In Munich .. didnt sleep on the plane .. but only here for a day … Hofbrauhaus or sleep? Yikes

Traditionally innovative – 450 Years of the Bavarian State Library

Munich celebrates. In the Bavarian capital the year 2008 – at least within the city’s thriving library network – marks a very special birthday. The Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek) is celebrating 450th anniversary.

The history of the present-day Bavarian State Library (Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, BSB) began in 1558 – as the court library of the Wittelsbach Duke Albrecht V. “The newly founded library was far more than a mere expression of royal grandeur and self-promotion; together with the Antikensammlung (Collection of Antiques) and the Kunstkammer (Cabinet of Arts and Curios), Duke Albrecht wanted it to provide a cultural cosmos of that era,” explains Rolf Giebel, the General Director of the BSB.

In the “Cultural Cosmos of the Renaissance”

The foundation stone for this project was laid by the purchase of the valuable Oriental library of Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter. In 1571, as the next big step towards creating a cultural cosmos, Duke Albrecht acquired Johann Jakob Fugger’s library, comprising over 10,000 volumes, which was one of the largest collections of that time.

On the occasion of its 450th anniversary, the Bavarian State Library is now displaying the impressive stock from its founding era. In the jubilee exhibition “Cultural Cosmos of the Renaissance” it shows Ethiopian and Armenian manuscripts, Italian incunabula, early prints from France and Spain, illuminated Korans, exquisitely illustrated books on tournaments and works on the techniques of war, architectural tracts as well as books on coins and heraldry.

Slide Show: 450 Years of the Bavarian State Library

A glimpse into the treasure chamber

Impressive as these gems from the first acquisition years are, they almost disappear in the abundance of treasures which the library acquired in the following decades. Some 92,000 manuscripts are currently stored only in the depots within the Library itself. Moreover, with over 20,000 titles it boasts the world’s largest collection of incunabula.

Spread over the entire anniversary year, the Library, affectionately referred to as “Stabi” by its users, will be inviting the public to smaller exhibitions in which more precious gems from its treasure chamber can be admired: splendid illuminated choir books, atlases of the “Mannheimer Palatina”, books by painters and artists, illustrated artist-autographs and the Ottheinrich Bible, the most spectacular new acquisition.

Multimedia Services

Yet even in this anniversary year the Bavarian State Library is by no means presenting itself merely as the judicious preserver of a cultural heritage that dates back thousands of years. As one of the most important international research libraries it is also the multimedia information service provider for the sciences and an innovative force in the field of digital services.

At the beginning of April 2008 the Centre for Electronic Publishing (Zentrum für Elektronisches Publizieren, ZEP) was opened here, which combines the activities of the Bavarian State Library in the field of genuine electronic publications. “With this,” says Rolf Griebel, “we are supporting the creation of a sustainable infrastructure for the operation and permanent accessibility of open-access publications in the sphere of humanities.”

Robots at work

When it comes to the retro-digitisation of holdings, the Munich Library has long been one of the trailblazers in Germany. Last autumn the first project in the sphere of mass digitisation was launched under the auspices of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft). By the end of 2009 almost 37,000 German-language print works from the years 1518 to 1600 are to be digitised and, in a second step, to be made accessible, free of charge, via the internet – a total of over 7.5 million pages.

Anyone wishing to gain insight into how the BSB copes with such masses of sensitive books should go to one of the Scan-Robot Days that are taking place in the anniversary year. In the Library’s Fürstensaal leading manufacturers will present live their latest cutting-edge devices and demonstrate the various methods of automated scanning. This companies’ presentation will be accompanied by a series of lectures.

An imposing setting

The fact that the guided tour “Behind the Scenes of the Bavarian State Library”, which i.a. allows visitors a glimpse of the book conveyor system and of the “digitisation street”, is booked out many months in advance shows how great the general interest is in the innovative achievements of the State Library. There was also a very lively interest in the Day of the Open Door (on 11th October) when the staff, comprising some 700 employees, granted insight into the operation of a modern-day library.

