Transcript Slide 1

Librarians
Learning
A BoundaryBreaking
Perspective
Prepared for the
ALCTS President’s
Program
Creativity
June 2005
Karen Calhoun
“They come and go and draw from the well”
I Ching, hexagram 48, Ching – The Well
The Well
•The Library as a center
of collections
•The Library as a center
of experts and tools to
guide users to
appropriate resources
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The River
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Boundaries and boundary-breaking
Communities
of users
Technology
centers
Analog
collections
Libraries
Cultural
heritage
orgs.
Library
buildings
Library org.
“silos”
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Librarianship: “There are few professions which
contribute so much to the saving of time and to
the progress of science.” –Library Journal, 1890
Being a 21st Century Librarian
• Starting points:
– Technology-driven research, teaching and
learning
– Disintermediation (users perceive they are
self-sufficient)
– Accelerating shift in information seekers’
preferences for Web-based information and
multimedia formats
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“Knowledge creation is everyone’s concern,
and not the responsibility of a specialized few.”
–Chun Wei Choo, 2002
Teaching, Learning, and the Creation of New
Knowledge
DOMAIN
EXPERTS:
Professors, grad.
students, researchers, deans,
university leaders and staff
UNIVERSITY
KNOWING
COMMUNITY
INFORMATION
EXPERTS:
Librarians, records
managers, archivists,
others
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IT EXPERTS:
Desktop, computer lab
and server support;
applications for academic,
research, administrative
support; networks,
telecommunications, security
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“Instead of being a hoarder of containers, the
library must become the facilitator of retrieval
and dissemination.”—William Wulf, 2003
Exemplars of 21st Century
Librarianship
Blakeley, Daniel H.
Cornell Center for Materials Research Facility Staff page
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“Blow up the corporate library”—
Thomas Davenport, 1993
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“2 ½ cheers for Google.”
--Paul Duguid, May 5 2005, Cornell University
Making Library Collections and
Services Visible
• Librarians must be where the users are
• Library must be where the users’ eyes are
– Interconnections, interoperability, and
information delivery
• Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships
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“Research libraries, as organizations, have great
difficulty in … implementing the revolutionary
changes that are needed for automated digital
libraries.” --Bill Arms, DLib Magazine, 2000
Managing “Mindsets”
• Neither good nor bad
• Essential for making
sense of the world
• Contain hidden
assumptions
• Not absolute truths
• Some get stuck in them
• We need to be aware of
them, and sometimes
challenge them
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“Everything is available on the
Web”
“Librarians wear sensible shoes
and check out books”
“The library is a wonderful
storehouse of books”
“Public services librarians
understand users’ needs”
“Users should search in the
right way so they find the best
resources”
“The best catalog record is the
fullest one possible”
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“ A man should learn to detect and watch that
gleam of light which flashes across his mind.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, 1841
Creativity: A Way of Managing One’s Inner
Processes
•
Friends
– Play, inquisitiveness
– Inner stability
• Open, receptive
• Let go of the past
• Question assumptions
– Flexibility
•
Foes
–
–
–
–
–
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Cynicism
Fear
Anger
Unexamined “mindsets”
Narrow focus
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Government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
--Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863
Vision
• Founded in the belief that the world can be a
better place, even in the face of great challenge,
even despair
• Demands individual and organizational
creativity: new ways of thinking, seeing, doing
• Can empower and align people, build
momentum, and harness creative spirit
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“Transforming an organization is the ultimate
test of leadership.”—John Kotter, Harvard
Business School, 1998
Creative Leadership: People Matter
•Foster teamwork and
•Find
mutual purpose
innovation
•Provide
•Managetransitional
transitions,roles
not
and
justphases
change
•Support
staffpast
•Honor the
development
•Walk the talk
•Recognize
it will take time
•Build a coalition
•Persevere
•Respect people and
•Tolerate
endings ambiguity
•Learn how to have a
“crucial conversation”
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When you get to the end of your rope,
tie a knot and hang on.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
A New Kind of Library
•Make organizational
boundaries
porousof a
•Build a vision
•Lower barriers to
new kind of library
discovery and use
•Activelythe skills of
•Leverage
collaboratetoin
librarianship
learning
and
advance
knowledge
•Integrate
in
creatinglibrarians
new
community
social and
knowledge
information processes
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Visibility and Creative Leadership
• Increase our visibility
• Examine mindsets
• Nurture creativity and
innovation
• Invest in people
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Thank You!
Karen Calhoun
[email protected]
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