Posts Tagged ‘Library Entrepreneurship Conference 09’

4
Jun

IIC 2009: Librarian Entrepreneurs: Demystifying a Professional Oxymoron

by admin in Sabbatical Research and Thinking

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

4
Jun

IIC 2009: Competition for Library Services

by admin in Sabbatical Research and Thinking

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 :D 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

4
Jun

IIC 2009: Meeting an Unmet Need: Extending the Learning Commons Concept Through On­ Campus Partnerships and Branding

by admin in Sabbatical Research and Thinking

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
4
Jun

IIC 2009: Alibris and Libraries

by admin in Sabbatical Research and Thinking

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

3
Jun

IIC 2009: Stacking the Odds for Success: A Six­ Stage Process to Articulate and Promote Your Entrepreneurial Idea

by admin in Sabbatical Research and Thinking

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”

3
Jun

IIC 2009: Joyce Ogburn: Risk & Entrepreneurship in a Time of Uncertainty

by admin in Sabbatical Research and Thinking

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!