This document discusses leadership and librarianship. It begins by defining leadership as seeing opportunities for improvement and actively working to achieve them. It notes that everyone can demonstrate leadership, which is different from management. The document then lists common excuses people tell themselves to avoid leadership roles. It provides examples of leadership training programs for librarians and discusses recent PhD dissertations on leadership in libraries. It concludes by offering insights into effective leadership and tips for librarians seeking leadership positions.

1. Leadership and Librarians
Stephen Abram, MLS
Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila
Manila, Philippines
April 15, 2013

2. What is Leadership?
Leaders see an improvement to be
made – a desirable future
state, sometimes before others, and
actively seek to achieve those
improvements.
2

3. Who is a Leader?
Everyone can lead.
Leadership is different from
managing or supervising.
3

4. Lies we tell ourselves
• Shyness versus introversion
• I don’t do presentations to management
• People will notice my good work
• They’ll read my report, memo . . .
• Leadership is someone else’s job
• I don’t make the decisions around here…
• That’s their responsibility – not mine.
4

5. Future Driven Leadership Training for Librarians
• ALA Emerging Leaders
• Mountain Plains Leadership Institute
• Tall Texans
• Snowbird
• Northern Exposure to Leadership
• iSchool at Toronto e.g. Public Library Institute
• Crucial Conversations
• Etc.
5

6. Research PhD Dissertations on
Leadership in Libraries
Mary-Jo Romaniuk, San Jose State Univ.
Cheryl Stenstrom, San Jose State Univ.
Donna Brockmeyer, Univ. of Saskatchewan, Thomas More
College
Ken Haycock, Marshall School, University of California
6

7. Insights into what Makes a Difference
• Passion is foremost
• Advocacy
• Risk Taking
• Change Management
• Flexibility
• Dealing with Ambiguity – having the aptitude
to introduce change aligned with the future
state.
• Influencing Skills
7

8. What doesn’t help or work
• Not taking the long view
• A dysfunctional view of time
• Being risk averse
• Playground competition
• Lack of cooperation
• Backbiting and blamestorming
• Fear of change
8

9. SLA Alignment Research
Key Highlights:
• Relationships, Networks, Collaborati
on
• Speed – Save Time
• Packaging for Added Value Answers
• Educate and Train
9

10. Positioning the Library and
Librarian / Library Staff
What is your value proposition?
You versus the library versus the institution?
Why do you, the library, or your institution exist?

11. Librarian Magic

12. The Complex Value Proposition
Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

14. Risk Taking in Librarianship
Avoiding the triple diseases of:
1. Conflict avoidance
2. Passive resistance
3. Risk aversion

16. Too Much Respect for Rules

17. Fear of Looking Silly

18. Too
Little
Time

19. Studying Things to Death

20. Not letting ideas grow . . .

21. Fear of Success

22. Failure to Reward Risk

24. So Much Complication!

26. Too Much Respect for Tradition

27. Are there any of these in your library?
The Black Hole
27

28. Grocery Stores

29. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

30. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

31. Meals

32. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
Ask Us, KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

33. SHARING YOURSELF AND YOU
Up Your Game
• Embedded team member
• Embedded teacher
• Embedded research coach
• Embedded personal librarian
• Re-intermediation

34. UNCOMFORTABLE CHOICES:
SACRIFICE
Up Your Game
• Dog, Star, Cow, Problem Child/?
• Reduce investment in successes – This isn’t a typo
• Increase investment in future successes – learn from failing
• Look at TCO - Do NOT value your own time at zero
• Look at all costs incurred and not just hard costs
• Review opportunity costs in soft costs

37. Being Open to Ambiguity
Be the Change We Want to See

41. Source Doc Searls blog

42. Entering the Knowledge Era
• Right answers/facts give way to consensus
answers/informed guesses
• Information combined with Insight rules
• Knowing where and how to look is infinitely
more valuable than knowing facts
• Knowledge is an immersion environment -
an Information Ocean - where are the maps
that work here?

43. Five Laws of Library Science
• Books are for use.
• Books are for all; or, Every reader his book.
• Every book its reader.
• Save the time of the reader.
• A library is a growing organism.
S.R. Ranganathan

44. Five New Laws of Library Science
• Libraries serve humanity.
• Respect all forms by which knowledge is
communicated.
• Use technology intelligently to enhance
service.
• Protect free access to knowledge.
• Honor the past and create the future.
Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman

45. Librarian Core Value Commitments
• Democracy
• Stewardship
• Service
• Intellectual Freedom
• Privacy
• Literacy and Learning
VALUES
• Rationalism
• Equity of Access
• Building Harmony and Balance
– Michael Gorman,Library Journal, April 15, 2001

46. To have the right staff
Get the right information
In the right format
To the right people
At the right time
To make the right decision
RIGHT

