Leadership and librarians

Leadership and Librarians
Stephen Abram, MLS
Febab Federacao
Florianopolis, Brazil
July 11, 2013

Where have I learned?
• Associations
• Jobs
• Consortia
• Politics
• Travel
• Mentoring
• Training
• Projects
• Be the change and
change the world

What is Leadership?
Leaders see an improvement to be
made – a desirable future state,
sometimes before others, and actively
seek to achieve those improvements.

Who is a Leader?
Everyone can lead.
Leadership is different from
managing or supervising.

Lies we tell ourselves
• I’m not a leader
• Shyness versus introversion
• I don’t do presentations to management
• People will notice my good work
• They’ll read my report, memo . . .
• Leadership is someone else’s job
• I don’t make the decisions around here…
• That’s their responsibility – not mine
• Criticism in the absence of constructive criticism
and critical thinking

7
Future Driven, Scalable Leadership Training for Librarians
• Northern Exposure to Leadership Institute
• iSchool at Toronto e.g. Public Library Institute
• Crucial Conversations
• ALA Emerging Leaders
• Mountain Plains Leadership Institute
• Tall Texans
• Snowbird
• iSchool @ Toronto Symposia
– MOOCs, Makerspaces, New Measurements,
Crowdfunding…
• Etc.

Recent Research: PhD Dissertations
on Leadership in Libraries
Mary-Jo Romaniuk, San Jose State Univ.
Cheryl Stenstrom, San Jose State Univ.
Donna Brockmeyer, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Thomas More
College
Ken Haycock, Marshall School, University of California
8

9
Research Insights into what Makes a Difference
• Passion is foremost
• Confidence next
• Influence not just Advocacy
• Risk Taking – in context
• Change Management
• Flexibility
• Dealing with Ambiguity – having the aptitude to
introduce change aligned with the future state.
• Influencing Skills = selling ideas

10
What doesn’t help or work
• Not taking the long view
• A dysfunctional view of time
• Being risk averse
• Playground competition
• Lack of cooperation
• Backbiting and blamestorming
• Fear of change or, indeed, fear at all
• Generally – ‘negativity’

SLA Alignment Research
Key Highlights:
• True Relationships (not just contacts)
• Real Networks, Collaboration
• Consultation – based on authority, expertise,
quality and short conversations
• Speed – Save Time
• Packaging for Added Value Answers
• Educate and Train
• Understanding libraries/ians is an underserved
and regularly expressed need
11

Positioning the Library and
Librarian / Library Staff
Real professionals have names and reputations
What is your value proposition?
You versus the library versus the institution?
Why do you, the library, or your institution exist?

Librarian Magic
What are your magic tricks?

Smelly
Yellow
Liquid
Or
Sex
Appeal?
The Complex Value Proposition

Communication theory: For adults to use a librarian effectively they have to admit that
they don’t know something and that requires openness, trust and a peer relationship.

Risk Taking in Librarianship
Avoiding the triple diseases of:
1. Conflict avoidance
2. Passive resistance
3. Risk aversion

Digital risk has raised the bar on risk taking in library land.

Too Much Respect for Tradition
While Neglecting to Curate the Future

Are there any of these in your library?
The Black Hole
Sucking the life out of initiative(s)?

The new
bibliography and
collection
development
Ask Us, KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

THE EXPERIENCE OF THE LIBRARY
So let’s talk about . . .
36
Human
Resources
Service
Learning
Value
SIMPLIFY

SHARING YOURSELF AND YOU
Up Your Game
• Embedded team member
• Embedded teacher
• Embedded research coach
• Embedded personal librarian
• Re-intermediation
• Tools – business cards, e-mail
sigs, web pages, social media
(Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr,…)

UNCOMFORTABLE CHOICES:
SACRIFICE
Up Your Game
• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/?
• Reduce investment in successes – This isn’t a typo
• Increase investment in future successes – learn from failing
• Look at TCO - Do NOT value your own time at $zero
• Look at all costs incurred and not just hard costs
• Review the opportunity costs in soft costs (e.g. ILL …)

Being Open to Ambiguity
Be the Change We Want to See

Entering the Knowledge Era
• Right answers/facts give way to consensus
answers/informed guesses
• Information combined with Insight rules
• Knowing where and how to look is infinitely
more valuable than knowing facts
• Knowledge is an immersion environment -
an Information Ocean - where are the maps
that work here?

