Leader's Digest October 2006
From PLN
|
Leader's Digest October 2006
by Leslie Dillon
October 17, 2006
Using data to make decisions
An article in the October 9 BusinessWeek online talks about how Yahoo! redesigned its homepage based on data from its users’ clicks, instead of on its hunches. Yahoo! invited one of the authors of Hard Facts: Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management to speak to their staff. The book takes its theme from evidence-based medicine, where “doctors use recent clinical research to inform their decisions.” “The approach requires managers to base decisions on facts rather than opinions,” and as author Jeff Pfeiffer says, “It’s this attitude that instead of sting around having debates about what will work and what won’t, let’s run some experiments and learn.”
One thing Yahoo! staff learned was that “what people say they want isn’t always what they actually click on,” and that “small changes can make a big difference”.
I’m reminded of one of Stephen Abram’s talks at ALA where he told of a library branch that had story hour every Wednesday at 10:00 am. But attendance was abysmal. Staff hadn’t checked local demographics to learn that most of the mothers in that neighborhood worked during the day!
Thankfully though, some libraries do make their decisions--both large and small--based on data.
Michigan State University Libraries used data from its internal reference blog to support changing how it staffed its information and reference desks. (See the article in the October 1 Library Journal.)
St Paul Public Library’s strategic planning (described in the October 1 LJ) initiative spent eight months gathering and analyzing lots of “hard” data, including Census information for the individual SPPL service areas and information on past strategic plans and annual operation reports; the depth and diversity of library collections; patron usage, cumulatively and by location; current staffing and trends; technology systems; budgets and finances; and administrative and organizational structure.
Library Hi Tech (v. 24, n. 3, 2006) has an article(subscription/purchase required) advocating evidence-based librarianship. From the abstract:
- Librarians need to increase their reliance on sound evidence to support their programs and services. They also need to become more active in producing and publishing evidence for their peers and others outside the profession.
Once you start using data, testing needs to follow. At Yahoo! “there’s always some test running.” Testing’s now part of its DNA!
Sony’s new e-book Reader gets mixed reviews
Sony's e-book Reader is supposed to be available this month for $350. BusinessWeek online’s review says the Reader’s “a vast improvement over various other e-book designs rolled out in the past decade” but the book purchasing software is clunky, and Sony's online bookstore is “clueless.” The Reader falls short of real print on paper, but its biggest “problem is that search, the essence of an online bookstore, is broken.” The New York Times technology writer, David Pogue, praises the Reader’s screen, but laments the lack of search. He concludes though that “Sony got the big stuff right.” (I’m not so sure--without good search or a bookstore, how popular will it be?) (The NYT article is free but requires registration.) Want to see the Sony e-book Reader for yourself? Check it out on YouTube!
Customer-centric organizations
Harvard Business Online’s ad for an interactive course on CD really caught my eye:
- Customer-centric organizations, where customers are everybody's responsibility and the language of the customer is key.
That’s an organization where all members of the staff from the bottom to the top embrace the customer as their responsibility and speak the same language as their customers.
Yes, libraries offer Spanish-language story hours in Hispanic neighborhood. But what about our vernacular? What does Circulation mean to library customers? What about Reference? Subject? Keyword? Are we learning to speak our customers’ language or still forcing them to speak ours?
October 24, 2006
Technology trends
The next-generation Net will “harness the power of people, making it even easier to zero in on precisely what you're looking for”.
Google and the other search engines still rely largely on matching keywords, but they’re trying “to get closer to matching the intent."
One reason search engines are adding social networking is “for sharing information within small groups.” The social-networking features will increase searchability of the content. For example, as people add tags to other people's video, you’ll get a set of “community-reinforced searchable attributes." (PC World)
Libraries’ Challenge: When search engines can give real answers (the added value that reference librarians regularly provide) and not just a list of URLs, libraries need to be able to add new value to their services.
What Does Google’s Acquisition of YouTube Mean for Libraries?
Nothing’s achieved this level of media hype since Google launched its IPO. But no matter how tired we are of hearing about “GooTube,” we need to keep listening!
So, why did Google buy YouTube anyway? In the first place, YouTube has nearly half the video website market share. But Forrester’s Charlene Li says it’s “not about the video. It’s really about the community that’s around the video.”
Tom Peters mentions this in his recent post on the ALA Techsource blog as he shares his fear that the paths of "library and information science" and the Millennials are diverging. YouTube and other social networking sites “have added a layer of sharing, community building, and re-creation that is sadly lacking in” libraries.
But he sees abundant rays “of hope for the future of libraries,” especially in the innovative library activities in Second Life, led by Lori Bell at the Alliance (IL) Library System, and their partnership with Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (NC) to build an island in Teen Second Life that will offer virtual library services to teens. (Here’s the press release if you want to read more about it.)
