Entrepreneurialism
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Entrepreneurialism
Library Leadership Network Peer Panel, February 2008
Edited by Frank Hermes, published February 25, 2008 The subject this month is Entrepreneurialism. To quote from my email to the panel:
- Common knowledge holds that entrepreneurial behavior is a phenomenon present only is the private sector of our society. “Public” institutions like libraries are conservative, risk-adverse bureaucracies, right? Or wrong?
- This month I would like you to respond to this kernel of common knowledge. First of all, do you agree with the above statement, or do you feel there is room for entrepreneurial thought and action in the library world? And if you feel that librarians can also be entrepreneurs, what needs to be done by library leaders to encourage and nourish such behavior?
Jamie LaRue
Two comments. First, bureaucracy gets a bad rep. Let me tell you why. The purpose of bureaucracy is consistency: you nail down processes for frequent tasks. This becomes a kind of institutional memory, ensuring that the organization has a predictable response to fundamental business situations. It eases and ensures training. Assuming that the processes were thoughtfully designed in the first place, it's one more effort to ensure quality. That's a good thing.
The problem, of course, is that in a changing environment, sometimes we try to apply old solutions to new problems. And there's a disconnect, a growing dysfunction. Then it takes the attention span, focus, and creative juices to look at it fresh, try some new experiments, work out some new procedures, and start over.
I absolutely reject the notion that business has entrepreneurs and the public sector has plodders. I see plenty of plodders in the for-profit sector, and amazingly inventive and fearless experimenters in libraries.
In the past 18 months, our library has completely pulled apart our circulation functions and replaced them with RFID-based checkout and automated materials handling units for check-in. We've trained dozens of new paraprofessionals in materials marketing, readers' advisory work. We've set loose our reference librarians in the community, attending and actively engaging with important neighborhood meetings. We're solving big organizational problems and starting to make a dent in the larger social environment around us. We are doing a good job of staying on top of a host of new technological advances.
As is so often the case, the contrast between for profit and not for profit is a false one. There are only people, some of whom do grasp the deep nature of their activities, and some who don't, or don't as well.
Glen Holt
I agree with Jamie. What do they call librarians who are not entrepreneurs? Choose one: Unsuccessful, failure, dead!
George Needham
When I received this question from Frank, I sighed. "Not this old chestnut again," I thought. We're going to beat up on librarians for not being willing to take a flyer into gaming or coffee shops or for-profit affiliates or whatever. How can I get anything fresh into this one? So I decided I would take a look at Wikipedia to get a different take on this whole concept of entrepreneurialism.
Admittedly, Wikipedia is not a standard textbook on economics. Of course, I'm not an economist, either. But here's what caught my eye:
- The modern myths about entrepreneurs include the idea that they assume the risks involved to undertake a business venture, but that interpretation now appears to be based on a false translation of (Richard) Cantillon's...ideas. The research data indicate that successful entrepreneurs are actually risk averse. They are successful because their passion for an outcome leads them to organize available resources in new and more valuable ways. In doing so, they are said to efficiently and effectively use the factors of production. Those factors are now deemed to include at least the following elements: land (natural resources), labor (human input into production using available resources), capital (any type of equipment used in production i.e. machinery), intelligence and knowledge, and creativity. A person who can efficiently manage these factors in pursuit of a real opportunity to add value in the long-run, may expand (future prospects of larger firms and businesses), and become successful.
Consider this: entrepreneurship isn't about being willing to jump head first into a risky business, investing wildly and hoping for the best. It's about re-channeling existing resources for maximum benefit to achieve a goal or to grasp a new opportunity. This is something nearly any librarian can do if she's willing to invest the time and the research to do it right.
But it certainly isn't about research alone. In order to be really entrepreneurial, librarians have to be passionate about the end results they want to see. A studied diffidence, a cool remove, an emotional detachment...these just won't cut it. So the librarian who truly believes in her ideas and implements them with passion is more likely to succeed than the person who acts tentatively. Passion separates the entrepreneur from the employee.
Among a librarian's "factors of production" are the facility, funding, technology, and people. Are you using these factors well?
- Is the building optimized for the most efficient use, or are many square feet being devoted to backroom operations, stacks of unused materials, and outmoded services? Is the building as friendly and welcoming as it possibly can be?
- Are funds being applied to current and future needs, rather than feeding legacy projects and services whose utility and demand have passed?
- Are you using your various internal databases (including our online circulation systems) to monitor what's being used to make purchasing and facility siting decisions? Is the library's web site useful without being overly complicated and jargon-laden? Is it optimized for search engines for improved access?
- And most importantly, are you using your staff members to their fullest talents? Do you still have people doing rote, mechanical work that could be automated for equal or better effect? Are you encouraging every staff person to contribute ideas and insights into the operation of the library? Are you rewarding people for ideas and contributions outside of their job classifications or experience level?
- If you can answer yes to most of the questions above, you are an entrepreneurial librarian, and you should be writing this column. I'll bet Frank would be delighted to add you to the roster! [Frank: Indeed!!]
Jeff Horrell
I generally agree that academic libraries are fairly fiscally conservative, particularly, because they mirror their overall institutions. When resources are tight, one feels a need to be careful in taking calculated risks in terms of new services. We often speak of allowing risk to try new ideas, but I'm not sure our rhetoric always matches the reality. Some organizations have created "venture funds" to take on a particular challenge or try out a new idea. This is similar to research and development funds in the commercial sector.
Having this fiscal flexibility can result in new programs or services being identified and tested. A small example: our library is currently testing "cell phone tours" and we have a short term license with a provider to offer this service. We will see if the service, based on user feedback, is useful and worth determining the ongoing funding support. It may or may not be, but instead of investing in a long-term license this is a practical way of evaluating it. We need to build these funding sources to be able to keep our programs and services engaged with our users, and not just our libraries, but our institutions as a whole.
Michele Reid
I believe that an entrepreneurial mindset can and indeed must be cultivated in the non-profit sector in order to facilitate innovation and positive change. One crucial aspect of entrepreneurship I want to briefly touch on is the pursuit of alternative funding to augment limited operating budgets. I think it is imperative for library leaders to be adept at exhibiting entrepreneurial behavior in fund raising in order to supplement strapped operational budgets and for financing special projects that might otherwise never be undertaken.
For example, in my small academic library (at an institution that is largely tuition driven and thus where resources are often in short supply), we’ve been particularly successful in supplementing operations funding for traditional materials, electronic resources, technology applications and building projects with endowed funds gained through establishing ongoing relationships with donors, and, when involving bequests, with their families. As is typical throughout academe, this is done on my campus in close partnership with our institutional advancement office, so I recommend getting to know and learning how to utilize your organization’s development people.
With more stable discretionary spending available to a library head, the institution is enabled to embark on new technology improvements, create more user friendly physical spaces, experiment and test social networking applications, provide more and higher profile community programming, etc. And enthusiastic donors can also provide an added benefit as important links to the community (which can be especially advantageous to academic institutions seeking good town-gown relationships), and can generate more goodwill and positive publicity for your services.
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