Five Laws of Library Science
• Books are for use.
• Books are for all; or, Every reader his book.
• Every book its reader.
• Save the time of the reader.
• A library is a growing organism.
S.R. Ranganathan

Five New Laws of Library Science
• Libraries serve humanity.
• Respect all forms by which knowledge is
communicated.
• Use technology intelligently to enhance
service.
• Protect free access to knowledge.
• Honor the past and create the future.
Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman

Librarian Core Value Commitments
• Democracy
• Stewardship
• Service
• Intellectual Freedom
• Privacy
• Literacy and Learning
• Rationalism
• Equity of Access
• Building Harmony and Balance
– Michael Gorman, Library Journal, April 15, 2001
VALUES

To have the right staff
Get the right information
In the right format
To the right people
At the right time
To make the right decision
RIGHT

Leadership is People not Projects
• "Successful knowledge transfer involves
neither computers nor documents but
rather interactions between people."
Tom Davenport
People like librarians, teachers, faculty,
counselors, therapists, social workers,
advisors, . . .

Taking The Knowledge Positioning
• Data >>>
• Transformations are:
• Applying standards
• SGML, HTML, Fields,
Tags, MARC,
normalizing . . .
• Information >>>
• Transformations are:
• Representing data:
• Display, Chart, Format,
Publish, Aggregate,
Picture, Graph, Sort,
Rank, Highlight, etc.

Data >>> Information >>> Knowledge >
Apply
standards
Tangible
Representations
of Data
Learning
Knowing
Filtering
Evaluating
Balancing

Knowledge is not the path to:
WISDOM

• Behaviour
• Decisions that result in action, even if that action
is non-action
• Key success factors are intelligent, informed and
impactful results
• Has value in proportion to its results in the
context of the individual or social organization
• Measure behavioural impact – don’t just collect
statistics.

Data
====>
Information
=======>
Knowledge
======>
Behaviour
======>
Apply
Stand-
ards
Store
&
Move
Display
Chart
Graph
Publish
Picture
Format
Knowing
Learning
Filtering
Evaluating
Gerunds
Do
Decide
Choose
Apply
Enact
Action
Verbs

Transformational Process
• Data
• Information
• Knowledge
• Behaviour
• Norm
• Form
• Transform
• Perform
Success

The Five Stages of Technology
Adoption
• Awareness
• Interest
• Evaluation
• Trial
• Adoption

The $60 Million Dollar Question
How do we more speedily process
our organizations through this cycle?
CHANGE

• Innovators
• Early Adopters
• Early Majority
• Middle Majority
• Laggards
• Non-Adopters
 2.5%
 13 %
 17.5 %
 33.5 %
 17.5%
 16%
The Classic Corn Research

What Favours Rapid Adoption?
• Relative Advantage
• Compatibility
• Complexity
• Trialability
• Observability

The Market Adaptation Sequence
• Product Acceptance
• Motivation
• Confidence Level
• Education / Attitude
• Acceptance Criteria
• Selling Strategy

Understanding Adoption Types:
Innovators
• Technology fascination
• Motivation -- Implement New Ideas
• Confidence Level High -- experiment, risk
• Self taught, independent
• Latest technology, few features, performance
• Self sold, when turned on, word of mouth

Early Adopters
• The coming thing
• Motivation -- leap frog the competition, prove
business
• Willing to try new things, reasonable risk
• Will attend night school to learn
• Innovation, better way to do job, selective
• Sold on benefits, references, word of mouth

Understanding Adoption Types: Late
Adopters
• Obvious solutions to problems
• Motivation --social pressure, fear of
obsolescence
• No risk, slow to change, needs references
• Seminars, proven products, hand holding
• Brand important, pay for needed features
only, terms & conditions important
• Examples, address cost/technical support

Laggards
• Absolute need
• Extreme competition/social pressure
• Reluctant to change
• Will send someone to a seminar, needs proof,
ease of use
• Lowest cost, competitive terms, brand
• Productivity increases, fear

What kind of librarian are you? Critical thinker or Criticizer?
What is your library culture around change or innovation?

