1. Now what?
12 steps to thriving in a different world
Karen Hyman and Peter Bromberg
Public Library Association
Philadelphia, PA
March 15, 2012
•Steps 1,2,5,6,9.10: Copyright Karen Hyman, karendhyman@gmail.com
•Steps 3,4,7,8,11,12: CC License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5),
Peter Bromberg, peterbromberg@gmail.com

2. Today we will explore
how to …
• Keep up morale.
• Be there for your customers.
• Think strategically and creatively in a
challenging environment.
• Grow your libraries, even now.
• Enjoy your accomplishments…the good
old day could be today.

3. Or in other words
• Improve your day, your life, and your
library.
• Eliminate stressors/develop coping skills.
• Make choices/develop strategies that give
you the best chance of success.

4. Step One
Step into the
present.
Things have changed, things are changing, things will change again.

5. Has any of this happened to you
lately?
• Deteriorating relationships with funders?
• Furloughs, layoffs, decreased hours?
• Frozen or reduced budgets?
• Struggle to find your place in a avalanche of
change?
• The Hunger Games among authors, publishers,
aggregators, booksellers and libraries?
Does it all look and feel long-term?

8. Step Two
Live by your wits.

9. We don’t know what’s
going to happen.
But we can know what IS happening.

14. Personalized News: 1978
Walter Cronkite appears on the screen. He begins, “Good
Evening, Fran…A source close to the NY Times Book Review
calls [your book] ‘splendid, brilliantly funny, a surefire hit.’
A reputable Hollywood authority… reports cutthroat
bidding for the movie rights…On the home front, Lauren
Bacall called a press conference this afternoon to announce
she wants to trade apartments with you.
Well Fran, that about wraps it up for now…
Fran Lebowitz. No News is Preferable.
In Metropolitan Life. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1978.

15. Personalized News in 2012
Developers aren’t just thinking about building for
different screen sizes, but around a whole range of
factors that affect how, where, what and when we
read… It’s a mix of what’s going on in the world and
what’s going on in your world, fused together. And it
might seem weird that I’m looking at a picture of my
daughters, and then the next flip I’m reading a story
about Iran. But to me as a reader, when I’m standing in
line waiting to get my coffee, those things are what
I care about.
Tim Carmody. The Future of Context:
Mobile Reading from Google to Flipboard to FLUD at wired.com

18. There has never been more
opportunity…
• To lead from where you are.
• To learn all you can and have fun doing it.
• To deliver your message.
• To share ideas.
• To experiment.
• To use (and move on from) cheap and accessible
technology.
• To be quicker and more nimble than ever before.

19. Step Three
Be Your Own Leader
http://marisacat.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/forward-march-2/

20. Be a one buttock player
http://www.carasonline.net/noticias/274729/benjamin-zander-agenda-cultural

21. ThePermanent Whitewater
Importance of Leadership at All Levels

22. lue nce
Inf
The Importance of Leadership ^ at All Levels
Emergent Leaders: (Peter Northouse)
2. No formal authority
3. Motivate others
4. Initiate new ideas
5. Seek others’ opinions
6. Are passionate and involved

23. lue nce
Inf
The Importance of Leadership ^ at All Levels
Emergent Leader
“I’ll just keep going
until someone tells
me to dial it back.”
- Lindsey, Development Director
Princeton Public Library

24. Sources of Power
Adapted from: The Courageous Follower, Ira Challeff
• Connect to purpose • Choose your action
• Share your knowledge • Choose to follow
• Setting Standards • Withdraw support
• Faith in self • Relationships/Networks
• Speak truth to power • Honest Communication
• Model behavior • Organize/Inspire others

25. lue nce
Inf
The Importance of Leadership ^ at All Levels
Each of us at any moment can:
2. Decide on a desired outcome
3. Generate choices
4. Take action
5. Assess effectiveness of choices
6. Learn, and choose again

26. Step Four
Make Something Up (and steal the rest)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/4193508328 (no copyright)

27. Make Something Up
"If we wait for the
moment when
everything,
absolutely everything
is ready, we shall
never begin.“
-Ivan Turgenev

28. Make Something Up
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bgsulib67/5148528014/sizes/m/in/set-72157625192282865/

29. Steal The Rest
• Webjunction • Social Media
• Associations • ALADirect | ALAConnect
• Consortia • Blogs
• Literature • Facebook Groups
• Personal Network • LinkedIn Groups
• Slideshare.net • Webinars
• Vendors • Listservs/Forums

30. Steal the Platform

31. Give Back: Put your ideas out there
"If you have an apple and I
have an apple and we
exchange these apples then
you and I will still each have
one apple.
But if you have an idea and I
have an idea and we
exchange these ideas, then
each of us will have two
ideas."
http://www.flickr.com/photos/candicew/2584669968/
-George Bernard Shaw

32. Steal The Rest
(Coastal Carolina University)
http://www.coastal.edu/library/videos/

33. Step Five
Connect “authors”
and “readers.”

34. What does it mean to be…
• An author?
• A publisher?
• A publicist?
• A reviewer?
• An aggregator?
• A filmmaker?
• A distributor?
• A community?
• A library?

