7. Overthink and die! Don’t get hung up on preparation and first steps. Planning in this shiny new world needs to happen faster than ever before—without losing quality. How do we do this? We gather evidence from our professional literature, the library blogosphere, and other librarians. We ask our colleagues “how’s that vendor treating you?” Spending valuable time coming up with witty acronyms and writing FAQs anticipating any and every thing that might happen can kill a project.
8. Plan to plan. Instead of willy nilly emerging technology projects, plan to plan. Create timelines and audit progress. This takes project management skills, something LIS educators (like me) should be teaching in depth! We need expertise in bringing projects to completion. Your “Digital Strategies Librarian” or “Director of Innovation and User Experience” should have impeccable management skills and be able to see the big picture. How do you find that person if you don’t have one? Evaluate current jobs and duties of your library staff. What can be done to streamline workflows and free up hours for new duties and new titles. Find who is suitable, then guide projects and people well. Have effective meetings with action items and follow up. I spent more time in meetings when I became a manager in my former job than practically anything else. Planning projects focuses creativity. Meandering meetings sap creativity.
9. Create a mission statement for everything. A mission statement and vision of your tech implementation will help guide development, roll-out, and evaluation. For your tech plan, create an overarching mission and vision. Are you well-funded and well-staffed? One goal might be to experiment with emerging tech—testing the waters if you will. Tighter budget? Limited staff? Create your mission with that in mind: our institution may move a bit slower, (could it be faster?) but the decisions will be wise and based on evidence from what those folks out at the cutting edge of our marketplace are doing.
10. Evaluate your service. This is the next step in all the 2.0 talk. Sure, we’ve rolled out the library blog, IM reference service, wiki, and more but the final part of the anti-technolust, on-the-money technology plan is a detailed, ongoing means to gauge the use and return on investment for these new technologies. This will be the next wave of discussion you’ll probably be hearing by the time you read this. How do we track use? How do we prove the usefulness of the virtual branch and digital librarian to governing bodies, boards, trustees, and those who make the funding decisions? For this, we need new models of tracking statistics and gathering stories. In my mind, the return on investment for many of the emerging technologies will be proven with qualitative data such as positive stories from users and an increased amount of participation via commenting and content creation.
We have a great opportunity to harness emerging technologies and create engaging and useful services, deeply connected to the core mission and values of librarianship. Balancing technolust in this shiny new world and planning mind-fully and openly can certainly lead to success. I wish all the libraries on this road much success! Please keep us informed as it goes!
[...] Summer2008, Vol. 47 Issue 4, s. 314-317 CBS Link via fjernadgang | eller via den frie adgang hos RUSQ SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “Klap lige hesten – lad ikke 2.0 teknologierne løbe af med dig”, [...]
[...] point plan for implementing new technologies whilst negotiating technolusters and technophobes in this article in Reference and User Services Quarterly. It’s long but worth a read; I particularly liked [...]
Let’s move #7 to #1. This is all too common in libraryland.
[...] of “Reference & User Services Quarterly” features a guest post entitled “Taming Technolust: Ten Steps for Planning in a 2.0 World” that the editor of the journal — M. Kathleen Kern– introduces with the [...]
[...] Technology Planning Article by Michael Stephens An excellent article in RUSQ from last month by Michael Stephens is worth pointing out: Taming Technolust: Ten Steps for Planning in a 2.0 World. [...]
[...] Taming Technolust: Ten Steps for Planning in a 2.0 World by Michael Stephens, Reference & User Services Quarterly, vol.47 no.4, Aug. 2008 http://www.rusq.org/2008/08/18/taming-technolust/ [...]