The jubilee year will end on a spectacular note with a concert by the Tölz Boys’ Choir. For the evening concert will take place in the magnificent stairwell of the Library building in Ludwigstraße. Anyone entering the Library for the first time is inevitably awestruck by the 60 huge, broad marble steps of the main stairwell. Equally awe-inspiring is the success story of the Bavarian State Library, which has been accommodated here since the mid-19th century – and which, with its now over 9.25 million volumes, has developed in the course of the last 450 years into one of the most important European universal libraries.

(New) Clarkson University Library Director (Michelle L. Young)

Director .. dont offer tenure for that position .. she has an “Evergreen contract”

Director Goal: To set in motion the University Libraries’ transformation towards excelling academic excellence through the implementation of programs, policies and strategies geared towards the innovative vision of libraries in the 20th century.

Notes:

• Risk Tolerant
• Solicit feedback .. Expose and deal with the issues
• Change .. librarians not longer work evenings and weekends – grads for ref.
• User survey – also used for Middle States

1. What did users expect from an outstanding academic library?
2. What were their experiences ant Clarkson University

Handout has vision values and mission statements

Using Resources Wisely – Rich Dreifuss (Geneseo)

OCLC Report on Online Catalogs
 
Catalog Reconstruction (Aleph 500 Cat)

• large team
• good management support
• took 6 months (met every 3 or weeks) – subcommittees did work
• used U Albany usability study
• book “Benchmarking for Best Practices”
• borrowed from U Albany (search options)
• Notre Dame (search forms)
• Duke (tabs)
• MIT (two-way sortable columns)
• used a wiki .. collecting ideas, ranking priority, process notes, changes, collect documents

• Flexibility or Standards: Template or Not -  can use own language
• Pictures – students identify
• Access? Assigned or Everyone (Potsdam)
• Documents / Pdfs / ppts
• Useful to have a basic research guide
• Faculty training .. ESF
• Citation
• Refworks (Endnote?)
• Springshare Community – see other people guides (can copy)
• Link .. Don’t duplicate content on web
• Can create own widgets in Admin – grab code
• Encourage starring and comments
• Link Checker

Keynote:  R. David Lankes – Syracuse

The Mission of Librarians:  To Improve Society Through Facilitating Knowledge Creation in their Communities

Screencast: http://quartz.syr.edu/rdlankes/blog/?p=760

See Join the Mission – http://www.DavidLankes.org

• Serve
• Innovate – bring about change
• Lead – Librarians are trusted 3rd party source, lead on campus, obligation to say “you can be better”
• … global mission .. improvement ..libraries about knowledge not about things … “connective tissues of our organizations” .. out of the building too.
• Permissive attitude of risk
• Knowledge is created through conversation
• Not what we provide
• What we change
• We .. Jump from this to this to this.  Libraries are a museum of technologies that fail

Librarian Entrepreneurs: Demystifying a Professional Oxymoron: Steven J. Bell

- Bell’s Presentation – steal this ..
 

• Made Video of Question to start off presentation
• Hand drawn pictures and text

Name a Librarian who is an Entrepreneur? .. don’t now
Name any Entrepreneur? Gates, Trump .. don’t know

Confusion with “resourceful” “innovative”

7 Characteristics of Successful Entrepreneur

1. Opportunistic: Israel and waste water
2. Creative Genius (or Team) Intermittent Windshield wiper (Pixar)
3. Customer Focus (Zappos)
4. Persistence (Berners-Lee)
5. Connect the Dots (spotting trends, see same things differently)
6. Passion (Blended Librarian Online Community)
7. Risk Taking

“Sessions” – Library chat platform – North Carolina

Social Entrepreneurship: Creating Future Libraries (Aaron Schmidt – notebook)

“Design Thinking”  IDEO “Deep Dive” (Nightline episode)

The Design Approach:

• empathic thinking (experience it live .. not by survey)
• identify problem before the solution
• brainstorming process
• prototyping process
• formative summative evaluation (let people try it)

10 Tips for Aspiring Librarian Entrepreneurs

1. Listen/Observe
2. Accept Hard Work
3. Something is better than nothing
4. Break a Few Rules (not so policy driven)
5. Ask Open-Ended Questions
6. Balance Risk & Evolution (use incremental change)
7. Develop Sticky Ideas – (Made to Stick – Dan Heath Book) – elevator pitch, succinct, emotional
8. Time For Ideas : 20% time for thought and reflection (watch for Google Waves)
9. Keeping Up  (Bell’s Keeping Up Blog) – trends, next big thing, disruptive technology
10. Use the Zoom Out Lens (JCollins … when things get tough)
11. Know your Core Values

