taking a cue from "IT Doesn't Matter"

Several years ago, Nicolas Carr made quite a stir with his article in the Harvard Business Review entitled "IT Doesn't Matter." His main argument was (and still is) that while IT is essential it is not strategic. According to Carr, companies can't gain strategic advantage from their systems because everyone is running the same systems. Over the last several years, many have either endorsed or refuted Carr's views.

Until recently, it hadn't occurred to me how this might relate to libraries, but after reading an article by Paul Ingevaldson, it seems to me that libraries are facing the same issues that IT does. Almost all libraries run the same systems, often with little or no customization other than changing the colors of the web pages to match the organization identity. Librarians haven't traditionally thought about how what they do contributes to what the corporate sector calls "strategic advantage" - that is, aligning the outcomes of the library to the outcomes of the larger organization they are part of. We often see our libraries as entities unto themselves.

This kind of thinking has to change. To be successful, libraries have to differentiate their services from what can be obtained elsewhere. As has been the case in IT, a lot of the benefits traditional services provided are now commodity items that are moving to self-service models because they're so automated they do not require the high level of expertise they did in the past. This is happening whether we like it or not.

What savvy IT departments do today is develop custom services and applications that work directly with the unique strategy of the organization. Libraries need to take a cue from this and do the same for their organizations as well.

something a little different

After a holiday break, it's time to get posting again ;-) I found this article while browsing through my new content alerts for CIO magazine. While it is not directly related to the main topics I normally talk about, it is an interesting thought piece on how we can improve our organizations by being more appreciative at work. In many work environments, we have no problem expressing displeasure or talking about everything that's wrong, but in the end that really isn't very productive if we want to work in a place that we enjoy. Whether we feel inhibited by organizational norms or personal issues about what is appropriate behavior in the workplace, we'd all probably be better off if we just said "Thanks" more often.