Carpe Diem: Librarians on the Brink of Greatness

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Carpe Diem Librarians on the Brink of Greatness

• Deborah Robinson
• Head, Electronic Resources Program
• US Naval Academy

2
Crisis or Opportunity?

• Information Literacy
• Accreditation
• Critical Thinking
• 24-7 Learning
• Teaching Learning Centers
• Articulation
• Web page design

3

• Things are neither good nor bad, but thinking
  makes it so.
• -William Shakespeare

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Leadership

• Leadership thinking not consistent with library
  service tradition.
• Library lit full of examples of collaboration and
  management.
• Involved primarily with faculty in instruction
  settings.
• But little about leadership.
• Read outside the field. (HD57.7)

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Collaborator or Leader?

• Traditional role
• Service-oriented
• Within library walls
• By request
• Not usually sustained

• Unconventional (at times)
• Often outside of library
• Many partners
• Proactive seizing and creating opportunities
• Sustained

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Librarian Leader An Example

• Patricia Ianuzzi, formerly at FIU, now at UC
  Berkeley
• Undertook research project for FIUs
  Undergraduate Council to explain how why an
  information literacy competency requirement could
  help anticipate changes in the accreditation
  criteria. (BHAG)

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An Example

• Tapped into campus initiatives.
• Inverted her thinking. (Not How can the
  information literacy agenda be integrated into
  this initiative? But How can the information
  literacy agenda help this initiative succeed?)
• Got involved.
• Collaboration just one tool in a leadership kit.

8
Guerilla Character Traits

• Commitment to bringing about change.
• Aversion to pitched battles.
• Agility in rapidly-changing environment.
• Knowledge about local context.
• Awareness of external sponsors.
• High morale.
• --Susan Zvacek (Confessions of a Guerilla
  Technologist)

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Leadership

• Listen
• Envision
• Act
• Dauntless
• Experiment
• Respect
• Start small
• Humor
• Improvise
• Persevere

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Listen

• Ward Raspa (The Collaborative Imperative)
  listening for collaboration.
• Must put yourself in a position to hear others
  both physically and figuratively.
• Get out of the Library EVACUATE YOUR COMFORT
  ZONE!
• Casual encounters work wonders.
• Dont do all the talking.
• Think like an administrator.
• Invert your thinking.

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Envision

• Where can the Library play a role?
• Web worries?
• Adjunct training/orientation?
• Plagiarism concerns?
• Accreditation?
• College Survival classes?
• Curriculum committee?
• Distance ed?
• Articulation?

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Envision

• BHAG Big Hairy Audacious Goals
• (Collins Porras. Built to Last Successful
  Habits of Visionary Companies, 1994)
• Engages people.
• Reaches out and grabs people in their gut.
• Bold. Falls in the gray area where reason and
  prudence might say, This is unreasonable but
  gut says, We can do it anyway. (Ibid.)

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BHAGs

• Distance Learning and E-commerce aspirations of
  American colleges and universities
• Johns Hopkins Entrepreneurial Library

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Envision

• Jennifer James (Thinking in the Future Tense A
  Workout for the Mind, 1996)
• Pattern recognition.
• Sequences of events, ideas, and forms of
  behavior that have market, economic, social, or
  political significance.
• Develop an eye for bits of information that, when
  assembled, present a visible pattern or trend.
• Payoff is ability to anticipate change, not just
  follow it.

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Act

• Listening envisioning useless without action.
• Constant action.
• Small bites.
• Follow up!
• Role of administration.
• Side door method.

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Dauntless

• Or, dont wait to be invited!

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Helping Myself to the Action

• School Advisory Board slot
• Project Eagle
• Student Services/Counseling Dept.
• Adjunct Librarian Training

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Experiment

• Risky business.
• Learn from failure.
• Many-pronged approach assures opportunities on
  many fronts.
• Not parallel, but not chaotic.

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Respect

• Meet people where they are.
• Respect their concerns and limitations.
• Understand reasons for resistance to change.
• Potential success can be a source of fear.

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Start Small

• Real transformation takes time.
• Plan projects within projects.
• Maintain energy level.
• Be a Library Fairy.
• Socialize.

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Humor

• Laughter instead of Shhh!
• The momentary vacation afforded by a joke (Max
  Eastman, 1936)
• Helps create safe environment.
• Librarians are real people, too.
• Libraries are fun places.

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Improvise

• Be flexible.
• Be nimble.
• Be spontaneous.
• Exercise judicious use of retreat.
• Its not defeat its just a change in strategy.

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Persevere

• Some things work some dont.
• Some things work some places and not others.
• Focus on relationships.
• Commitment and connections matter most.
• Find the other idea people.
• Keep your energy level high.
• Dont lose sight of the vision.

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• Chaos and opportunity lie in the eyes of the
  beholder.
• --D. Robinson, 2001