[Web4lib] But can libraries afford failure? [was The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate" ]

[Knight, James]

/* my $0.02

Per Tim's and Andy's comments below, a few questions/comments:

Is failure, no matter how humane or inexpensive, an option for libraries
(their staff, directors and technologists) that are still struggling to
carve out an identity and achieve relevance in the information age?

I once proposed to a group of librarians that they adopt a certain cheap
and easy to deploy piece of technology, thus reducing their "cost of
failure" (should the initial deployment not take within their
constituency). At that point, I was reminded by one director that the
library's reputation was at stake, and that failure of this sort could
jeopardize said same with the institution's users and administration.
Failure has consequences beyond improving one's chances for success.

Can innovation take place in a risk- (i.e., failure) averse environment?
Libraries are (historically) process driven institutions. Process and
innovation are difficult to balance in any business. Innovation also
creates chaos; not every institution (especially those with heavy handed
bureaucracies) tolerates disorder and lack of control in its day to day
operation.

Are there other possible reasons libraries have not been the incubators
of technological innovation?

It's not just technology either. Look at the funding issues (requiring
some financial innovation) and debate raised by Steve Coffman several
years ago, and how few libraries have managed to expand beyond the
current tax supported model that keeps so many public libraries afloat
(or not).

The panel might, IMHO, want to consider these questions at its
discussion this summer. 

my $0.02 */

-jk [who wonders if this discussion is being carried on elsewhere]

 -------------------------------------------- 
James Knight, MLIS 
Product Specialist 
Wolters Kluwer Health - Medical Research 


Message: 1
Date: Tue, 5 Jun 2007 12:53:44 -0400
From: "Havens,Andy" <havensa at oclc.org>
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] "The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate" at
	ALAthis	month
To: "Tim Spalding" <tim at librarything.com>,	"web4lib"
	<web4lib at lists.webjunction.org>
Message-ID:
	
<BEFAD900A34FA54AA723C1CF9DBB063AC4DAA8 at OAEXCH4SERVER.oa.oclc.org>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

What Tim said.

One of the best presentations I ever heard was given by A.G. Lafley, CEO
of Proctor & Gamble. When asked the secret of P&G's success, he replied
with one word: failure. He then went on to explain that in his industry,
each success requires hundreds if not thousands of failures in order to
identify and, in many cases, invent suitable products for its various
industries. He went on to say that their goal at P&G was to, "Fail
often, as inexpensively and humanely as possible, while tracking and
learning from each failure."

The Beginner's Mind writ large.


- A
Andy Havens
OCLC: Manager, Branding and Creative Services

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 8:09 PM
To: web4lib
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] "The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate" at
ALAthis month

RE: "How do you separate effective innovation from "innovation for
innovation's sake"? It's one thing to be innovative to be trendy, and
quite another thing to be innovative in a way that improves a library's
services."

But this is true in every single field of human endeavor in which
innovation happens! Innovation in the software industry, for example, is
sometimes for the good and sometimes not. What distinguishes libraries
from some other fields are differing attitudes toward the possibility of
failure. In Silicon Alley, having burned through millions of VC money in
a failure is a resume plus, not a minus! Or maybe I should say "risks
leading to failure," since libraries are okay with gradual failures.
That, and finely tuned mechanisms for rewarding good innovation and
killing bad. But maybe that was your point.
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