Reading outside the library box; Vision: change and transformative libraries: Books on teaching Internet to staff and users

News June 15, 2007 (mp3 file: 7.72 MB, 8:07 min.)
Reading outside the library box; Vision: change and transformative libraries; Books on teaching the Internet to staff and users

Reading outside the library box

While waiting for the air conditioning in my Jeep to be fixed yesterday I started reading “Made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die.” I’m not very far into it—they were remarkably fast fixing the AC—but it’s looking interesting so far. The authors, Chip and Dan Heath, present 6 principles of “stickiness”—why some ideas ‘stick” in your mind and others are lost almost before they reach your brain. Urban legends “stick,” for example; dry statistics may not. They promise templates for stickiness and I hope they come through for us readers!

This isn’t a book about marketing libraries but it certainly is applicable—how can we make the idea of what libraries offer “stick” with our users and non-users? As I was reading it I quickly settled on a goal for my reading—find out how we might apply this to our early childhood literacy initiative. Another day and time I might re-read it with another goal or project in mind.

What marketing, planning, Internet, leadership--or whatever--books are you reading that might have ideas for your library, even if they aren’t books about LIBRARY marketing, planning, leadership….? I’d love to hear what you’re reading (to add to my list!)

Here are some that I keep on my shelf to refer to periodically, or that are waiting there for me to read (I’ve skimmed all of them briefly, at least..)—I’ll share if you’ll share!

• The other 90%: how to unlock your vast untapped potential for leadership and life, Robert K. Cooper. Random House, 2001. This one is my “pick-me-up,” motivational source for those days that seem to be dragging me down.
• Love is the killer app: how to win business and influence friends, Tim Sanders, Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! Random House 2002. (Don’t you just love that job title?) This one is really about networking, but mostly it’s about sharing and giving information and ideas, and having conversations about them. This was published in 2002 and was a little ahead of its time—it’s about social networking before social networking hit the web in a big way.
• The experience economy: work is theatre and every business a stage, Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore. Harvard Business School Press, 1999. Think about this for “library as place,” and asking if a library can provide a destination experience for its patrons.
• The World Café: shaping our futures through conversations that matter, Juanita Brown and David Isaacs and the World Café Community. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler, 2005. Conversations….hmmm. Do you see a pattern in my reading?
• The wisdom of crowds, James Surowiecki. Random House, c2004.
• Ambient findability what we find changes who we become,, Peter Morville. O’Reilly, 2005
• Primal leadership, Daniel Goleman. Harvard Business School, 2002.
• The leader’s guide to storytelling: mastering the art and discipline of business narrative,. Stephen Denning. Wiley, 2005
• A field guide to good decision: values in action, Mark D. Bennett and Joan McIver Gibson. Praeger, 2006
• Made to stick: why some ideas survive and others die, Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Random House, 2007.

I’ll share if you’ll share; what are you reading, outside the library box, that gives you ideas for your library and inspires you? Share your books in a comment on the blog. If you’d like to read any of the books let me know—they’re personal copies but I’m happy to loan them out. (Even before I read “Love is the killer app.") --Karen

Vision: change and transformative libraries

In recent podcasts I’ve been sharing some ideas about change and how it affects libraries. I hope that you find these comments “food for thought” – something for you to ponder and see how the ideas apply to your library.

Today I’m offering one more perspective on change.

First, we all know that change happens. It’s unavoidable. But, we tend to respond to change as if it means the end of one thing (which we experience as a loss) and the beginning of something completely new. In reality change usually happens more continuously. Perhaps the word “transformation” would suit our purposes better.

Eugenie Prime, former director of Hewlett Packard Corporate Libraries, suggests that our goal is to establish an environment where change is ongoing rather than episodic – to make our libaries transformative organizations. That is, organizations that are capable of continuous renewal.

This requires a compelling overall vision. An attitude that accepts change and directs it in a way that suits our mission. A vision is what makes necessary changes feel OK. A vision allows us to see things differently, so that we can begin to do them differently.

We also have to communicate the vision repeatedly whenever we have the opportunity – we must tell everyone where the library is going and why. Things like why the library is essential to lifelong learning in your community; why the library is important in closing the digital divide (that is, the economic divide created because the poor cannot afford the latest technology); why the library plays an important part in teaching children to read, and why the Internet is not enough by itself. As I mentioned last week – if we can state the “whys” clearly, the hows will follow more easily – and innovation will be a continuous, positive experience.

What is your vision for your library? Think a bit about how you share that vision every day with your board and your community. --Sue

Books reviewed by Marcia:

• Teaching the Internet in libraries, by Rachel Singer Gordon. ALA, c2001
• Teaching the Internet to library staff and users: 10 ready-to-go workshops that work, by William D. Hollands. Neal-Schuman