Next Steps

• Talk to Users in their Natural Habitat
• Talk About Core Values with Stakeholders
• Talk about Design Thinking
• Talk about Risk Tolerance Level

Blog: Designing Better Libraries

In Video: Jim Neal (Columbia)

• Unbundle Heirarchy
• Create New Units
• Create Maverick Unit

Comments from Audeince

.. ways around flat hierarchy .. (ie. cross functional groups)
.. too flat makes a lot of work (need some .. hmm makes me think of Monkey)

*** Bell Also Mentioned Reference desks going away ***

Conference Summary Ideas: Wake Forest Dir.

Risk Management over Risk Taking
Paying faculty to work on better library assignments
AU Libraries Professional Development Blog
NJ Inst. Tech .. Doing interesting things

Competition for Library Services  – Dr. Larry Nash White

• Not only provider
• May not be best
• Not First provider (14th in OCLC Survey)
• We compete with each other (libraries)
• Staffing: poaching & book publishing

Competitors: (Options)

• Bookstores (Physical and online)
• Mom & Pop
• LSSI – outsourcing lib services (public, small academic, special libraries and they do it well)
• E-Books
• Social Networking: .. is this replacing “library as place”
• Google: 99 cent chapters on horizon – idea maps – time maps (check out) .. also repackage existing services for new markets
• (Slide: Visual Of Hundreds of 2.0 icons)
• iTablet
• Espresso Machine: Books on Demand (500,000, Million by 2010 books on it)
• Redbox VD rental .. total automation
• Flexible flex screens

There are competitors we cant see …

• Day Care
• Lack of time to go to the library
• Entertainment
• SEE .. “The Hidden” chart in ppt

Potentials:

• Walmart sells more books than Amazon, B&N and BooksaMillion combined
• Kiosks – that print out paperbacks and provide e-copies

Competitive Responses:

• Respond like a business
• Expand performance assessment
• Include competitive scanning /and intelligence
• now service environment
• innovate
• increases access, alignment and accountability
• value assessment!

“A Flat World Library” -  Biblioteca de Santiago (Chile)
See YouTube on Biblioteca

Never had a library .. had clear set of needs .. built strictly according to need

• Everything On wheels
• Don’t Shelve – RFID Tags,
• Wireless
• Power system portal
• Customer delivery
• Art Museum
• Customized Seated
• Open 120hrs week
• 270,000 Sq Foot Bldgs
• Audio/Voice and Touch Screen Workstations
• 4000 Volunteer

Anthropologist in the Library to watch

Meeting an Unmet Need: Extending the Learning Commons Concept Through On­  Campus Partnerships and Branding – La Loria Konata; GSU Learning Commons

Georgia State University (Learning Commons) .. Outreach Efforts

Assignment Calculator (widget)

Webheat (Univ Minnesota)

Campus Collaborations: (Idea .. meet with Student Activities)

• Office of New Students
• At Risk Students Program
• McNair Scholars (Honors students) .. paired with faculty on research .. designed for them – sessions and breakout with liaison librarian
• Black Sorority Project
• Freshman Friday: Fri. before school starts. – Passport stamps (redeemable) .. food and games, movies, chill out stations.. just get them in the library .. tee shirts, coffee tickets, frisbee magnets.
• Family Weekend – leftovers from Freshman Friday
• Chillax .. during finals week .. Episodes of Family Guy and Pizza .. (announced chat service and room reservations)

Ideas:

• Facebook Page
• Learning Commons Theatre (On YouTube) .. “Ghost Book” .. “Rude Computer”
• iTunesU

Failed Attempts

• Student Advisory Group
• Mystery Shopper (for evaluation of services) work With Marketing Class
• One Six Right Screening
• “old skool gaing”
• Online Drop-in Classes

Alibris .. Sell Books

Scan ISBN .. populates record and instant website listing.  Name Price.
Incl. Subject Listing. (50 bks/hr)
Pricing tool
Generates Packing Slip
Mailing included (figure in pricing)

Mentioned “Long Tail”
Google Books .. reeducated self

Jon Obermeyer: Lunch Speaker – Stacking the Odds for Success: A Six­ Stage Process to Articulate and Promote Your  Entrepreneurial Idea.