47. Differences in the Private and Public Sector
Approaches to Development
Private Sector Public Sector
 Competitive advantage is the ideal  Collaborative advantage is the ideal
 Good service is the key to long-term
 Innovation is key to long-term existence
existence  Focus on citizens and social contract
 Focus on clients and marketshare  Political agendas and government
 Business strategies imperatives
 Responsibility to shareholders or  Responsibility to parliament and to
citizens
owner/investors
 Wise use of tax dollars
 Increasing revenue  Risk averse
 Risk oriented  Making a positive impact on society is
 Economic success is a prime a strong motivator
personal motivator  Other departments, levels of
government, unions
 Competitors, partners and allies
 e-Government is the challenge
 e-Business is the challenge
 Focus on “process”
 Focus on “results”

48. A Few Definitions
• "Successful knowledge transfer involves
neither computers nor documents but
rather interactions between people."
Tom Davenport
People like
librarians, teachers, counselors, advisors, . .
.

49. Taking The Knowledge Positioning
• Data >>> • Information >>>
• Transformations are: • Transformations are:
• Applying standards • Representing data:
• SGML, HTML, Fields, Ta • Display, Chart, Format,
gs, MARC, normalizing . Publish, Aggregate, Pict
.. ure, Graph, Sort, Rank,
Highlight, etc.

50. Taking The Knowledge Positioning
Data >>> Information >>> Knowledge >
Apply Tangible Learning
standards Representations Knowing
of Data Filtering
Evaluating
Balancing

51. Knowledge is not the path to:
WISDOM

52. Taking The Knowledge Positioning
• Behaviour
• Decisions that result in action, even if that
action is non-action
• Key success factors are intelligent, informed
and impactful results
• Has value in proportion to its results in the
context of the individual or social
organization

53. Taking The Knowledge Positioning
Data Information Knowledge Behaviour
====> =======> ======> ======>
Apply Display Knowing Do
Stand- Chart Learning Decide
ards Graph Filtering Choose
Store Publish Evaluating Apply
& Picture Enact
Move Format Gerunds
Action
Verbs

54. Transformational Process
• Data • Norm
• Information • Form
• Knowledge • Transform
• Behaviour • Perform
Success

55. The Five Stages of Technology
Adoption
• Awareness
• Interest
• Evaluation
• Trial
• Adoption

56. CHANGE
The $60 Million Dollar Question
How do we more speedily process
our organizations through this cycle?

57. The Classic Corn Research
• Innovators  2.5%
• Early Adopters  13 %
• Early Majority  17.5 %
• Middle Majority  33.5 %
• Laggards  17.5%
• Non-Adopters  16%

58. The Classic Corn Research

59. What Favours Rapid Adoption?
• Relative Advantage
• Compatibility
• Complexity
• Trialability
• Observability

60. The Market Adaptation Sequence
• Product Acceptance
• Motivation
• Confidence Level
• Education / Attitude
• Acceptance Criteria
• Selling Strategy

61. Understanding Adoption Types:
Innovators
• Technology fascination
• Motivation -- Implement New Ideas
• Confidence Level High -- experiment, risk
• Self taught, independent
• Latest technology, few features, performance
• Self sold, when turned on, word of mouth

62. Understanding Adoption Types:
Early Adopters
• The coming thing
• Motivation -- leap frog the competition, prove
business
• Willing to try new things, reasonable risk
• Will attend night school to learn
• Innovation, better way to do job, selective
• Sold on benefits, references, word of mouth

63. Understanding Adoption Types: Late
Adopters
• Obvious solutions to problems
• Motivation --social pressure, fear of
obsolescence
• No risk, slow to change, needs references
• Seminars, proven products, hand holding
• Brand important, pay for needed features
only, terms & conditions important
• Examples, address cost/technical support

64. Understanding Adoption Types:
Laggards
• Absolute need
• Extreme competition/social pressure
• Reluctant to change
• Will send someone to a seminar, needs
proof, ease of use
• Lowest cost, competitive terms, brand
• Productivity increases, fear

65. What kind of librarian are you? Critical thinker or Criticizer?
What is your library culture around change or innovation?

66. Four Key Questions
• What changes will be offered (i.e. the breadth and
depth of the product line)?
• Who will be the target users (i.e. the boundaries of
the market segments served)?
• How will the products reach those users (i.e. the
distribution channels used)?
• Why will users prefer these product(s) to those of
competitors (i.e. the distinctive attributes and value
to be provided)?
• Bonus: Are they different from you, librarians?

67. Making Decisions and Sacrifices
• Tools for effective decision management:
– Four Square
– Six Thinking Hats
– Six Action Shoes
– SWOT
– Diverge / Converge
– Post-its
– Mind Maps
– Fish Bone

68. Making Decisions and Sacrifices
Low Value High Value
Nice to The 4-
have Square
Value
Decision
Must Box
have

69. Making Decisions and Sacrifices
Value
Time

70. Making Decisions and Sacrifices
Strengths Opportunities
Results
Weaknesses Threats

71. De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
• White Hat • What do we need to know?
• Red Hat • How do I feel about this?
• Let’s ask critical questions.
• Black Hat
• What are the opportunities here?
• Yellow Hat
• How can we grow this idea?
• Green Hat • What’s the process here? Have
• Blue Hat we thought of everything?

