Libraries need to focus on community relevance in a time of digital disruption. To transform, libraries must understand community values and share stories that demonstrate their value through cultural context and meaning. By activating community networks through shared stories on social media, libraries can build trust and become a hub for local culture, small business development, thought leadership and more. Measuring community engagement will show libraries' impact on cultural vibrancy and prosperity.

1. libraries + disruption
continuous innovation +
transformation
iSchool | University of Toronto
20.x.2015

2. about transformation
We’re now living in a networked
economy, globally
how we build relationships with those
we don't yet know to co-create value
—like the social capital that libraries
represent—may well determine the
future of our small blue planet

3. no pressure.

4. transformation: four things librarians need to know
1/ why shared community stories work (and what KPI*s
really matter: what shared values activate)
2/ why community networks form (power of the weak, not
strong: where the value lies)
3/ why culture eats strategy for lunch (a story that shows
how it all comes together: how cultural values drive
everything)
4/ understand the interface layer between you and your
community (like Facebook does—where relevancy lives)
*key performance indicators

5. transformation + innovation | it's the UX, stupid

6. transformation isn't a spaceshot
it's the result of serious, integrated thinking
about a constellation of problems libraries face

7. first principle: understand the biggest threat...and respond

8. biggest threat?
digital disruption so hollows out libraries
and the library UX
libraries become irrelevant

9. ...or are bled to death, like the horrorshow in the UK

10. what's the single most valuable asset libraries have?

11. ...not millions of books
...not tens of thousands of librarians (it's not about you)
...not hundreds of databases
...not dozens of media labs

12. it's the library brand
the astonishingly resilient and powerful trust, respect
and sense of value people have
when they think about their library

13. what's a brand?

14. brand is expectation

15. sum total of all the shared stories about an experience

16. the problem for libraries?

17. the knowledge-action gap
between
knowing the library brand's been disrupted by digital
innovation…

18. …and knowing what to do about it

19. here's a single word to guide your thinking about that
knowledge/action gap

21. transformation + innovation | future-proofing libraries

22. future proofing libraries

23. means managing disruption

24. while proving relevance

25. 0
20
40
60
80
LIBRARY RELEVANCY GAP
There are precious few measures of The New Library relevance:
in fact, the status quo in funding models is all about The Old Library.
Alexandria Library
350BC
Internet/e-books
c2005
busy monks
c1000
Gutenberg
c1370
mass production
books
c1700
Carnegie
libraries
c1915
television
c1955
radio
c1920
ACTUAL
PERCEIVED
POTENTIAL
RELEVANCE

26. 0
17.5
35
52.5
70
LIBRARY RELEVANCY
GAP (2)
Detailed view of accelerating disruption and rise of sharing economy
Internet + e-books
c2005
iPhone
Napster
YouTube
c2025
ACTUAL
PERCEIVED
POTENTIAL
Kindle/
subprime recession
c2008
mass adoption
app/s c2010
Netflix
streaming media
c2012
Air
BnB,
Uber
c2015
‘communication deficit’
‘culture shift required’

27. RELEVANCY
MATRIX

28. "If you don't like change, you're going to like irrelevance even less.”
General Eric Shinseki, former U.S. Army Chief of Staff

29. here's a dead simple, airtight hypothetical question to
demonstrate the power of cleaning up your brand digitally

30. which would you rather spend?
$50K on advertising….
or $500 ten times doing simple tests
—that grew your Facebook audience 10X?

31. build the network, stupid.

32. a Niagara Falls of inferences about programming,
community interests, strategic partnerships
and
internal culture change

33. libraries should be strategizing across the entire UX
why?

34. because your audience and your funders
live ever more deeply in the digital world

35. but on the other side of the ledger?
here's the headline: in all this tumult, libraries are still using proofs
of value from the analog age: patron transactions, library card
users, the usual datapoints...

36. most librarians think relevancy
feels like round hole/square peg

37. but relevancy as a test of the ROI on digital operations
redefines the square peg

38. how? make the most of data you already own

39. 'aha' moment
interface success (example: share tweets live)
determines brand equity (the value of your UX)
…and that Niagara Falls thing goes nuts.

