LLN Highlights

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network (LLN)?

New and improved articles

• Advocacy and marketing begins with thoughtful commentaries on advocacy from Leigh Ann Vrabel and char booth.
• In the interests of coherence and article length, commentaries on problems with ebook readers now appear in Ebook reader problems and issues–including a major new section on DRM and how it’s biting some Kindle fans.
• Charging for services offers a new take on a long-standing issue, along with a fair number of comments on “Freemium” services.
• What makes an innovative idea actionable? Nina Simon offers a thoughtful new perspective on that issue in a new addition to Innovation and control.

Leader’s Digest

• “The leader’s lifelong learner’s permit” offers some advice on learning for leaders.
• Is there an “ebook revolution“? If so, “Will libraries be absent?”
• “Crowdsourcing: what it means for innovation” offers hints for corporations eager to get “beyond money” as compensation for innovation and includes that ever-popular advice, “just do it” (phrased as “jump in and try”).
• “Twitter’s 10 rules for radical innovators” offers ten reasons “why Twitter is so important.”
• Finally, there’s a trio of “Technology tidbits” from MIT’s Technology Review.

Quick take

This fortnight’s Quick take is a short followup to last week’s: Recruiting new library leaders, Part 2: ML[I]S required?

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network (LLN)?

New and updated articles

• In On orientation and retention, Angel Rivera discusses integrating new library hires into the current culture and other aspects of orientation and retention. Even if the flood of new jobs is turning into a trickle, these are things to keep in mind.
• Remember all those books revealing the secrets of success by observing the best companies? A new section of Management notes cites evidence that some of those books aren’t all they’re cracked up to be and that one major aspect of organizational success might be…well, ”’luck.”’
• Mary Carmen Chimato talks about “Stepping outside your comfort zone” in a new section of Qualities of successful managers.
• If you haven’t had enough Opens between access, source, library and content alliance, here come lots more–more than 20 more attempts to capitalize on the glory of ”’open”’, now in Leader’s guide to open everything.

Leader’s Digest

• Ten fatal flaws that derail leaders notes some problems that can keep leaders and managers from leading.
• Do websites still serve as destinations? There’s evidence that the destination web site is morphing.
• Daniel Pink claims that “Facing tomorrow’s challenges calls for right-brain thinking“–and whether or not we’re actually “in a world of material abundance” there’s a reasonable case for this view.

Quick take

This week’s Quick take is Part 1 of a 2006 LLN Peer Panel, “Recruiting new leaders”–advice that’s still relevant.

What’s new (and hot!) at the Library Leadership Network?

Hot

The updated What’s hot at LLN? page shows the 25 articles most frequently read between May 9 and June 8, and the 25 articles (not including that 25) most frequently read since LLN began. It’s a changing picture; five of this month’s 25 hot articles weren’t on last month’s list.

New and updated articles

• A new section in Problematic communication and behavior discusses destructive games at work, from gotcha through scapegoating. Read the rest of the composite article for a range of useful advice on dealing with these and other communication and behavior problems.
• Notes on an article by Sam Anderson “In defense of distraction,” with the usual memes for this sort of article (generation generalizations, inevitability, and if people were wrong to doubt one change, they’re wrong to doubt any change), are now part of Multitasking notes. The article’s worth reading, if not necessarily all that convincing.
• Steven Bell comments on Ira Glass’ advice for storytelling as an effective presentation tool in a major new section of Presentations.
• Kindle experiences now includes hands-on reviews of the forthcoming big-screen Kindle DX.
• Kindles and libraries: LaRue’s Views combines Jamie LaRue’s early view on ebook readers and libraries with his recent “what if?” thoughts on public libraries if, somehow, ebook readers did become ubiquitous.
• A small update to Sony Reader experiences may not be so small for would-be readers: Direct availability to 600,000+ free public-domain ebooks from Google Book Search, converted to the Sony-compatible (and open standard) EPUB format from PDF.