35. We’ve gone from:
• If you’re so great why aren’t you on a major
network, in national distribution, or published by
Harper Collins?
• The movie screen to the home screen to the pc to
the IPAD to the phone.
• Twentieth Century Fox to indie films to On
Demand to Youtube.
• NY Times reviews to Amazon reviews to Twitter
to “social news” on Flipboard and Flud.

36. So what? why couldn’t you?
• Purchase and manage digital rights.
• Seek out and “publish” your own
material.
• Work directly with all kinds of
creators.
• Be a cool curator.

41. Step Six
Free up your
energy.

42. What reality would
free up energy,
creativity and willingness to
get up in the morning for you
and those who work at your
library?

43. Eliminating stressors and
limiting beliefs
What assumptions do you hold
about yourself, your library and
the world, that keep you from
being who you want to be?

44. What assumptions?
• I’m powerless.
• It won’t work anyway.
• It’s all a lost cause.
• This is somebody else’s job.
• Things are changing so fast I can’t
keep up.
• I am waiting for training.
• Etc., etc., etc……

45. Some ways to get unstuck…
• Don’t take things (just) personally.
• Get connected.
• Learn all you can.
• Abandon limited choices.
• Experiment. You can start small.
• Notice the changes you make.

46. Make a list of five
things you are
tolerating and
start
eliminating them.

47. Step Seven
Be a Black Belt in Time Management
http://prettycoolgifts.com/custom-clocks/157-martial-arts-wall-clock.html

48. Let Go of Perfection
http://www.flickr.com/photos/susansimon/4327971938/

49. Focus on Impact
http://onlyhdwallpapers.com/high-definition-wallpaper/or-that-bigstockphoto-hammer-striking-nail-sparks-general-desktop-1200x1200-wallpaper-7170

50. Make “So What” Your Favorite Question
http://openlibrary.org/works/OL8851068W/So_What

51. Schedule EVERYTHING
Including Downtime!

52. Continually Evaluate Use of Your Time
Adapted from Keven Eikenberry: http://blog.kevineikenberry.com/leadership/the-power-of-now/

53. Step Eight
Be a Platform for Civic Engagement
http://archivesinfo.blogspot.com/2010/09/archives-and-community.html

54. Whatever Happened to Civic Engagement?
- Robert Putnam, “Bowling Alone”
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kilgub/2028592585/ | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

55. The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation
Libraries are natural
boundary spanning
organizations in
communities, and
they’re needed now
more than ever before.
They can create safe
spaces to bring people
together across dividing
lines to see and hear
one another. Rich Harwood
http://www.alamidwinter.org/whats-happening-midwinter

56. Be a Platform for Civic Engagement
Three Great Resources
• Libraries Fostering Civic Engagement
(ALAConnect Community)
• ALA Center for Civic Life
(See their series of webinars on hosting
public issues forums at the library)
• Libraries Build Communities
(Chrystie Hill’s Blog)
http://archivesinfo.blogspot.com/2010/09/archives-and-community.html

57. Be a Platform for Civic Engagement
Five things you can do
1. Attend Community Meetings
2. Join local Boards, Get involved
3. Interview Community Leaders
4. Market, Market, Market
5. Partner on Programming
http://archivesinfo.blogspot.com/2010/09/archives-and-community.html

58. Step Nine
Have an
app for that.

59. Electronic delivery: multiple
devices and formats
• Piggy backing on their technology: audio,
video, tablets, kindles, smart phones.
• Keeping up with device development:
everyday activity of your IT department, or
consortial arrangement.
• Partner with high school/college computer
enthusiasts: host their meetings, give
them challenges to solve.

67. Step Ten
Reevaluate
safety and
control.

68. Dakota tribal wisdom says
that when you’re on a dead
horse
the best strategy is
to dismount.
Gary Hamel. Leading the Revolution, 2000.

69. New for 2012…
Of course there are other strategies
 You can keep riding. Maybe the horse is just
stunned.
 You can keep riding. You’ll never get a horse as
good as this one.
 You can put the horse on dry ice. Maybe
cryogenics will bring it back next year when
your budget could be better.
 You can keep riding. The horse you know is
better than the horse you don’t.
 You can keep riding. How can you be a rider if
you don’t have a horse?

