ALA 2007: Leading Technology-driven Change: Theory and Practice

Leading Technology-driven Change: Theory and Practice (LAMA LOMS)

Beverly Lynch (moderator), Professor, Grad School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA

Joyce Ogburn, Director, Mariott Library, University of Utah Marriott Library: She reviews leadership materials frequently in order to keep focused on her leadership style.

• She recommends several (Battin—past strengths become liabilities; Bennis—harsh view of management cf. leadership; Crosby—shows gap between profit and non-profit; Goleman—emotional intelligence: self awareness, motivation, empathy, social skill, self regulation; Hawkins—move beyond your institution; Kotter—8 steps of change; On Change: ~ 60 pages from Am. Council on Ed. That applies to higher ed; Rost—defines leadership as influence, vs. management as authority.)
• Advice: be patient with your leaders, cut them some slack and offer to help. It’s hard work. Also “swim with a buddy”

Felton Thomas Jr., Las Vegas-Clark County Library District: Change = growth.

• Great quote attributed to a friend @ Dartmouth: “We’re moving this profession one funeral at a time”
• Technological change in the library world is an uphill battle, “like going hunting and carrying the dog”
• Believes in scenario planning (Giesecke) so that you can identify opinion leaders and get them in early.
• Power of full engagement, individual growth. How do you make changes last? Define your purpose, face the truth, take action.

Kathryn Deiss, Content Strategist, ACRL: Major paradigm shifts due to technology are: 1) advent of classification system, 2) the internet, and now 3) social software.

• Concept from urban studies is relevant here: where people are wearing a path in the grass, put the path there.
• Need to install a beta mindset in staff, things don’t have to be either/or.
• How do you get people to really stop doing things (even though the decision to stop has already been made)? String too short to be saved (true story-- label on box in office being cleaned out). People need to change mental models – we have models to save time in doing routine things (e.g., when you see a red light, you should stop without needing to think too much about it), but when the model changes we need to bring things into focus so that we can pay attention again (see deBrabandere.) Once LL Bean was 24/7, could buy a canoe at 3AM and that was unusual and strange, now people are used to 24/7 and don’t want it any other way.
• Today we have a choice overload, in which case most people will choose nothing. We need to focus people on key issues, but choices are exploding.
• Betty Sue Flowers: you can’t predict the future, but you can control your narrative. Who are you in the story that is being told: the victim?; the hero?

Reading list at: ALA 2007

4th North, midsummer

I needed to find two books, both on the 4th floor north, so spent a few minutes looking around.

• There aren't many students on campus at all in the summer, so it wasn't surprising to find only two using study carrels on the whole floor. It should have been very quiet, in fact we send people there who are looking for peace, so I was surprised to hear a very, very loud air conditioning noise the whole time I was up there. So loud I wouldn't want to study there-- but maybe on a cooler day it wouldn't be so obvious? I need to check back and possibly follow up with physical plant.
• The bathroom (women's) was beautiful-- very clean, very light, all stall doors open so obvious no one was in there, paper and soap full. I should go up there more often and should definitely compliment custodial staff.
• Two completely empty and unused dictionary stands (or lecterns?)-- have those gone the way of the dodo? Should consider either putting dictionaries there or removing as they look pretty superfluous.
• Shelving area is empty, except for some miscellaneous shelves, carts, etc. Don't know how much we use it during the term, but definitely not using now.
• Area was totally lit-- I guess I had thought that the "just in time" lighting was all day, but maybe that just kicks in at night? Certainly didn't look scary or lonely (has been called both-- see University).
• "OPAC" computers functional.
  
• Campus services directory near elevators looked old (at least it was yellow), but date was 2/07 so someone must replace them regularly.
• Saw V. shelving with a book cart, and also came across two students doing inventory (the regular "beep-beep" gave them away before I saw them) . All looked very busy and productive.
• Both books on the shelf right where they should be (great job K)!
  

All in all it was cleaner, lighter than I expected.

ALA 2007 Quick notes and ideas

Some of the notes I wrote in the back of my notebook as I sat through a wide variety of good sessions-- I will write up selected sessions in more detail, but these are ideas I hope to come back to.

Quick notes/ideas:

• Consider hiring/appointing an Assessment Librarian (example, Karen Neurohr, OK State)
• Project: the JSTOR complement. A good idea for a JACC-type proposal, e.g., can we subscribe to the active journals from JSTOR with a 3/5 year rolling subscription to complement our JSTOR access? Also a good idea for us to track ourselves somehow—which do we subscribe to, could we subscribe to others, again ideally with a 3-5 year window, so that we can ensure seamless access to entire journal with minimum cost? Could we “tag” in SFX using assignable categories to group these current subscriptions?
• For Verde project: could Ulrich’s serials analysis tool serve as a source of any data for us? For example, list prices are there, could track savings when cf our prices. Should be easy to populate this w/ data from SFX to create our comparison set (although I doubt we’ve done it yet.)
• For web site: daily/weekly/monthly FAQ, quick tip, and/or current or popular ref questions with answer, sources
• Could we integrate our google-based “search this site” into the metalib jump start search?
• Get an “aggressive bar code reader” for 40% more efficiency (not sure what this is, but they were pretty firm that we needed it)
• Keep (as an individual, as a team, as a library?) an ideas archive. Tools may be available, environment may have changed in a few months to make an on-hold idea feasible
• Company to check out: IDEO prototyping http://www.ideo.com/ideo.asp; see article on process at http://www.ideo.com/pdf/DMI_winter-2007.pdf
• Closely allied fields: journalism and librarianship. Consider working with Andi Stein to develop into article or talk
• Consider becoming a Lominger 360 coach, pull out cards/book and really use for myself, others
• For Amir: could we work with IT to come up with matrix of specific skills, competencies, interview questions etc. for tech jobs? Could help standardize approach across campus?
• Simmons “interview competencies”-- http://my.simmons.edu/som/pdf/interview-strategies.pdf
• Google trends: check out this very cool lab product at http://www.google.com/trends . Will it be available eventually to use on our own server to analyze our top queries?
• To really consider things, ask “why?” 5 times
• Change perspective frequently
• “Misery is optional”
• Social networking build it yourself site: http://www.ning.com/

Resources to check out:

• Business 2.0 blog: section focused on technology @ http://blogs.business2.com/
• Extensible catalog blog at http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/
• Change in academic libraries blog: http://www.zephyrinnovation.com/
• Meredith Farkas wiki at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/ specifically notes on Finding New and Creative Solutions through Library Think Tanks at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/page/Finding+New+and+Creative+Solutions+through+Library+Think+Tanks

Books to read