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July 19, 2006

Great Thinkers Wanted

In my never-ending effort to boost my nerd factor, I travel around with a folder full of photocopied articles from a variety of sources. It comes in handy when, horror of horrors, I am stranded somewhere without something to read. I pull out a professional article that I wanted to read but didn’t have the time for. Sorry, I know you all had fantasies of me making lots of money sitting around all day reading magazines, newsletters, blogs, etc. Oh wait, that’s my fantasy, not yours.

Seriously, I feel it is an important part of my job to do a constant information scan and bring the gems to your attention. My latest find is a really interesting article by Susan Sarfati in the July 2006 issue of the journal Associations Now, entitled “What Great Thinkers Think About Associations.” It discusses a summit of great thinkers from “the fields of leadership, technology, management, and organizational development.” They got these individuals thinking about non-profits and the social sector and their role in society.

Basically their thinking came down to this quote, “It is not business. It is not government. It is the social sector that may yet save this society.” I know public libraries are units of government, but we also serve the role as social agent. I think libraries have been told too frequently to be more like a business or the corporate sector. We serve a very important function in our society and democracy. Let’s not lose sight of that or abdicate this role to the bookstores. Libraries do a lot of things well. Can we improve? Of course!

Here are the seven major ideas that came out of the summit:

1. “Do we serve the needs that members define for us, or do we take a leadership role in providing a vision for the future?” I think this applies to the juggling act libraries perform everyday: giving the user what he or she wants while trying to anticipate their future needs. I thought the best line in this discussion was “Are we hospicing the death of the current association or midwifing new forms?”

2. Meetings. How often are they about “personal agendas and ego inflation, political drama and turf battles, and other issues that have nothing to do with the organization’s mission.” Need I say more? We have all seen this at department meetings, department head meetings, and board meetings. Just think what could be accomplished by focusing on the mission.

3. Operating in parallel universes. Libraries have been doing this for years. Ms. Sarfati puts it this way, “Offer a suite of services for traditional members and at the same time seek out the radical thinkers… encourage them to invent the future.” Forget about that bible quote that says you can’t serve two masters; in this day and age, it seems to be the standard state of being for libraries.

4. Aggregating the collective wisdom. Librarians have always been great about sharing ideas and programs. We need to let the world know how we have been successfully doing this for at least the last several decades. I think we could be models for business and non-profits.

5. Change is hard. Ms. Sarfati says this so well. “Innovation means doing things that are difficult and that causes a disruptive or uncomfortable environment. However, [we] seem to go to great lengths to insulate [ourselves] from uncomfortable situations. In reality are we avoiding the uncomfortable conversations that allow innovation to happen?” Let us pause a moment for some serious soul searching…. Okay we all know this is true!

6. Metrics. “Often the things that make the most difference in organizations are those things that are impossible to measure, yet we insist on metrics, mistakenly believing that such tools alone will show us how to enhance our value.” Great food for thought. While we are trying to prove the library’s return on investment, I think it is vital to prove ourselves as a source of entertainment, a balm to the soul, and a good place to hang out.

7. Globalization. “Future organizations are surely going to be bounded by the global community, with technology being the great equalizer.” Through e-mail, IM, and VR librarians are already serving individuals beyond their community. How do we take advantage of this and market our skills and collections to a broader market?

Think about these things. Who are the great thinkers you would like to bring together? I have a strong desire to organize a summit and put librarians at the head of the table. We have a great pool of knowledge and need to respect that and help others to respect it. We could play a vital role in the development of new technologies and services.

posted by Anna at 10:34 am |

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