is assisting libraries in the transition from print to electronic as the dominant format.
R2's work encompasses the strategic, operational, technological, and organizational challenges facing libraries and the vendors that serve them. Because of R2's position in the market, they are often able to identify emerging trends and problems. In 2008, for example, R2 identified deselection decision-making and workflows as a significantly under-served area, and began to conceptualize a rules-based, batch oriented system to support library activities related to weeding and storage.
Rick and Ruth have spent a combined 50 years in the academic library domain as consultants and booksellers. They are recognized profession-wide as experts in selection-to-access workflows, integration of vendor and library systems, and adapting library organizations for the 21st century. Both have extensive experience with approval plans, selection and fulfillment processes, management of bibliographic and transaction data, and collaboration with all the major players in the academic market. While employed at YBP Library Services in the early 1990s, they developed and implemented a rules-based system for new title selection. They also led development of YBP's GOBI, a Web-based bibliographic database and transaction system that has become the industry standard.
Rick Lugg, Partner
Rick is a native of New Hampshire, whose official motto "Live Free or Die" and unofficial secondary motto "Common Sense for All" have shaped his worldview. He holds an MLS from Simmons College, and has more than 25 years' experience working with libraries and vendors. When not living in hotels, Rick and Ruth reside in Contoocook, NH. Their children Emi and Lincoln have recently emerged from their tuition-paying years, a period which heightened R2's interest in contributing to cost-effectiveness in higher education.
Ruth Fischer, Partner
Ruth graduated from Earlham College with a B.A in American Frontier History and holds a Masters in Education from Penn State. Prior to her involvement with libraries in 1990, Ruth worked as a teacher and administrator in a highly regarded independent school in New Hampshire. Detailed analysis of more than ninety academic libraries has inspired her to focus more than ever on organizational redesign and operational management.
Sally graduated from Tufts University with a B.A. in Philosophy. Prior to moving to New Hampshire in 1998, she was a director of college counseling, an English teacher and upper school team leader at a Connecticut independent school, manager of the box office at Wesleyan University's Center for the Arts, and held positions in small school and business libraries, as well as in the Department of Education at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. For eight years, she was a customer service bibliographer and team leader at YBP Library Services. Sally joined R2 consulting in 2006. She lives in Warner, NH.