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New Routes to Library Success: 100+ Ideas from Outside the Stacks
Whether in person or electronically, users come to the public library from outside the library realm. And that’s exactly where genuinely transformational ideas lie. In this book Doucett mines new territory by exploring how successful organizations "outside the stacks" conduct their business. By analyzing what several private-sector organizations and their leaders are doing outstandingly well, she quickly hones in on transformational concepts that are ready for application in public libraries, offering more than a hundred innovative ideas that can be put into practice to improve customer service and day-to-day library operations. Canvassing the worlds of advertising, online commerce, fundraising, retailing, and more, Doucett profiles such successful professionals as
Margaret Atwell, Kickstarter
Chris Wilson, L.L. Bean
Brian Kevin and Ginny Wright, Down East Magazine
Kate Chaney Chappell, Tom's of Maine
Walter Briggs, Briggs Advertising
An exciting survey of creativity in action, Doucett's book will encourage public library directors, managers, trustees, and staff to cross-pollinate their own expertise with innovative ideas from outside the stacks.
Can be found at: http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.as...
Margaret Atwell, Kickstarter
Chris Wilson, L.L. Bean
Brian Kevin and Ginny Wright, Down East Magazine
Kate Chaney Chappell, Tom's of Maine
Walter Briggs, Briggs Advertising
An exciting survey of creativity in action, Doucett's book will encourage public library directors, managers, trustees, and staff to cross-pollinate their own expertise with innovative ideas from outside the stacks.
Can be found at: http://www.alastore.ala.org/detail.as...
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 11, 2016
Elisabeth Doucett decided that, instead of reinventing the wheel to improve library service and function, that she was going to interview successful business owners to discover their secrets and then apply them to libraries. I found gobs of workable tips and tricks in New Routes to Library Success. Doucett helpfully provides summaries at the end of each chapter that quickly sum up what she learned in the interview (each chapter was one interview/one topic) and ways that libraries can use that information to excel.
I liked most of the suggestions in this but I cringed at most of the employee relationship building ideas. In my opinion, our jobs, the pressures and intense situations, lend themselves to close relationships. I don't feel like we have to create false closeness through hokey "exercises" at staff meetings. Maybe it's just the introvert in me, but I couldn't see most of that stuff working in a positive way. Dare I say it: don't waste your employee's time? eek.
My biggest take-aways, overall, from this were:
1. The library has, is, will be a connection maker for neighborhoods: be that social connections, educational, or otherwise. We should embrace this role.
2. The library needs to be more nimble in both its ability to adapt to change and also willingness to try (and potentially fail at) new things.
3. Find a handful of things that you are excellent at, then spend your time and effort to excel at those things. If you go too broad, you either skim the surface of what you can do (and miss out on the depth that's possible if you focus) or you do too many things, not excellently.
More bits that I want to remember:
"My suggestion is to develop a one-page proposal for each idea that includes a complete definition of the idea, the resources that would be required to execute the idea, the potential risks and rewards of pursuing this idea, and a timetable for execution. A proposal makes it very easy to present ideas to your library's leadership, and it makes it easy for them to determine whether they are interested in pursuing those ideas." pg 7 I can be all over the place when it comes to program/idea development. This will help me organize my thoughts in a way that makes sense and not drive my boss crazy in the process.
"Libraries can accomplish more, faster, if they allow themselves to test more and fail more... If libraries can create a culture of controlled experimentation (try, fail, learn, try, succeed), then librarians are held back by only the limits of our own creativity." pg 12 It's much more fun to work on a project that succeeds the first time, but I need to remember that achieving excellence is a process not a quest for perfection.
"Create a page on your library's intranet called "Employee Celebrations and Brags," sort of an internal Facebook. Employees could post their own birthdays or talk about the spectacular doings of their kids or grandkids or put up pictures of their latest knitting projects, and so forth." pg 22 We're looking to re-vamp our Employee Star Awards and going high tech plus mixing it with social announcements on a Google Doc, might be just the ticket. Easy and it takes up zero space.
"Walk through your library and do an audit of all the inanimate things that provide customer service in your library. Look at everything from the perspective of a customer who has just walked into your library for the first time, needs to use your resources, but does not want to interact with a staff member. Identify what works perfectly without the need for any human interaction. pg 30 Need to do this, in the computer lab especially.