Leaders have many modes.
They choose to use the personal behaviour
that works in the situation.
Be 3D or 6D, but not 1D

"An optimist is someone who says a glass is
half full. A pessimist says it's half empty. A
leader might say, "Looks like we've got twice as
much glass as we need. Let discuss it."

Are you on the ‘hits’ train?

QUALITATIVE INFORMATION
QUANTITATIVE DATA
and

STATISTICS
MEASUREMENTS
versus

Are you locked into a
traditional library mindset?

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC IN YOUR HEAD
Exercise your mind about the rhythms of your work. . .
87

Algorithms
• Search differentiator
• Commercial algorithms versus those based on big
data
• Measuring end user success versus known item
retrieval…
• “Romeo and Juliet”
• Problems with the unmonitored trial
– Wrong tests
– Poor sampling
– Mindset issues

Sharing Learning and Research
• Usability versus User Experience
• End users versus librarians
• Known item retrieval (favourite test) versus
immersion research
• Lists versus Discovery
• Scrolling versus pagination
• Devices and browsers and agnosticism
• Satisfaction and change
• Individual research experience vs. impacts on e-
courses, LibGuides, training materials, etc.

Focus and Understand on the Whole Experience

Statistics, Measurements and Analytics
• Counter & Sushi data are very weak metrics that
don’t provide insights into the critical stuff
• Database usage (unique user, session, length of
session, hits, downloads, etc.)
• Web and Google Analytics (6,000+ websites)
• Foresee satisfaction and demographic data
• Search Samples (underemphasized at this point.)
• Time of Year Analysis
• ILS Data (from clients &n partnerships)
• Geo-IP data, analytics and mapping.
• Impact studies and sampling – especially on training
• Gaining insight from information and data

Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Good not Perfect
 It’s not the steps that cause delays in development
- it’s the space between the steps
 No mistake is ever final.
 Freeze and Go! The right metaphor is seasonal
change - not revolution or evolution
 Prefer action over study: If you’re studying
something to death - remember that death was
not the original goal!

 Mock-Up, Build, Rebuild, Beta, Pilot, Launch,
Re-Do
 Remember the rule of six (6). You get very
diminishing returns after asking the same
question of like people.
 Remember the 15% rule: Humans have
extreme difficulty in actually seeing a
difference of less than 15%.

 Use the 70/30 rule: “I agree with 70% and can
live with the other 30%.”
 Remember the old 80/20 rule standby: No
matter how few or many users you have, 80%
of your usage/revenue/etc. will come from
20% of your users.
 Remember the 90/10 rule. 90% of your costs
are in implementation, not development.

“Productize”: Be able to physically point at
your product or service.
 Get out of your box! It is unlikely that you are
the alpha user profile.
 You can’t step in the same river twice. Your
knowledge of the new development means
you probably cannot see the potential pitfalls.

 Understand the differences between
features, functions and benefits.
 Understand your customer and don’t assume
- TEST.
 Don’t just ask your clients what they do, will
do or want. OBSERVE them.
 Have a vision and dream BIG!

 Ask the three magic questions:
What keeps you awake at night?
If you could solve only one problem at work, what
would it be?
If you could change one thing and one thing only,
what would it be?
 Never underestimate the user – especially
students.
 Seek the real user.

 Respect information literacy, learning styles
and multiple intelligence.
 Understand the adoption curve.
 Do research for yourself too. Set up alerts on
your hot issues.
 Bring management on side first, then
customers and users, BEFORE you launch.

 Feedback is a gift - you can keep it, return it,
hide it in the closet. Don’t overvalue one piece
of out-of-context feedback or let it loom out of
perspective and balance.
 Measure - don’t just count: Decision-makers
CANNOT interpret your statistics.
 When you have 100 options to choose from the
critical skill isn’t choosing 5 but sacrificing 95.

Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
Consultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@gmail.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn: Stephen Abram
Twitter: @sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1

Leadership and librarians

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