Themes of Change in Corporate Libraries: Considerations for Academic Librarians

On September 11the SLA-SCC and Boeing hosted a virtual seminar with research analyst Ross Housewright presenting, "Themes of Change in Corporate Libraries: Considerations for Academic Librarians". In his work at Ithaka, Ross explores ways to promote innovative uses of technology in scholarly communities -- he sees academic libraries as one place with growth potential. In the presentation, Ross discussed how corporate libraries have evolved to remain relevant in the internet age, and how academic librarians can learn from that experience. Ross said that corporate libraries now have a history of experiencing change and responding to a volatile environment where academic libraries have held tight to their traditional roles. Ross suggested that academic libraries could take advantage of some of the lessons learned by corporate librarians in weathering the challenges of implementing change efforts -- where there might be opportunities for academic libraries to make a greater contribution to the end users and the institutions they are supporting.

After about 35 minutes of presentation Ross facilitated a thoughtful discussion where several corporate and academic librarians chimed in. One theme raised in the discussion was how in academic libraries the staff is very resistant to change -- fifteen years ago this was also true for corporate libraries and now adapting to change has become the norm. Several suggestions were made about how to overcome this barrier by creating an environment where staff may be made more open to change by 1) presenting a data-driven impetus for change, to demonstrate the need for change and 2) helping staff understand that the change process will be sensitive to their individual needs, and that efforts will be undertaken to help them to adapt to change. Additionally, we also talked a bit at the end about the importance of focusing on things which the library can do by virtue of its local presence, that cannot be replaced by Google or other network-level players – these sorts of local roles represent an ongoing competitive advantage for the individual library.

Teresa Bailey
SLA-SCC President-elect