In the developing creativity section: "Provide a reading list for the librarians. We spend so much time as librarians helping other people find materials to read that I think sometimes we forget to nourish our own reading habits. Develop a "staff recommends for staff" reading list that includes both recreational and professional reading suggestions." pg 51
Videos for social media outreach: Shoot videos that are like a conversation, and think about these videos as a gift to another person. Videos are easy to shoot. Effective videos that capture attention and get shared with a wider audience can be much harder to develop." pg 72 Word.
More ideas for video production: "Ask all staff members at your library to identify one thing they do at the library that they love and that absolutely makes their day when they get to do it. Then, ask for volunteers to do a very short video (thirty seconds max) about the part of the job that they love.... Have the people doing programs at your library promote the programs themselves using a very short video." pg 80 Genius. I'm so going to do this for the library blog.
An idea for a club: "At Curtis Library, we have a small group of individuals who attend a craft meet-up every week. They bring whatever project they are working on at the time and sit and chat while they work." pg 94. Inexpensive way for the library to help build connections in the community.
"Near the entrance to your library, develop an experiential "quick stop". The quick stop is basically a thematic book display with an experiential element attached to it that changes on a regular basis. For example, you might have a display about crafting books available in the library, and as a part of that display, you could provide knitting needles, yarn, and one sheet of paper that tells patrons how to start knitting..." pg 116-117 Love that.
Consumers today do not differentiate between the products and services they get at the library and the products and services they get anywhere else, so libraries have to stop assuming that somehow they are exempt from consumer expectations. We cannot be "good enough." We need to be "the best." pg 139 A good reminder.
I liked most of the suggestions in this but I cringed at most of the employee relationship building ideas. In my opinion, our jobs, the pressures and intense situations, lend themselves to close relationships. I don't feel like we have to create false closeness through hokey "exercises" at staff meetings. Maybe it's just the introvert in me, but I couldn't see most of that stuff working in a positive way. Dare I say it: don't waste your employee's time? eek.
My biggest take-aways, overall, from this were:
1. The library has, is, will be a connection maker for neighborhoods: be that social connections, educational, or otherwise. We should embrace this role.
2. The library needs to be more nimble in both its ability to adapt to change and also willingness to try (and potentially fail at) new things.
3. Find a handful of things that you are excellent at, then spend your time and effort to excel at those things. If you go too broad, you either skim the surface of what you can do (and miss out on the depth that's possible if you focus) or you do too many things, not excellently.
More bits that I want to remember:
"My suggestion is to develop a one-page proposal for each idea that includes a complete definition of the idea, the resources that would be required to execute the idea, the potential risks and rewards of pursuing this idea, and a timetable for execution. A proposal makes it very easy to present ideas to your library's leadership, and it makes it easy for them to determine whether they are interested in pursuing those ideas." pg 7 I can be all over the place when it comes to program/idea development. This will help me organize my thoughts in a way that makes sense and not drive my boss crazy in the process.
"Libraries can accomplish more, faster, if they allow themselves to test more and fail more... If libraries can create a culture of controlled experimentation (try, fail, learn, try, succeed), then librarians are held back by only the limits of our own creativity." pg 12 It's much more fun to work on a project that succeeds the first time, but I need to remember that achieving excellence is a process not a quest for perfection.
"Create a page on your library's intranet called "Employee Celebrations and Brags," sort of an internal Facebook. Employees could post their own birthdays or talk about the spectacular doings of their kids or grandkids or put up pictures of their latest knitting projects, and so forth." pg 22 We're looking to re-vamp our Employee Star Awards and going high tech plus mixing it with social announcements on a Google Doc, might be just the ticket. Easy and it takes up zero space.
"Walk through your library and do an audit of all the inanimate things that provide customer service in your library. Look at everything from the perspective of a customer who has just walked into your library for the first time, needs to use your resources, but does not want to interact with a staff member. Identify what works perfectly without the need for any human interaction. pg 30 Need to do this, in the computer lab especially.
In the developing creativity section: "Provide a reading list for the librarians. We spend so much time as librarians helping other people find materials to read that I think sometimes we forget to nourish our own reading habits. Develop a "staff recommends for staff" reading list that includes both recreational and professional reading suggestions." pg 51
Videos for social media outreach: Shoot videos that are like a conversation, and think about these videos as a gift to another person. Videos are easy to shoot. Effective videos that capture attention and get shared with a wider audience can be much harder to develop." pg 72 Word.
More ideas for video production: "Ask all staff members at your library to identify one thing they do at the library that they love and that absolutely makes their day when they get to do it. Then, ask for volunteers to do a very short video (thirty seconds max) about the part of the job that they love.... Have the people doing programs at your library promote the programs themselves using a very short video." pg 80 Genius. I'm so going to do this for the library blog.
