Flowing through the streams: A case study of Georgia Tech Library Public Services staffing expansion proposal through the lens of Kingdon’s three streams framework

Abstract

The Georgia Tech Library Public Services Department proposed to expand the number of staffed service points throughout the Library to increase coverage and service. The proposal was well-received by Library leadership and earned priority placement in the Library’s annual budget request. The theoretical underpinning for this reception is an adaptation of Kingdon’s three streams framework of public policy adapted to internal policy work: namely, that success in internal requests requires the same confluence of problem, policy, and politics to open a window of opportunity to place the issue on the agenda of those who make decisions.

Keywords:

• Budget request
• funding request
• public services
• reorganization
• staffing
• three streams

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge Leslie Sharp, Karen Glover, and the Georgia Tech Public Services team for their contributions to the work detailed in this article. The author would like to thank Liz Holdsworth for their feedback on an early draft of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The author has no interests to disclose.