Libraries, er, Librarians in the Digital Age: Disruptions, Digital Thinking & Transformation - a presentation I gave at Eastern Connecticut State University (ECSU) Library's Staff Retreat on Wed., July 23, 2014

1. Libraries^ in the Digital
Age
Disruptions, Digital Thinking &
Transformation

2. Who am I?
Sharon Clapp, Digital Resources Librarian,
Elihu Burritt Library, Central Connecticut State University
Interests:
• Open source software
• Web development
• User Experience Design
• Digital transition of the organization
Recently coauthored chapter (with Dr. Carl Antonucci):
The University Library’s Evolution: Book Warehouse to
Platform for Student Research and Learning

3. The Future & The Mission
R. David Lankes’
The Atlas of New
Librarianship
http://www.newlibraria
nship.org/wordpress/

4. Understanding Disruption
Digital “Disruption” - Clayton
Christensen
Why existing organizations have
difficulties adapting:
“The RPV theory holds that resources
(what a firm has), processes (how a
firm does its work), and values (what a
firm wants to do) collectively define an
org’s strengths as well as its
weaknesses and blind spots.”
- Clayton Christensen, Seeing What’s Next

5. Signals of disruption
• Non consumers
• Overshot consumers
• New competitors to libraries, higher ed
•Amazon
•Google / Google Scholar, Wikipedia
•MOOCs, Commercial
universities/colleges

6. Big Changes Ahead
• The Economist, January 2014:
• Nearly ½ of all jobs to be automated in the next 2
decades
• http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21594264-
previous-technological-innovation-has-always-
delivered-more-long-run-employment-not-less
• http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21594298-
effect-todays-technology-tomorrows-jobs-will-be-
immenseand-no-country-ready
•Freelance revolution
• Many jobs our grads will get don’t exist yet

7. Does this affect us?
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtukhRvBFY0#0m
10s 0:10-1:11
• Librarians “amongst the jobs that have a 99%
likelihood of being replaced”

8. “Today, the world's largest
bookseller, Amazon, is a software
company—its core capability is its
amazing software engine for selling
virtually everything online, no retail
stores necessary. On top of that,
while Borders was thrashing in the
throes of impending bankruptcy,
Amazon rearranged its web site to
promote its Kindle digital books
over physical books for the first
time. Now even the books
themselves are software.”
- Marc Andreessen “Why Software is Eating the World”
(http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460, 8/2011)

9. Operating digitally
• http://vimeo.com/88296842#11m22s - 11:22 through 16:40 - Aaron
Dignan on the operating model that’s eating the world -
• https://medium.com/@aarondignan/the-operating-model-that-is-eating-
the-world-d9a3b82a5885

10. The 5 Ps
1. A visionary (not commercial) PURPOSE
that guides
2. An agile (not linear) PROCESS that
enables
3. PEOPLE who make (not manage)
4. PRODUCTS built to evolve (not built to
last)
5. Which become PLATFORMS for the
world (not just your company) to build
upon

11. Purpose
• Your library’s WHY
• THE SHIFT: FROM GROWTH AS A COMMERCIAL
AGENDA TO GROWTH AS A VISIONARY AGENDA
• Example used = Google’s mission “is to organize the
world’s information and make it universally accessible
and useful.”

12. Process
• SHIFT: FROM PROCESS AS QUALITY ASSURANCE TO
PROCESS AS ITERATIVE IMPROVEMENT
• “Processes that are adopted within Responsive
cultures tend to be focused on experimentation,
autonomy, and speed. Words like agile, lean, and
user-focused dominate the process conversation.
From Holacracy to Lean Startup Method, these
processes are not about control or risk – they're about
getting better every day.”
https://medium.com/@aarondignan/the-operating-model-that-is-eating-
the-world-d9a3b82a5885

13. People
• THE SHIFT: FROM PEOPLE AS MANAGERS OF
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE TO PEOPLE AS MAKERS
OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
• EXAMPLE: VALVE HIRES AMAZING PEOPLE THAT LOVE
MAKING GAMES AND LETS THEM CHOOSE THE
ROLES THEY FILL AND THE WORK THEY DO EVERY
DAY, NO MANAGERS REQUIRED

14. Products [/ Services]
• Built to evolve (not to last forever)
• What do academic libraries create?
• Services
• Information products / learning objects

