Wednesday June 4th. Urban Libraries Council audio conference. Presented by Martin Gomez, Maryln Walton, Waller McGuire, Barbara Mistick, Bill Ptacek, and Ken Roberts.
- Design is a response to social change. scenarios prepare you for the future > stories combining the certainties and uncertainties create a picture of the future. we can’t know what will have an impact in the future. you don’t want a scenario to play out perfectly. “ok” is a more robust strategy. shared visions are created, not given
- once you have your stories, you need to expose the stories to folks outside your organization in order to figure out further implications you might not have thought of yet (INVOLVE YOUR COMMUNITY!) Stories help people see and create a dialog. Get people to start talking about the future in concrete terms.
- We participate, therefore we are (no more “think therefore we are).
- the library reflects the community. how are you reflecting your community? How does your community reflect you? understand what your funders’ ROI looks like. keep in mind social trends; monitor lives and their trends. know your community AND your competition. populate your board with people of community influence. is your library at the table where community issues are being discussed?
- co-develop partnerships with all presences- building services, f2f and online.
- you need people who are good at education and training because we will be helping people CREATE rather than FIND in the library. train your people on how to deal with strain when the demand is more than the supply. We need to attract people who are nimble risk takers. Library schools don’t attract these people…
- define your core values and concentrate on them. eliminate the unnecessary.
- do you ask people who’ve left why they’ve left?
- People will make the easy choice if not given information on how the world will look if they make some hard choices. Paint clear pictures. Decisions will be made regardless of who or if the big picture has been painted.
- Engage many voices. Nurture Leadership & Participation. Create as many channels for leadership to emerge as possible
- the library brand is “book.” we need to shift faster to the “information” brand. The brand itself will suffer if everyone doesn’t follow. Mobile community > should be able to expect high quality service anywhere.