Leader’s Digest

• Are corporate libraries really bellwethers for academic and other libraries? Ross Housewright apparently believes so, according to Change in corporate libraries: Considerations for academic libraries.
• Are your subordinates setting you up to fail? Look for this one to show up in Problematic communications… next month!
• Current pontifications on actual behavior in Twitter and what it means in Twitter research: Men follow men; one-to-many model.

Quick take

This week’s Quick take is shorter than usual:  “Know-how: The 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t.”

What’s new on the Library Leadership Network?

New and updated articles

• Open access misunderstandings offers a distinctive set of 25 common misunderstandings about open access, excerpted from a longer article by Peter Suber.
• Media notes offers a new home for media-related items that don’t belong elsewhere, starting with an essay skeptical of the supposition that newspapers are really dying.
• Brands becomes a more complex discussion with the addition of Doug Johnson’s “Applying a ‘brand’ aid?” in the new section, “Is everything a brand?”
• You’ll also find new material in Problematic management, Teamwork checklists, Management notes, Multitasking notes, Interviewing and recruiting notes, Service attitudes, Strategic planning notes, Organization and transformation, Kindle and ebook reader notes, Technology trends and Technology tidbits.

Leader’s Digest

• Can you learn something about innovation from the fashion industry? That’s the suggestion in “The fashion industry’s key to innovation.”
• Although it’s not on the market yet, “Plastic Logic’s touchscreen e-reader” might add another twist to the evolving ebook reader market.
• “Seven secrets of inspiring leaders” offers another set of tenets to consider.

And coming soon…

What’s hot at LLN? Expect a new set of the 25 most-viewed articles for the past month, and the 25 other articles most viewed since LLN began, updated some time tomorrow (June 9, 2009).

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network?

New and updated articles

• Unconference philosophy and issues brings together old and new commentaries on the philosophy behind unconferences and library camps, and some of the controversies with these innovative conferences, with some material moved from Unconferences and library camps.
• There’s new material in Unconference and library camp practices.
• We’ve also added Unconferences in practice: Notes and resources for longer commentaries on specific unconferences and links to external resources. The article begins with notes from Library Camp Kansas, Library Camp of the West and the One Big Library unconference.
• Organization and transformation now includes more notes on “network management” and Gary Hamel’s generational generalizations in “The Facebook generation vs. the Fortune 500.”

Leader’s Digest

• “Information visualization: The next frontier?” discusses a range of techniques that can clarify complex information when used appropriately.
• “More searchable geodata with new Google API” is about Google’s decision to support more location-based services.
• Have you been assured over the years that all good work is teamwork? Now we read “Why teams don’t work” with some tips for coping with this “worst option for tackling a difficult task.”
• “CERN’s collaborative management model” may be a useful example for other organizations.

You’ll find all of May’s Leader’s Digest items, in their entirety, in Leader’s Digest May 2009–until those items are dispersed into other articles.

Quick take

This week’s Quick take–which might be next week’s as well–is “Confessions of a library user,” a pseudonymous commentary on how a lapsed public library user came back to the fold.

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network (LLN)?

New and improved articles

• Innovation and libraries features a new discussion on innovation and waste.
• The copyright cluster now includes a challenge perspective on Educational fair use.
• You’ll find a major section on promise-based management in Management notes–and that section, formerly a separate article and deserving more attention than it’s received, is this week’s Quick take.

Leader’s Digest

• Kindle goes to college discusses some university trials of Kindles–and the possible uses of the newest Kindle for textbooks.
• Tackling information overload treats overload as a reality (a view not universally held) and considers some ways to cope with it.
• The definitive guide to recruiting (gotta love that modest title) offers steps for systematic recruitment.
• Strategic planning: three tips for 2009 is just what it says: Three tips for effective contemporary strategic planning.
• Why understanding your customers isn’t enough suggests a different focus, one that might also apply to patrons.
• Process standardization can be overdone. When should a process be art, not science?
• Are newspapers really dying? This manifesto challenges that belief.
• Micromanaging others is usually a bad idea–but you should also ask, Are you micromanaging yourself?

We’d love to have your feedback on needed new articles, articles that should be updated or expanded–and even ones you find useless.  The general feedback page seems to have been visited more than 2,400 times; why not add some feedback? (If you’d rather not add it there, or if you’re new to LLN since 4/1/09, email to walt.crawford@lyrasis.org is always welcome.)