2 kinds of Entrepreneurship
Lifestyle (small, personal) vs High Growth (corporate)

NOTES:

• Identify a VERY Large problem tht needs to be solved
• Not necessarily something nobody is doing… some competition good.. just identify weakness and make it better
• Libraries Ideal for “Ubiquitous Entrepreneurship”
• Growth the idea to be self sustaining beyond your tenure (Exit)
• People Dont like to Adopt New Things

6 Steps

Problem -> Solution -> Product
Team -> Funding -> Exit

1) Problem ..

Spend Lots of Time (most) identifying a PROBLEM

• data + Research
• articulate it succinctly
• cite credible sources

2) Solution

• Benefits?
• Why is it unique?
• Why worth investigating?

3) Product

• Tech Specs
• Scales and Scope
• Design for Future (years out) … where is the product going

4) Team

• Functional Expertise
• Domain Expertise
• Initiative Person (worker bee)
• Political Person
• Succession .. who will take over
• Then do “Gap Analysis” – who is missing
• Then .. get them on advisory board or as a vendor

5) Funding

• Entrepreneurs Embrace Risk
• Investors Reduce Risk
• Mock up Pro-forma Budget (3-5 years)
• OK to Lose $

6) Exit

• Know logical conclusion (ie. solved problem, failure, can carry on without you)
• Exits can build credibility

See Six Step Template (Business Plan on One Page) – also develop “elevator pitch” version (clear, concise, sharable)

Look into “Venture Philanthropy” – “Entrepreneurial Philanthropy”

Entrepreneurs

• Find Partners – spreads risk
• Build Teams
• Use other areas of organizations – i.e. Business school for business plan.
• Opportunity focused
• Should be small, simple and practical.. one idea at a time

Drucker: Links Entrep and Innovations

———————
Risk

• Some may chastise Libraries for taking risk (risk adverse) .. Libs have been rewarded for being conservative
• Risk Taking vs Risk Management – go for Risk Management
• Parallel to Investing
• Balancing risk, diversifying, reserves and using time

———————
Leadership

• Create culture of innovation .. hire ‘em and let ‘em go
• Some guidelines – don’t micromanage
• Instill principles and values
• Provide resources, rewards & incentives
• No perfect decisions – Take Leaps of Faith
• Resist order and completeness
• Don’t Manage for for Exceptions: Too much planning for for exceptions (policies)
• Design for typical occurances (98%) not Exceptions
• Empower people to make decisions on exceptions
• More risky when 1 person makes decisions
• Fear of Failure
• Fear of Success

———————
Organizational work (slide)

• Normal work -> R&D -> Innovation -> Transformative work
• Only funded to do “Normal work”

———————
Knowledge Management

• Open and collaborative – of interest BEYOND the institution
• Collect Institutional mission-based assets
• Proposes new discipline – “KIAS (Knowledge Information Arts & Sciences)” .. Knowledge Technology
• She says “open knowledge” will surpass published content

Re-Imagine:

• Curate .. notebooks, data, software, users are creating their own “personal knowledge systems”

———————
Opportunities:

• Open Movement  – resist control
• Social Networks: services (OCLC)
• Teaching new literacies and digitally challenged
• Leverage advantages of location and service
• Mini/Innovation Grants (Enrichment Grants) – up to $5000

Ideas:

• POD squared – Print on Demand / Purchase on Demand
• “Espresso Machine” Prints Books on Demand
• Utah – Western Soundscape Archive – cool – Funded by library & ILMS (westernsoundscape.org)

———————
Strategies:

• Fast track decision
• Be ready for opportunities
• Reinvent
• Experiment, shift, adapt
• Assume more risk
• Partner
• Plan in shorter time frames

———————
Summary Points (there is more … find .ppt)

• Stop dwelling on risk – risk is unavoidable .. live with and manage
• Small focused steps
• Not about information ..we’re about knowledge
• Spend resources to create transformative work
• Good ideas should be shared
• .. *** find .ppt for more ..

———————

• “Nothing breeds success like failure” – Kiplingers
• Just Do It!