To be presented at Computers in Libraries, April 17, 2007 by Jill Hurst-Wahl and Christina K. Pikas

1. Innovative Libraries:
Tales from the Stacks
Jill Hurst-Wahl Christina K. Pikas
Hurst Associates, Ltd. The Johns Hopkins Univ.
Applied Physics Laboratory
www.hurstassociates.com/ppt/cil2007_d203.ppt

2. Agenda
Why is This Study Important?
Research Methods
What Our Participants Told Us
Conclusions
Advice From Participants
Q&A

3. Background
2006: Failing to Innovate: Not an Option
– Need to innovative to remain relevant
– Could be driven by community needs
– Formal processes exist, but…
2007: Pikas & Hurst-Wahl
– What could be learned from library leaders?
– Are there useful tales from the stacks?

4. What is Innovation?
The creation of a new process or
product resulting from study and
experimentation.
The successful implementation of
creativity. It combines free thinking and
brainstorming with careful planning,
execution, and evaluation of results.

5. Why is this study
Important?
The need for real-world analysis on library
mgmt. support for innovation
– Pressure from all sides to innovate
– Seemingly insurmountable barriers
The desire to know how successful library
managers understand
– The role of staff, structure and funding in library
innovation
– The role of the “user” in innovation

6. Methods
Why Qualitative Research?
We wanted to know best practices
Lack of data to compile useful survey
We wanted in-depth information
Make the invisible, visible: librarians
frequently don't take credit and brag
about themselves!

7. Methods
Purposeful sample
Semi-structured interview, flexible
Most by phone, one on-site
Not recorded
Coded & analyzed by C & J

8. Limitations
Time! (Work, school, CIL)
Types of organizations
Note-taking vs. taped interviews
Analysis is a work in progress
Limited member checks

9. Managers From…
One special library, 26 FTE employees
Two academic libraries
– 29,957 students
– 3,000 FTE students, two campus
Two school library systems
– 1 district, 67 schools, 52.8K students
– 22 districts, 63 school libraries, 26K student
Three public libraries
– Inner-city central public library
– Mid-size public library with 56 FTE
– County library system, 250 FTE

10. Manager Personality
All were amazing, enthusiastic, and
smart people. Other traits:
– Persistent in dealing with “non-goal
oriented, non-team oriented, non-leadership
people” (ckp-3)
– Able to see the “big picture” or view the
“box” from a different angle
What would best serve the organization? (ckp-3)

11. Manager Personality
– Proud of staff, system, accomplishments
– Willing to ask for permission as well as ask
for forgiveness
– Model (the verb) behavior

12. Lucky?
Supportive bosses
Technology advanced leadership – supportive
of getting new tools, even ones that are
expensive (jhw-3)
Leadership is open to anything (jhw-1)
Wonderful staff
I'm lucky I have an incredible staff (ckp-4)
Pre-existing innovative culture
Healthy budgets

13. Some create their own “luck”
Hire amazing people
Work with people who are willing to try
new things
Work around uncooperative people
It's all out there but let more interested people
find things - they become very positive voices -
focusing on early adopters (ckp-4)

14. Money: Plenty vs. Lack
While some were well funded, others
found the motivation to be innovative
out of their limited funding.
“expensive is not equal to innovative!” (ckp-2)

15. Formal vs. Informal
Our participants reported using both
formal and informal brainstorming,
submission/approval, planning, and
evaluation processes
“Explore, read reviews, pilot back off or
expand” (jhw-3)

16. Formal Processes
Item on staff evaluations
– An innovation goal / Expectation to serve…
Written into the strategic plan
Recognition for innovative ideas
Formal Submission & Approval Processes
– But...delegated to the lowest level possible
Task forces to identify needs, innovations
(jhw-2)

17. Informal Processes:
Freedom to Play
Innovative library managers do not
micromanage their staff. Instead, they
allow them time and resources to play.