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network (LLN)?

Some of the improved articles:

• When we added Kindle DX basics to Kindle and ebook reader notes, we also moved some of the Kindle [1] material to Backnotes:Ebooks and readers.
• Problematic management has two new sections: Assumptions leaders (in this case, managers) should question and “deficit thinking”–the problem with problems.
• There’s a new section on supply-chain management in Management notes; your feedback on how (or whether) it applies to libraries would be welcome.
• Are you chasing two rabbits? That’s the question asked in a new section of Multitasking notes.
• Consider ways to show your patrons (and your staff!) that you’re actually listening to them, in a new section of Speaking up, keeping quiet and listening.
• Managing change has a new discussion on decoding resistance.
• You’ll find an example of superior customer service added to Service attitudes.
• Are you worth it? That’s the question raised in a long, thoughtful commentary excerpted in Demonstrating library value.

There’s also a new set of articles in What’s hot at LLN?–covering April 9 through May 8.

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network (LLN)?

Some of the changes over the past week:

• Innovation notes includes a new section on tapping creativity.
• Innovation lessons features lessons from a social networking entrepreneur.
• Do you need a Developmental Network rather than a single mentor? That’s the theme of a new section in Mentoring notes.
• Leaders need to be resilient, the theme of a new section in Qualities of successful leaders.
• Kindle and ebook reader notes now includes the basics for the forthcoming Kindle DX and substitutes that reader for the Kindle 1 in the tabular comparison. (Just updated: the Sony 700, with touch screen, replaces the Sony 505 in the tabular comparison.)
• Organization and transformation includes a new section on network management.

There’s more–and we’ll get to that next week. (This week is likely to be a little quiet on the new-content front, with the editorial director and contributing editor both otherwise occupied.)

What’s new at the Library Leadership Network?

New and updated articles

• Aaron Schmidt discusses flat library organizations and a “culture of maybe” in a major new section of Organization and transformation.
• Steven Bell continues the discussion of Librarians as salespeople.
• A brief review of the new Library Technology Reports, “Open source public workstations in libraries,” appears in Open source notes and resources.
• Creative Commons and building the commons completes LLN’s initial cluster of articles on copyright-related issues.

Leader’s Digest

Leader’s Digest April 2009 includes all items for April. For now, they all appear in full on that page; in the near future, most items will be distributed to other articles.

New Leader’s Digest items since last week’s post include notes on network management, a new mindset on mentoring, an example of superior customer service, lessons from a social networking entrepreneur–and a challenge to people trying to “chase two rabbits.”

Quick take

This week’s Quick take relates indirectly to last week’s item on disasters–and concludes that Librarianship is a good life.

Signed up for LLN recently?

There appears to a problem with user authentication, probably since April 1.

If you created an account since April 1,

• If you never received an email requesting confirmation of the account, could you send me a note (walt.crawford at lyrasis.org) letting me know that, and providing the username and email address you used?
• We’re working on this issue. Once we’ve resolved it, we’ll either let you know to create the account again–or we’ll provide a way to authenticate you as a user.
• If you’d like to contribute new material or comment on existing material, and can’t because you haven’t been authenticated, feel free to send me the material; it will make it into LLN (although there may be long delays between May 11 and May 18).

You don’t need to be authenticated to read LLN articles, just to add to them.

What’s new and improved at the Library Leadership Network?

Articles

• Librarians as salespeople? combines insights from Steven Bell, Meredith Farkas and a number of commenters on the need for all librarians to sell their libraries.
• Ebook notes now begins with a new commentary from Mark Lindner, discussing issues related to the iPod Touch as an ereader.
• Older material from Ebook notes and Kindle and ebook reader notes now appears in Backnotes:Ebooks and readers. You’ll see more Backnotes in the future, providing recent history that no longer fits in primary LLN articles.

Leader’s Digest

Look for new items later today!

Quick take

This week’s Quick take discusses library disaster teams–why you need them and how they help.