40. usecase: The Cambridge Butterfly
Conservatory began projecting
live tweets in the conservatory
space, patron interactivity and
creativity went through the roof.
The KPI here?

42. dirty little secret: library UX is a relevancy problem before it’s a management problem.
(You have to know what you’re doing before you try to manage it. No laughing, please.)

43. here's the paradox: libraries are moving heaven
and earth to evolve their service and knowledge
offerings to be more relevant digitally and
across networks—an entirely different
proposition from measuring the transactional

44. transformation + innovation | story as user experience

45. big internet question
what's transactional basis of the internet?
not time
not money
not bandwidth
not social networks
not video

46. it’s story.
We meet one another and get to
know one another and trust one
another by exchanging story

47. Why care about story?
• Stories relax people and focus their attention (not a data
dump)
• Stories start conversations (engagement)
• Stories spark emotions and make people do amazing,
human things (catalyze action)
• Stories don’t sell. The best don’t tell either—they lead us
to something new (teachable moments > inspire change)

48. story leads transformation (and defines it too)

49. mindblowing idea.
stories are data…with soul. (Brené
Brown)
• not a ‘data dump’
• win engagement
• catalyze action
• share ‘teachable moments’
• influence others
brené brown

50. Here’s one way to be heard: it’s all about me.

51. But no one will listen.
Why? It’s not about you. It’s about them.
Libraries aren’t in the book business:
they’re in the business of growing the
culture around them…
…they’re in the Markham or LA or
Brampton or Toronto business.

52. you gotta feed ‘em what they eat.

53. transformation + innovation | the big ‘why?’

54. what do libraries own?
unbiased knowledge, cultural context
and human meaning

55. if you want to speak to your community, do this
• we live in a culture, a society that’s highly secular, post-
modern, post-industrial
• in all the changes, all the stresses of everyday life, there’s
one sure universal left...

56. meaning
• The art and discipline of great storytelling—from
investigative journalism to black comedy to screenwriting
to radio plays—hinges on meaning
• ...and meaning is the librarian’s stock-in-trade: librarians
give meaning away, every day, all the time
• so there’s no end of inspiration for you in telling your story,
your library’s story—abundance is happening

57. turning meaning + abundance into brand story
• To tell your story effectively, you need to know one killer
piece...

58. Simple. But not obvious.
(hint: engagement—the first step to networking)
• Values. People want to know what you stand for. And
why: that’s why you won their attention.
• Share. Teach. Demonstrate real value. Share again.
• Values build value: it’s all about trust (again).
• And librarians have sky-high ‘trustability’

59. the community-shared brand storytelling recipe
Share the why of the how of what you do.
(once more, with feeling)
Share the why of the how of what you do.

60. let’s break that down.
• why? shares ‘so what?’ > why should I care?
• how? shares ‘now what?’ > what’s gonna happen?
• what? shares ‘what it is’ > nuts/bolts
• these three story components are your library’s brand
‘story engine’
• this is how you assemble, publish and share community
stories across your networks

61. why share your stories?
• four simple words: people will trust you
• share trust through shared story and something wonderful
happens…
• …the people you’ve shared your story with share your story
(that’s now their story: they’re telling it) with the people they
think the story will affect most

62. and then a miracle
happens.

63. transformation + innovation | stories + the power of change

64. networks.

65. stories operate on two levels…so do networks.
• stories document and share experiences
• sharing those experiences yields emotional connection
• networks grow and share experiences
• sharing those experiences yields opportunity to co-
create value

66. value networks
value networks are the information
architectures of our tribes, our 'people'—
they describe the dynamics of how that
tribe interrelates...the cultural triggers that
give birth to the stories the tribe tells to
itself and to others

67. tribes + your
community
last time I looked, there were 38
Brendan Howleys online
but I'd bet my alter ego—the human
being with the closest set of values to
mine—the person I'd like most to rally to
a cause with or start a project with...
...isn't any Brendan Howley I know.
I found my 'people'—you guys, my tribe
—librarians, technologists, activists and
storytellers—by a selection process that
took years, many dead ends, and lots of
180ºs