18. Informal Processes:
Freedom to Play
“They try things that they don't know how to do or
that are outside of their experience. Put people
in that position and it feeds on itself.. increases
confidence” (ckp-1)
“One branch tried it and now others have picked it
up...they all have permission to try” (ckp-2)
“Experiment, show it to everyone else, then get
permission to put it in production” (jhw-1)

19. Informal Processes:
Innovative Approaches
Innovative library managers look
for ideas everywhere
− other departments
– business books
− non-LIS conferences
– customers
And for everything
– Shelving
– Checking out books
– Organizing workflow, work spaces

20. Informal Processes:
Living the Innovative Life
“We live it – so things don't seem innovative to us”
(jhw-3)
“Tech people see themselves as being
innovative. Librarians see it as doing their
jobs. Constantly evaluating. Matching
programs with population” (ckp-4)

21. Entrepreneurial Role
Several mentioned the library as the
organization that came up with the
ideas, did pilot projects, and then
transitioned the functioning program to
another department, complete with
best practices.
“[we] are small business incubator. [funding
agency] is the venture capitalist.” (ckp-4)

22. Entrepreneurial Role
The library
– has the enterprise view
– has access to ideas/vision
– can do research
– is the home of innovation

23. There are No Failures
We asked each manager about things
they'd tried that failed. Overwhelmingly,
the managers stated that there were no
failures.
– Some innovations were too early
– Some had unexpected consequences
– Some did not have customer/partner buy-in
“they were things to bring more attention to what
we had, not what we needed to do” (ckp-1)

24. There are No Failures
They learned, identified what didn't
work, tried a new approach, got more
buy-in/feedback the next time...
“Don't worry about mistakes...know that things
will break” (jhw-1)

25. Staff & Structure
Need to do more with fewer FTE
– One reported 30% less in last 4 years
– Flat staff vs. growing user base
Limited hierarchical structure
Aging staff that needs to work smarter
Want staff to be self-motivated
“Innovation used to mean hiring more
staff. Now innovation means doing more
with less money.” (jhw-2)

26. Mentoring
Our participants hire creative,
enthusiastic staff, and have them
manage projects. The manager offers
coaching and mentoring in project
management.
“Everyone has something that they can feel
passionate about, my job is to coach them
in how to do something and then they take
it to the next level” (ckp-3)

27. Conclusions
Non-innovative Innovative
Motivation
– Funding
– Staff size

28. Conclusions
Atmosphere
– Everyone looking for new ideas
– Low risk experimentation and play
– "Committee of the whole" to bounce ideas
off of (jhw-1)
Training
– Ways to think about innovation
– Planning/project management

29. Advice: Leadership
Be committed
Embrace technology or promote those
who can
Be open to successes & failures
Have a plan / long-range plan
Have courage
Make a financial commitment
Hire a consultant

30. Advice: Training
Attend workshops & conferences
(leadership & staff)
Teach techniques that help with
innovation
Read & share what you read
Reward staff for participating in training

31. Advice: Focus
Focus on your users & their needs
Make yourself available to your users
– Implement their good ideas

32. Who Inspires Them?
Americans for Libraries Public Library Association
Council (ALC) (PLA)
Cornell University Public Library of Charlotte
Mecklenburg County
Liverpool (NY) Public Library
Richmond (B.C.) Public
MIT
Library – Ironwood Branch
Middle Country Public
Smaller college libraries
Library- Centereach
South Jersey Regional Library
Mukilteo (WA) School District
Cooperative
NY Library Association
Topeka and Shawnee County
Orange County (FL) Library
Public Library
System
Western Benchmarking
Consortium

33. Final Advice
“You have to feel excitement
and passion and have fun
and laugh and make mistakes
and feel it and these are
hard things to do.” (ckp-1)

34. Contact Information
Jill Hurst-Wahl
Hurst Associates, Ltd.
hurst@HurstAssociates.com
Christina K. Pikas
The Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory
christina.pikas@jhuapl.edu