15. Platforms
• Which become PLATFORMS for the world (not just
your library) to build upon
• Make it dead easy for others to use your system for
their own ends
• RSS feed outputs / embedding into other apps /
systems
• Help them to be successful / make them look good,
appear smart
• Make your colleagues into heroes

16. The Organization
•Empowerment to take action – move the authority to
where the information is (took a couple of years for full
implementation) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psAXMqxwol8#0m
0s (0-5:32 (total 9:47)) – inspectors – highest rating ever
seen

17. RPV & Resistance to
Change
Why existing organizations have
difficulties adapting to technological
change / innovating:
“The RPV theory holds that resources
(what a [library] has), processes (how a
[library] does its work), and values
(what a [library] wants to do)
collectively define an organization’s
strengths as well as its weaknesses
and blind spots.”
- Clayton Christensen, Seeing What’s Next
+

18. Bureaucracy
• A History of bureaucracy
http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_i
n_the_cloud (0-1:30 = bureaucracy)

19. Online Shift in Education,
Learning, Libraries
•= books, artifact-centric, physical materials
•Though people love the book, the
traditional print materials, it won’t stave
off irrelevance/obsolescence to be id’ed
with print
•Learners are more successful with libraries,
but libraries don’t immediately spring to
mind
•When learners find libraries, they are
almost universally useful
•Online learners most successful with
convenient (online) library services &
resources
“The same digital forces
reshaping education will
reshape libraries, … even if
libraries are ready, will
education consumers seek out
libraries? Will libraries miss
the cues? The brand
perception of libraries
remains firmly planted in
tradition. Libraries = books.”
- At a Tipping Point: Education,
Learning and Libraries: A Report to the
OCLC Membership
https://oclc.org/reports/tipping-
point.en.html 14)

20. Digital Branch Usage
•From OCLC’s report, library just didn’t come to mind for
most online learners
•79% of internet users began their online information
search on search engine, same with online learners
•Once found, library website used by 84% of online
learners
•Increasing use of library website from 2010 to 2014
•“College students who use a library website find it
useful”
- (pp. 74-76)

21. User eXperience Design &
“the Digital Branch”
•Importance fo “convenience” & importance of “online”
to learners’ success (OCLC’s Tipping Point Report)
•Don’t just imitate most successful libraries’ toolset,
imitate their processes and human resource allocation

22. Why UX matters
● Key strategy for winning companies in a digital world is
great user experience
● Key strategy for losing organizations is a lousy,
unreliable user experience

24. UX = Winning!

25. What we learned about the
“digital branch” through
usability testing
•Usability testing of Summon’s big reveal -
Everything is the website to the end-user

26. Shamelessly Steal from
today’s successful digital
organizations
• Successful UX/Design techniques
• Needfinding exercises
• Persona creation
• Metrics
• Approaches to getting the work done
• Experimentation
• Minimum Viable Product
• Coding
• Wisdom of crowds – conversations
• Allocation of resources to those services which have
gotten short shrift & you have more need of in the
future – eliminate other things

27. Libraries’ & Librarians’
Unique Competitive
Advantages
No profit-making needs – commercial values/purpose
locked in at outset
Research superpowers – gleaning from other successful
folks
Have learned how to learn effectively

28. Opportunity Spaces
•Becoming a superhero by
Turning others into heroes
•Blazing the trail
•Solving problems
•Advocating for the non-corporate (& thus
disempowered)
•Seeking social justice – usability, accessibility
•Studying the changes and the techniques that work for
those changes

29. Is Transformation Possible?
Consider the Hunt Library, NCSU -
http://www.ncsu.edu/huntlibrary/watch/

32. “… there is power in libraries and steel in librarians. It goes
deeper than tradition, buildings, and books. The reason for
the protests and protectiveness over libraries is not found
in collections of materials or columns and architecture. To
find the answer to this riddle, one must look past the
buildings and the books to the professionals who,
throughout history, have served humanity’s highest
calling—to learn.”
R. David Lankes – Expect More -
http://rilandpub.wordpress.com/sample-chapter/

33. Thank you!
Sharon Clapp
sclapp@ccsu.edu
Digital Resources Librarian
Elihu Burritt Library
Central Connecticut State University
860-832-2059
Twitter @sclapp