72. De Bono’s Six Action Shoes
• Navy Formal Shoes • Routine Behaviour
• Grey Sneakers • Collect Information
• Brown Brogues • Pragmatism and Practicality
• Orange Gumboots • Emergency Response
• Pink Slippers • Human Caring
• Purple Riding Boots • Use Your Authority

73. Bringing the User into the Loop
• Advisory Boards
• Editorial Boards
• Reactor Panels
• Neighbourhoods
• Feedback tools (e-mail, etc.)
• Focus Groups
• Surveys
• MBWA

74. Leaders have many modes.
They choose to use the dimension
that works in the situation.
74

75. • "An optimist is someone who says a glass is
half full. A pessimist says it's half empty. A re-
engineering consultant says, "Looks like you've
got twice as much glass as you need."

76. Are you on the ‘hits’ train?

77. DATA

78. QUALITATIVE INFORMATION
and
QUANTITATIVE DATA

79. STATISTICS
and
MEASUREMENTS

80. Are you locked into library
financial mindsets?

81. What about value and impact?

82. Or shall we stick with this?

83. Algorithms
• Search differentiator
• Commercial algorithms versus those based on big
data
• Measuring end user success versus known item
retrieval…
• “Romeo and Juliet”
• Problems with the unmonitored trial
– Wrong tests
– Poor sampling
– Mindset issues

84. Sharing Learning and Research
• Usability versus User Experience
• End users versus librarians
• Known item retrieval (favourite test) versus
immersion research
• Lists versus Discovery
• Scrolling versus pagination
• Devices and browsers and agnosticism
• Satisfaction and change
• Individual research experience vs. impacts on e-
courses, LibGuides, training materials, etc.

85. Focus and Understand on the Whole Experience

86. Statistics, Measurements and Analytics
• Counter & Sushi data are very weak metrics that
don’t provide insights into the critical stuff
• Database usage (unique user, session, length of
session, hits, downloads, etc.)
• Web and Google Analytics (6,000+ websites)
• Foresee satisfaction and demographic data
• Search Samples (underemphasized at this point.)
• Time of Year Analysis
• ILS Data (from clients &n partnerships)
• Geo-IP data, analytics and mapping.
• Impact studies and sampling.
86

87. Analytics

88. What do we need to know?
• How do library databases compare with other web
experiences and expectations?
• Who are our core virtual users?
• What are user expectations for satisfaction?
• How does library search compare to consumer
search like Google?
• How do people find and connect with library virtual
services?
• What should we ‘fix’ as a first priority?
• Are end users being successful in their POV?
• Are they happy? Will they come back? Tell a friend?

89. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Good not Perfect
 It’s not the steps that cause delays in development
- it’s the space between the steps
 No mistake is ever final.
 Freeze and Go! The right metaphor is seasonal
change - not revolution or evolution
 Prefer action over study: If you’re studying
something to death - remember that death was
not the original goal!

90. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Mock-
Up, Build, Rebuild, Beta, Pilot, Launch, Re-Do
 Remember the rule of six (6). You get very
diminishing returns after asking the same
question of like people.
 Remember the 15% rule: Humans have
extreme difficulty in actually seeing a
difference of less than 15%.

91. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Use the 70/30 rule: “I agree with 70% and can
live with the other 30%.”
 Remember the old 80/20 rule standby: No
matter how few or many users you have, 80%
of your usage/revenue/etc. will come from
20% of your users.
 Remember the 90/10 rule. 90% of your costs
are in implementation, not development.

92. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
“Productize”: Be able to physically point at
your product or service.
 Get out of your box! It is unlikely that you are
the alpha user profile.
 You can’t step in the same river twice. Your
knowledge of the new development means
you probably cannot see the potential pitfalls.

93. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Understand the differences between
features, functions and benefits.
 Understand your customer and don’t assume
- TEST.
 Don’t just ask your clients what they do, will
do or want. OBSERVE them.
 Have a vision and dream BIG!

94. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Ask the three magic questions:
What keeps you awake at night?
If you could solve only one problem at work, what
would it be?
If you could change one thing and one thing
only, what would it be?
 Never underestimate the customer.
 Seek the real customer.

95. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Respect information literacy, learning styles
and multiple intelligence.
 Understand the adoption curve.
 Do research for yourself too. Set up alerts on
your hot issues.
 Bring management on side first, then
customers and users, BEFORE you launch.

96. Conclusion: 28 Key Tips
 Feedback is a gift - you can keep it, return
it, hide it in the closet. Don’t overvalue one
piece of out-of-context feedback or let it loom
out of perspective and balance.
 Measure - don’t just count: Decision-makers
CANNOT interpret your statistics.
 When you have 100 options to choose from the
critical skill isn’t choosing 5 but sacrificing 95.

110. The Library as Sandbox

111. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
Consultant, Dysart & Jones/Lighthouse Partners
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@gmail.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
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