Libraries have a growing presence on Facebook and MySpace; even the SecondLife Library 2.0 has a profile on MySpace! And did you notice in Lori DuBois’ article on Williams College’s innovative library orientation program, that they put their introductory video on YouTube this year?
Libraries’ Challenge: Community building on the Web.
This is what Library 2.0 is all about, and libraries may get a (second) life after all!
Is your library “out there” in Library 2.0-land? Let us know and we’ll add your story!
Meanwhile, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for Jenny Levine’s forthcoming issue of Library Technology Reports on "Gaming and Libraries: Intersection of Services." You might also want to take a look at Michael Stephens’ July/August issue of LTR on “Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software.” (If you don’t subscribe, full text of LTR is eventually available on EBSCOhost MasterFile and Academic Search Premier.)
(I’m deeply indebted to Tom Peters’ post on the ALA TechSource blog for much of this. I’d read about SecondLife library activities and I’d even seen Charlene Li’s blog post, but Tom had already done the thinking and put it all so eloquently that I had no choice but to borrow liberally from him!)
Library Best Practices
Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki (from Meredith Farkas), is a great resource that’s beginning to show some growth. (And it’ll grow even more with help from library practioners!) Among other things, it lists RSS feeds from library catalogs arranged by vendor.
Check it out, and add to it at: http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=RSS#Examples_of_RSS_from_the_Catalog
October 31, 2006
What you need to know about change
From Harvard Business Review:
- Most change tools don't work. Before choosing a change tool, managers need to know their staff’s attitudes toward change (where resistance is coming from).
- “Transformation doesn't come from the top. Top-down change tactics are useless without grassroots enthusiasm from the people who must do the changing.” Managers need to “identify, support, and reward people who are already doing things differently--and better”.
(HBR’s Onpoint Collection on change)
From Prosci Research:
- The #1 contributor to project success is active, strong and visible sponsorship throughout the project.
- The top obstacles to successful change are employee resistance at all levels: front-line, middle managers, and senior managers and inadequate senior management sponsorship.
- Employees want to hear messages about change from two people: the CEO and their immediate supervisor--the message they want to hear from each individual is very different.
- When asked what they would do differently next time, most teams would dedicate resources to change management.
- The top reason for employee resistance is a lack of awareness about the change.
(2005 Best Practices in Change Management)
Leadership
I live in Durham, North Carolina, and as you might imagine, Duke men’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, frequently makes news around here, but last week’s stories about Coach K weren’t about basketball. Several hundred executives paid $1600 apiece to hear him speak at a leadership forum at Duke. Conference participants noted that leadership skills “are transferable.” (The Herald Sun, October 18, 2006, p. B1.)
One lesson: “All teams are different. Know how to lead the one you have.” Other lessons included the importance of empowering teams, reinforcing ethics, embracing diversity, and appreciating one’s colleagues. On ethics: You get the behavior you reward. On teams: Everyone has to think of themselves as a leader. On colleagues: We wouldn’t be anything without our co-workers. (The News and Observer, October 18, 2005, p. D1.)
Employee satisfaction
While employees gave their bosses “high marks” in a recent study of worker satisfaction, staff still suggested areas for improvement:
- 43 percent want bosses to use their employees' skills and abilities better.
- More than 35 percent want the boss to step in more often to resolve conflicts.
- Just over 25 percent wish bosses would ask for their ideas and listen more readily.
Worried your staff are suffering from too much pressure? Well, don’t fret! Fewer “than 10 percent wish their bosses would put less pressure on them.” (Sales & Marketing Management, Manage Smarter)
The secret of BMW’s success
BMW is said to have a reputation for innovation. According to BusinessWeek online, BMW’s innovation “can be traced to its equally innovative lateral management techniques.” Informal networks thrive at BMW “and the noise and borderline chaos they engender ...are vital for innovation.” This is especially true in organizations “where knowledge sits in the brains of...workers and not in a computer server. Melding that brain power...is essential to unleashing the best ideas.”(Gail Edmondson. “The Secret of BMW’s Success”, BusinessWeek online,October 16, 2006.)
Internet Librarian
Speaking of innovation, great things have been coming out of the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey. The bloggers are all abuzz with reports about conference sessions, which seemed to have focused on Web 2.0, Library 2.0, social networking and technology.
Here are some wiki success stories you might actually be able to use:
- Marianne Kruppa, Library Webmaster at St. Joseph County Public Library, South Bend, IN, “has a great idea—Don’t Call It a Wiki!...Instead, call it what it is--a resource list, subject guide, etc. Marianne...also suggests a separate wiki for library staff so they can express themselves freely and have fun.”
- Ohio University’s Chad Boeninger, who uses a wiki for research guides, believes wikis are easier to maintain than guides. It’s easy to add content to wikis, they have unlimited space, can be organized by categories, and they’re searchable.
(Information Today blog, October 26, 2006.)