70. But after you’ve tried
all of these things,
you’re still going to have
to dismount.

71. What inhibits a library’s ability to
change?
• Complacency.
• Being stuck in the past. Still waiting for
yesterday to get better.
• (Trying to) hold on to all of the marbles.
• Size/Structure.
• Lack of will.
• Fear/perfectionism.
• Habit.
• Not seeing the possibilities.

72. Curiosity: problem solving/
opportunity identification
• Define problem/opportunity. Think like the
customer.
• Assume there is a cheap, easy, accessible
solution.
• Assume that if something bothers you, it
bothers at least a 1000 people who are
talking about it online.
• Reevaluate safety and control . The good
news: you are in large company and they are
not options anyway.

73. Reddick said that in general her
membership believes the risk of
abuse "is smaller than the risk of
being ignored."
Karen Reddick, Executive Director
Colorado Independent Publishers Association
As quoted in Library Journal: Colorado Publishers and
Libraries Collaborate on Ebook Lending Model,
March 17, 2011

74. Step Eleven
Yes, And... The Lessons of Improv
http://dalemackey.wordpress.com/2011/09/

75. Yes, And... The Lessons of Improv
Listen
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ky_olsen/3133347219/

76. Yes, And... The Lessons of Improv
Action Beats Inaction
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ky_olsen/3133347219/

77. Yes, And... The Lessons of Improv
Trust Others
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jfchenier/428825569/

78. Yes, And... The Lessons of Improv
The Uber Principle

79. Step Twelve
Engage Customers
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chernobylbob/4248090393/sizes/z/in/photostream/

80. User Experience: Engagement
James Garrett | The State Of User Experience, http://vimeo.com/6952223
Perception (senses)
Action (body)
Cognition (mind)
Emotion (heart)

81. User Experience: Engagement

82. User Experience: Engagement
James Garrett | The State Of User Experience, http://vimeo.com/6952223
Perception (senses) External
Action (body) External
Cognition (mind) Internal
Emotion (heart) Internal

83. How do we engage our customers?
A tremendous percentage of the books that we check out get
checked out because they’re on display. How do you display an
ebook? -Jamie LaRue

84. How do we engage our customers?
It’s fun, people are
going to be drawn
to it, you just want to
touch it and see what’s
going to happen. Accessible
from your computer from
home, as well as from
mobile apps and large touch
screens in the library.
–Deborah Margeson, Collection Services Manager

85. How do we engage our customers?

86. How do we engage our customers?
Heart
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princetonpubliclibrary/sets/72157624716712838/

87. How do we engage our customers?
Taste | Social | Anticipation
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princetonpubliclibrary/sets/72157624859008020/

88. How do we engage our customers?
Kinetic | Music | Heart | Social
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princetonpubliclibrary/4988852680/sizes/z/in/set-72157624951884570/

89. How do we engage our customers?
Social | Communal | Emotion
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princetonpubliclibrary/sets/72157624352026487/

90. How do we engage our customers?
Social | Communal | Aesthetic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princetonpubliclibrary/4730214965/sizes/m/in/set-72157624074943211/

91. How do we engage our customers?
Aesthetic | Visual | Emotion
http://www.flickr.com/photos/princetonpubliclibrary/sets/72157624072659739/

92. How do we engage our customers?
Visual: Shapes and Colors
Photo of Allen County Public Library by Peter Bromberg

93. How do we engage our customers?
Gaming: Kinetic, Social, Fun
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/2856581311/sizes/m/in/pool-38119641@N00/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/melancon/336855973/sizes/m/in/pool-38119641@N00/

94. How do we engage our customers?
Signage: Surprising, fun, colorful

95. How do we engage our customers?
Furniture: Comfortable, colorful, fun
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjrlc/119907439/sizes/m/in/set-72057594093690342/

96. How do we engage our customers?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bgsulib67/5148527894/sizes/m/in/set-72157625192282865/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bgsulib67/5147923795/sizes/m/in/set-72157625192282865/

97. How do we engage our customers?
YOU!

98. Experience is not
what happens
to you.
It is what you
do with what
happens to you.
- Aldous Huxley
www.flickr.com/photos/dharmasphere/70802335/

99. Karen Hyman
karendhyman@gmail.com
thank you!
Peter Bromberg
peterbromberg@gmail.com
•Steps 1,2,5,6,9.10: copyright Karen Hyman, karendhyman@gmail.com
•Steps 3,4,7,8,11,12: CC License: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA 2.5),
Peter Bromberg, peterbromberg@gmail.com