68. no accident
• communities align into networks by
knowable rules and sustain in
knowable patterns
• …there’s even a book on this
• A Pattern Language by Christopher
Alexander
• must-read for anyone interested in
designing community systems
• you should have this in your library…
it’ll rarely be on the shelf (trust me)

69. patterns rule
if we can understand the patterns in the way
communities share story…
we’ll master relevance

70. libraries are ‘cultural
triggers’ that activate
networks
media
literature
art
film
local history
archives
databases
(measuring community interactivities here
is critical library data intelligence)

71. how do human
networks work?
why are networks critical to growing library
advocacy and community storytelling?
because networks share the values inherent
in library advocacy/storytelling
(and yes: these networks live and breathe
inside libraries as well!)

72. why we share stories
determines why a
community grows,
sustains and influences
others to join
classic example?
gentrification via the arts
(from grotty to great)

73. transformation + innovation | community shared story

74. what business are you
in…really?
libraries are in the context business—
especially the cultural context business
why?
because the future of libraries is pegged
to the cultural vibrancy—itself a measure
of prosperity—of the communities they
serve

75. what fuels culture?
it’s story-in-context: influence
…which is why ‘influencers’ prime
Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat,
Pinterest and Instagram networks
with tips, reviews, insights and
intelligence you can’t get anywhere
else

76. people talk. and talk.
…they all want to be influencers!

77. and we’re back where
we started
if you're beginning to see the
patterns of sharing measurable
cultural stories feel a lot like a
‘virtuous circle’…you’re dead right

78. transformation + innovation | the measurable library brand

79. participatory culture
hub
high-relevancy brand storytelling
will make local culture part of
everyday lives
and libraries, because they knows
to measure that relevancy, will
become a repository of the
community data that’ll bubble up

80. small business
development engine
HINT: target female entrepreneurs of
all ages
libraries will become a small business
development engine fuelled by
library-mediated sharing of local
business intelligence: more relevancy
(ex: mompreneurs represent serious
untapped economic growth potential)

81. … what's the desired outcome
of all this community
interactivity?
Maps.

82. ‘living city’ infographics
Big, interactive, context-rich city
maps that are never finished, never
complete, always growing more
useful via more incoming
community data—a city’s stories at
a glance—the ultimate relevancy

83. transformation +
thought leadership
Establish libraries as thought leaders
where media meets community
shared intelligence needs
where community data meets
community culture (like Facebook
connects humans via data)

84. relevancy: going in
circles
it's a great big hairy audacious
feedback loop of hyperlocal story,
community intelligence/data, local
culture, shared community
experiences and prosperity led by
participatory culture and high-
relevancy library brand media

85. Enter Mr. Drucker
‘Culture eats strategy for lunch’

86. one more time
culture drives everything

87. crash + burn
No library relevancy strategy that
doesn't profoundly understand
culture and the 'why' of people
coming together (the 'cultural
triggers') will ever fly

88. blue sky transformation targeting community relevancy

89. relevancy: why not?
• why aren’t libraries (like post
offices in Ireland and Germany)
local financial services hubs? why
can’t libraries secure their future
by helping their communities
incubate better, smarter, more
agile businesses?

90. relevancy: why not?
• why can't libraries become
publishers of local culture, local
fiction, local film, local music,
local dance—the high-relevancy
media layer that all these arts
communities need to grow
locally?

91. relevancy: why not?
• why aren't library archives and
image banks 'rented' as unique
media resources by local
businesses who want to share
their stories in a true local
context?

92. relevancy: why not?
• why aren't library makerspaces
embracing community newsrooms
—media hubs which define and
explore what it means to live right
here, right now—and growing the
culture to boot?

93. even Vancouver and
Chattanooga and NYPL aren’t
asking these relevancy questions.
Not yet.

94. That doesn’t mean
your library shouldn’t
Now’s the best time to start mapping
and strategizing and identifying
cultural triggers that drive brand
expectation…
…transformation in the name of
relevancy

95. thank you