Janet, you are correct: being reactive is a lousy business model. No,
we don't have to wait for people to ask us.
Let me put the question differently: whose job is it at the library to
have their finger on the pulse of the campus? Not so much the "usual"
groups on campus - students, faculty, staff, alums, friends of the
university, the general public, and everyone else who doesn't easily fit
into one of those groups. Rather than classify people like this, why
not sort folks by learning/research/use styles, and have something in
the library for each style? And, what's more, whose job is it to pay
attention to how those styles are changing, and begin to anticipate
their needs? That's the transition from reactive to proactive thinking.
Maybe the whole "Library 2.0" deal is a product of this kind of
thinking? Who knows? My fear is that Library 2.0 is another fad, and
we're not looking and acting "deeper." The retail world struggles with
this constantly and the word "struggle" is correct, its really hard to
do.
This is not necessarily a technological issue. Technology is a product,
it's a response to a need. I'll use a startling example: if it was
clear you could provide better service by ripping out the ILS and
putting the old print catalog back, would you do it?
Think of a common place in the academe: a new poo-bah comes on campus -
a president, a chancellor, a dean - and a great fuss is made about some
grand new vision of wonderfulness. Everybody dutifully lines up behind
the new wonderfulness and says "I LOVE this plan, I'm excited to be a
part of it." I am not saying management buy-in and support aren't
important, they are. I'd bet money the least trafficked places on web
sites are the pronouncements of presidents, except when someone wants to
catch them in a lie. Otherwise these pronouncements are ignored, aren't
they?
But why don't libraries have a structure in place where they keenly
attend to the needs of their customers, plan to meet those need and then
relentlessly educate management about that plan? Can't we find some
examples of this? Somewhere?
M. Andrews
-----Original Message-----
From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
[mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Croft, Janet B.
Sent: Monday, June 26, 2006 1:05 PM
To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
Subject: Re: [NGC4LIB] Did you ask? Are you asking? Are we asking? (was
"People v. Collections")
Do we have to wait for them to ask? Maybe they don't know how to
describe what they want, or don't know that we're the people to ask. If
we wait for them to ask, someone else might do it instead of us. Maybe
we need to think "Build it and they will come"! Being reactive is not
always the most successful business model...
Janet Brennan Croft
Head of Access Services
University of Oklahoma Libraries
Bizzell 104NW
Norman OK 73019
405-325-1918
Fax 405-325-7618
jbcroft_at_ou.edu
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/
http://libraries.ou.edu/
Editor of Mythlore http://www.mythsoc.org/mythlore.html
Committee Chair, Mythcon37, http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon37.html and
http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/C/Janet.B.Croft-1/ProgressReport1.htm
Received on Mon Jun 26 2006 - 14:45:41 EDT