12. Photo courtesy Robert Scoble, flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/, CC BY 2.0 License
ALL of what I just described
happened within 15 years:
1978-1993
ALL OF IT
34. Special Requirements
• Specialized metadata (i.e., MARC)
• Specialized workflows
• Often constrained conditions (e.g.,
limitation on suppliers, forced reliance on
central IT, etc.)
• Collegial nature of many institutions makes
fast adoption of technological change
difficult
38. Create Agile Institutions
• Minimize red tape
• Maximize communication channels
• Use task forces to accomplish group work
• Encourage new ideas, risk-taking, and
trying things out
• “Release” early and often
• Kill things off when they stop providing
value
39. Foster Ongoing Staff
Development
• Provide opportunities for professional
development
• Support conference attendance
• Encourage use of current awareness
resources
40. Offer Compelling Local
Services
• What can only be done locally, or done
most effectively at a local level?
• Suggestions:
– Special collections
– Services requiring personal contact
– Services requiring physical spaces (e.g., study
space)
– Services requiring specific knowledge of local
needs
41. There Are NO
Permanent Parts
• Monitor your environment
• Build for constant change
• Your job description will change
• Professional development is an
ongoing responsibility
• What you know now is likely what you
won’t need to know in the near future
42. Get Ready for the New
• Seek out the next big thing
• Monitor & evaluate initially, don’t adopt
too quickly
• If it approaches inevitability, prepare
43. Prepare
• Inform staff early and often
• Invite participation in imagining futures
• Watch for potential champions
• Provide space and time for innovation
• Cut the deal — support for a period of time,
then cut & run or to production — fail early
and try often
• No penalties for trying — only for NOT
trying!
44. The Way Forward
• Create agile institutions and foster ongoing
staff development
• Offer compelling local services
• Refocus staff on direct user services
• Realign priorities
• Improvise, Innovate, and Collaborate
46. Final Advice
• Neither an early adopter nor laggard be
• Technology with market share tends to beat
better technology
• Do not underestimate the power of an
upstart with a great idea
• It’s the customer, stupid!
• Back it up or kiss it goodbye
• Never make your expensive resource wait
on your inexpensive one
47. Final Advice
• Never underestimate the power of a
prototype
• Buy hardware at the last possible moment
• Don’t buy software with a zero at the end of
the release number
• If you’ve learned a technology thoroughly,
it’s already on its way out
• For any project, there are several ways it
can succeed and countless ways it can fail
