Library Journal/ Temple University: #futurelib11

Last Friday I participated in a panel discussion during the LJ/Temple Academic Library Symposium in Philadelphia. I really enjoyed the smaller, more intimate setting of this one day  conference. The organizers did a great job of inviting a wide variety of front lines, new, and more experienced librarians and administrators to reflect on some really tough issues within the field.

I took some notes during Kristin Antelman’s keynote address on bridging culture gaps. Antelman is the Associate Director for the Digital Library at North Carolina State University and I found her talk to be inspiring and a good framework for the rest of the event:

• Gap: Everybody vs IT – communication style, constrained resources, decision making process
• Gap: Everybody vs administration
• What preconceptions do we bring? Agendas & past experience. Organizational myths with meaning attached
• Where is the real power/influence within the organization? Doesn’t necessarily align with positional power
• Information & trust = keys to bridging the gaps
• Scary gap: Library as a symbol – there is a common understanding of the purpose of libraries but also stereotypes relating to librarians as “guides” through information overload. We “can’t build on sand”
• Scary gap: Library as brand – google “library” = books
• Organizational culture – competing values framework by Cameron & Quinn, adhocracy (new term for me)
• New leaders want to move from hierarchy to autocracy, that’s the biggest gap
• Organizational life is not static, could be cyclical 
• Do we have a strong or weak organizational culture?
• Assess gaps and set goals. Be in perpetual beta, ask forgiveness,  choose “either/or” not “both/and”
• Can there be a shared vision if there is not a shared understanding?
• Some projects never leave the gate because people want assurance up front that it will be a success (how do we change this expectation?)
  
• Consensus model is unwieldy, inclusiveness hinders progress
• People who aren’t contributing – how do we deal with this?
• Affinity group or team based approach instead of committees – opt into a project

To read recaps/reviews by other presenters and attendees, check out the following blog posts

• Academic Library Summit: Bridging the Gaps, by Courtney Young, Head Librarian and Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at Penn State Greater Allegheny Campus
• Getting Past Misunderstanding, by Andy Burkhardt, Emerging Technologies Librarian at Champlain College
• the future of academic libraries, by Shannon Marie Robinson, Access Services Librarian at the Philadelphia University of the Arts

or search for the Twitter hashtag #futurelib11.

What are your thoughts on bridging the different gaps we have within academic libraries? What gaps are we missing in these conversations – beyond generational, IT, diversity, experience, leadership, administration, change-agents/resistors, status, cultural, etc?

_________________________________________

Erin Dorney is the Outreach Librarian at Millersville University of Pennsylvania and outgoing Treasurer of the PaLA College & Research Division. She can be found on Twitter at libscenester and blogging at www.libraryscenester.wordpress.com.