Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Libraries

Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Libraries
Author: Donald E. Riggs
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 250
Release: 1989
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780866569408

Learn how you can use creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship as powerful forces for positive and productive change benefiting staff and users. Given the pressures of automation, budget issues, and staff development concerns, creative thinking in the library profession is a necessity, not a luxury. For the first time in a single volume, librarians share specific, practical ways in which managers can release creativity in themselves and their staffs, in order to find solutions to new problems, as well as new ways to address old challenges. The contributors to Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship also describe how they used creative thinking to develop a very successful fund raising plan, significantly reduce the risks of developing new services in library networks, take part in effective communication between library educators and practitioners to ensure that library science students are better prepared for the field, and much more.

The Entrepreneurial Librarian

The Entrepreneurial Librarian
Author: Mary Krautter
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2014-01-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0786490128

The old image of an entrepreneur as a scrappy, independent risk-taker has been replaced by the reality of individuals incorporating innovative ideas in more traditional settings. This collection of essays illustrates how librarians are infusing entrepreneurial principles in a variety of arenas, including public, private, academic, and special libraries. It chronicles how entrepreneurial librarians are flourishing in the digital age, advocating social change, responding to patron demands, designing new services, and developing exciting fundraising programs. Applying new business models to traditional services, they eagerly embrace entrepreneurship in response to patrons' demands, funding declines, changing resource formats, and other challenges. By documenting the current state of entrepreneurship in libraries, this volume upends the public image of librarians as ill-suited to risky or creative ventures and places them instead on the cutting edge of innovations in the field.

Entrepreneurial Librarianship

Entrepreneurial Librarianship
Author: Guy St. Clair
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2012-05-07
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110956772

Although libraries are not businesses, library management must be driven by the same characteristics that make a business successful -- responsibility, performance, and control. Entrepreneurial Librarianship offers specific techniques for creating an entrepreneurial environment in a library or information services organization -- or initiating such techniques where a less-successful operation is already in place.

Risk and Insurance Management Manual for Libraries, Updated

Risk and Insurance Management Manual for Libraries, Updated
Author: Sally Alexander
Publisher: American Library Association
Total Pages: 26
Release: 2020-11-10
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0838948014

Amidst uncertain times rife with challenges and potential catastrophes, prudently managing risk will bolster your library's resilience in the face of adversity. And by being attentive to lowering risk, you’ll help keep insurance costs in check. This succinct manual for trustees and administrators offers straightforward guidance for designing and implementing a library risk management program. You’ll get succinct advice on such essentials as - the five major areas of risk and loss for libraries, with an overview of the types of property and casualty coverage common to most libraries; - how to determine if the new framework of enterprise risk management is right for your library; - elements of a good risk policy statement; - tips for determining the value of your collection, plus a sample risk assessment template; - the most library-relevant portions of the National Fire Code; - insurance considerations for remodeling or construction projects; - advice on cybersecurity and handling cyberattacks; - setting up an emergency response team that is ready when disaster threatens; - developing a financial plan that assures uninterrupted service despite adverse conditions; and - guidance on the paperwork a claims adjuster will require. This to-the-point resource will lead you onto the best path to safeguarding your library’s assets and future.

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit

Risk, Uncertainty and Profit
Author: Frank H. Knight
Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2006-11-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1602060053

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fascinating and pertinent today, this is Frank Knight's famous explanation of why perfect competition cannot eliminate profits, the important differences between "risk" and "uncertainty," and the vital role of the entrepreneur in profitmaking. Based on Knight's PhD dissertation, this 1921 work, balancing theory with fact to come to stunning insights, is a distinct pleasure to read. FRANK H. KNIGHT (1885-1972) is considered by some the greatest American scholar of economics of the 20th century. An economics professor at the University of Chicago from 1927 until 1955, he was one of the founders of the Chicago school of economics, which influenced Milton Friedman and George Stigler.

New Routes to Library Success

New Routes to Library Success
Author: Elisabeth Doucett
Publisher: American Library Association
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2015-04-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0838913199

Today's library leaders face a world in which the only constant is change. Seeking out innovative ways to meet the evolving needs of their communities has become a critical part of their responsibilities. In this book, Doucett mines new territory in this ongoing effort by exploring how successful organizations "outside the stacks" conduct their business. She interviews leaders of advertising, online commerce, fundraising, retailing, crowdsourcing and other organizations (including Kickstarter, L.L. Bean, Down East Magazine and Tom's of Maine, among others), learning what they do exceptionally well. From this research she presents more than 100 examples of game-changing ideas ready for application in libraries. And most importantly, she articulates a simple process that readers can use to pursue the same path of exploration at their own institutions, including the actual questions used during her interviews. An exciting survey of creativity in action, Doucett's book will encourage public library directors, managers, trustees, and staff to cross-pollinate their own expertise with innovative ideas from outside the stacks.

Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries

Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries
Author: Rita Pellen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 434
Release: 2014-06-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1317955463

Catch up with the many innovations now affecting sci/tech libraries! The twenty-four chapters in Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries discuss the creation of digital collections, e-repositories, personalized Web environments, and discipline-specific Web sites for students and researchers. The book also explores the use of new technologies to improve document delivery and service provision as well as demonstrations of leadership by science librarians who are willing to take risks, adapt to change, control costs, and collaborate with colleagues. Here is just a fraction of the fascinating cases and important concepts highlighted in Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries: the Drexel University Library’s transition from print to an electronic-only journal collection the benefits of adopting a just-in-time (purchase on demand) rather than a just-in-case acquisitions policy IntelliDoc—how it has raised the standard for document delivery worldwide and increased international recognition of CISTI how California State University, Sacramento, merged its science library into its central reference department—an examination of the two-year merging process the creation of branch libraries focused on electronic information—an engineering library at Kansas State University and an agriculture library at the University of Manitoba the impact of electronic information upon undergraduate science education literacy competencies in the sciences—and their implications for library instruction how the MIT libraries created and developed the Reference Vision system that now guides all of their new reference services the impact of learning communities upon library services recent additions that enhance the usefulness of the IEEE Xplore online delivery system Innovations in Science and Technology Libraries will bring you up-to-date on the latest developments, sharpen your awareness of new concepts and techniques in sci/tech librarianship, and help your library stay abreast of important changes in this ever-evolving field. Make it a part of your professional reference collection today!