The Phoenix, the mythical bird that rises from the ashes, can help us to envision and plan for the future. Libraries are seeing tough times these days. What can they be reborn as? Let the idea of the Phoenix spur your thinking about what libraries can become. From a session at CIL 12 in DC, co-presented with Rebecca Jones.

1. Computers in Libraries, March 2012
~Kathy Dempsey
Owner of Libraries Are Essential
Editor of Marketing Library Services
Kathy@LibrariesAreEssential.com

4. Wikipedia

5. What will
libraries be
in the future?

6. Cherry
Hill, NJ
PL

7. Mt.
Laurel,
NJ PL

8. Train station
vending machine in
Rotterdam, Netherlands

9. Espresso Book Machine,
Brooklyn PL
http://www.ondemandbooks.com/
brooklyn-public-library/

10. Phone Booth libraries, NY City
http://gracefulspoon.com/blog/201
1/07/06/dub-002/

11. Civil discourse…
or borrow an expert?
www.HumanLibrary.org

12. Tank-turned-mobile-library in
Buenos Aires, Argentina
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFi2
7PQ2bxo

13. “Like the passing
of distinguished
“Kodak's long fade individuals, the
to black”
passing of great
By Michael Hiltzik
corporations
Dec. 4, 2011
should prompt us
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/d
to ponder the
ec/04/business/la-fi-hiltzik- transience of
20111204
earthly glory.”

14. http://infospace.ischool.syr.edu/2011/12/01/a-makerspace-takes-over-a-local-library/

15. David Lankes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CL1eCWObsg

16. NW: You’ve talked about Kindle being this
example of working backward from the customer.
Can you explain that?
JB: There are two ways that companies can
extend what they’re doing. One is they can take
an inventory of their skills and competencies, and
then they can say, “OK, with this set of skills and
competencies, what else can we do?”
And that’s a very useful technique that all
companies should use. But there’s a second
method, which takes longer-term orientation. It is
to say, rather than ask what are we good at and
what else can we do with that skill, you ask, who
are our customers? What do they need? And
then you say we’re going to give that to them
from Newsweek, Dec 28, 2009 - Jan 4, 2010 regardless of whether we currently have the skills
Jeff Bezos, founded Amazon in 1994 to do so, and we will learn those skills no matter
how long it takes.

17. “There’s a tendency, I think, for executives to
think that the right course of action is to stick
to the knitting—stick with what you’re good
at. That may be a generally good rule, but
the problem is the world changes out from
under you if you’re not constantly adding to
your skill set.”
Jeff Bezos, Dec. 2009

18. It is not the strongest of the
species that survives, nor the
most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is
most adaptable to change.
Charles Darwin

19. ShanachieTour video,
filmed at CIL 2009 in
advance of the Spring
2009 UGame ULearn
conference in the
Netherlands. Here,
the idea of the Library
Phoenix was born.
http://vimeo.com/3933829

20.  Reports from organizations like ICMA
 Blogs, listservs, LinkedIn, Facebook
 Industry magazines, newsletters
 Conferences
 TED Talks
 Harvard Business Review
 Outside businesses and leaders
 Library TV shows

21. www.thisweekinlibraries.com

22. This Week
In Libraries,
episode 39,
Aug. 12, 11

23. www.ted.com/talks/lisa_harouni_a_primer_on_3d_printing.html

24. http://www.fayettevillefreelibrary.org/about-us/services/fablab
http://www.makerbot.com/

25. Be
Proactive!

26. Bye Bye,
Britannica!

27. Get
Your
Phoenix
On!