An idea for a club: "At Curtis Library, we have a small group of individuals who attend a craft meet-up every week. They bring whatever project they are working on at the time and sit and chat while they work." pg 94. Inexpensive way for the library to help build connections in the community.
"Near the entrance to your library, develop an experiential "quick stop". The quick stop is basically a thematic book display with an experiential element attached to it that changes on a regular basis. For example, you might have a display about crafting books available in the library, and as a part of that display, you could provide knitting needles, yarn, and one sheet of paper that tells patrons how to start knitting..." pg 116-117 Love that.
Consumers today do not differentiate between the products and services they get at the library and the products and services they get anywhere else, so libraries have to stop assuming that somehow they are exempt from consumer expectations. We cannot be "good enough." We need to be "the best." pg 139 A good reminder.
February 3, 2021
All new, experienced (especially) and aspiring -to- be Directors need to read this. Put this in your Professional collection.
Even though written in 2015, the topics are still relevant, if not more so.
These are things your employees know, and wish Directors would know/do.
Library Directors cannot afford to be static in thought and action, stuck in a "traditional," "always done it this way," "it's worked for the last 200 years" world, especially with the shake up of the pandemic. The mentality that people will come to us, that people know the good that we do, that they will always fund us, and that they understand that we are slow to to react because of our "humble and poor" persona which is the reason why we cannot have/offer the best of anything, especially cutting edge technology--- is destructive thinking.
Thinking differently, dare I say aggressively (in a progressive, creative and cutting-edge way) is needed- and your staff will appreciate it.
I loved how the author interviewed individuals outside the library world, drew correlations as to why what "they" do is so relevant and applicable to what we *should* do. Author interviewed such forward thinking companies as: Tom's, L.L. Bean, as well as Kickstarter and Trendwatching.com (my 2 favorite chapter).
Even though written in 2015, the topics are still relevant, if not more so.
These are things your employees know, and wish Directors would know/do.
Library Directors cannot afford to be static in thought and action, stuck in a "traditional," "always done it this way," "it's worked for the last 200 years" world, especially with the shake up of the pandemic. The mentality that people will come to us, that people know the good that we do, that they will always fund us, and that they understand that we are slow to to react because of our "humble and poor" persona which is the reason why we cannot have/offer the best of anything, especially cutting edge technology--- is destructive thinking.
Thinking differently, dare I say aggressively (in a progressive, creative and cutting-edge way) is needed- and your staff will appreciate it.
I loved how the author interviewed individuals outside the library world, drew correlations as to why what "they" do is so relevant and applicable to what we *should* do. Author interviewed such forward thinking companies as: Tom's, L.L. Bean, as well as Kickstarter and Trendwatching.com (my 2 favorite chapter).
December 4, 2018
The emphasis on failure as a creative problem-solving process, and the importance of regularly discussing experiments and results, were very helpful themes through this practical book, which would likely be most helpful for public libraries. My favourite quotes: "To arrive at new ideas and new ways of operating, an organization has to experiment and failure is an inevitable part of experimentation. When failure is an accepted and normal part of running a library that is used as a tool for learning, libraries will become more willing to try and fail versus projecing something only when it is perfect (and how often does perfection happen?). The result of this perspective is that many more ideas are generated and tried" (p40). This must be combined with a safe and supportive environment for new ideas to thrive. Going on to my re-read list, especially the chapter on "Learning Your Community"!
March 30, 2016
There are a lot of good ideas, but sometimes I had a hard time grasping the connections the author was trying to make between a particular business practice and how it could be used in a library setting. The fact that the interviews didn't involve more direct quotes from the people being interviewed was odd; I would have liked to see some snippets of the transcripts themselves. I can see it as a very useful tool for a public library, however.
October 6, 2015
career development/business skills (libraries). I thought the most useful chapter (for my particular line of work) was #5 (kickstarter) how to make engaging videos that tell a story to convey the passion of the creator and generate public interest. But mostly I skimmed over the rest (so many things are dependent on our library Board, et al.)
July 25, 2016
Just did some speed reading through this book - some useful ideas and links - probably more suited for public libraries but enough takeaways for school libraries to make it worthwhile especially on customer service, content curation, knowing your community etc.
December 15, 2015
Not exactly what I was hoping for.
July 20, 2016
Digestible and thought provoking with practical ideas.
Read
May 17, 2018Stopped p. 95
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews