CHRIS BATTconsulting

cbatt@mac.com

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Libraries and Revolution: Seven Challenges for the 21st Century

Chris Batt OBEChris Batt OBE

CHRIS BATTconsulting

cbatt@mac.com

Can libraries really be Can libraries really be active agents for active agents for

change and change and development?development?

AggregationAggregation

ReachReachMediationMediation

TrustTrust

Library Power

People as Catalysts

Users

Consumers

Citizens

Communities

Audiences

Knowledgeworkers

Seven Challenges for the 21st Century Knowledge Worker

Love Learning

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Learning NOT educationLearning for life

Learning must remain at the heart of the library mission

In the knowledge society communities will constantly need to learn new thingsEnabling and sustaining communities of

interestLearning and understanding breed

tolerance

How do we empower every person to want to learn and discover

more about the world, every day?

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Build Bridges

Bridges are tools of connection

Connecting people to knowledge, culture and to ideas

Reaching out to new audiences

Linking the community to itself

Re-uniting diasporas

Joining the library service to other policy and service priorities

Online Resource

Community Place

DevelopmentAgency

Library

Foundations of bridge building

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Be Streetwise

“The street will find its own uses for things”

Closeness to communities is a most under-promoted

strength

User/audience focus is fundamental

People need help and guidance

Communities must be engaged

User friendly and user framed

Services that can evolve as fast as community needSet the standard for other services to follow

Topping Fold Library - community engagement in action

Run-down library in a severely deprived community

A manager committed to making a difference

Community ‘ownership’The library provides what the community needsOther services joining in

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Be Revolutionaries

Challenge the traditional models

Do the organisational structures work?Are the right skills being taught?

What do you want your world and your communities to be like in 10 years time?

What has to change to make it possible?

Write a manifesto for change

Five-Point ManifestoFive-Point Manifesto

1. Libraries have always provided solutions to people’s problems, enabled them to learn

2. They respond well to changing needs and behaviours

3. Knowledge and understanding of the world make individuals better citizens

4. Better, more confident citizens, create better communities

5. A good library service will change lives forever

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Act With Passion

“If you cannot speak with passion about the value of what you do, who do you think will do it for you?”

It must be passion with a purposeA shared narrativeTo catch the imagination of politicians and policymakers

Learn the elevator pitch

QUESTION:

Five-year vision

Access for all

Convergence

www.mla.gov.uk

Social impact

…devoid of history, where the only certainty is the present; a world without access to the products of human creativity and imagination… try to imagine a world without museums, libraries and archives

Museums, libraries and archives are…

Our global and cultural memories The raw material of the future

They are knowledge institutions

CHRIS BATTconsulting

In the Knowledge Society, knowledge institutions support…

Information diversity Creativity and

innovationKnowledge economy and enterprise

Social development

Learning Cultural identity

For e

veryone

CHRIS BATTconsulting

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Be Leaders

Service leadership skills

Giving leadership to others

Service leadership skills

Leading Modern Public Libraries Programme660 staff at all levels attend residential courseFuture Leader: “I feel more confident and aware. I feel invested in by my service and appreciate that”

“In comparison with leadersin other parts of local government,public library leaders on the wholedisplay stronger Transformational

Leadership behaviours”

“BUT they lack confidencein their own abilities, and that

lack of confidence is oftentransmitted to their bosses”

Giving leadership to others

Empowering partnerships with othersLeading the Knowledge Society

Organising knowledge, metadata maestros

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Be Dreamers

Ten impossible things everyday

How often do you think seriously about the future?

How things might be?It only takes one more impossible thing

each day to make a difference!

Responses to the Digital World

Digitise existing collectionsCreate online versions of traditional

servicesBuy commercial online resources

Test out Web 2.0 tools

Using the Challenges

LearningLearning

BridgesBridges

StreetwiseStreetwise

RevolutionariesRevolutionaries

PassionPassion

LeadersLeaders

What is the learning value of the What is the learning value of the digital resource?digital resource?How do we ensure that people can How do we ensure that people can find and use the material?find and use the material?Have the community been involved Have the community been involved from the ideas development stage?from the ideas development stage?Can we create collective structures to Can we create collective structures to deliver more resources in better ways?deliver more resources in better ways?How do we jointly ‘sell’ what we are How do we jointly ‘sell’ what we are doing to politicians and policy makers?doing to politicians and policy makers?Can we get other institutions to join Can we get other institutions to join with us?with us?

Prime Minister 2038

Cabinet Ministers 2038

Minister forCulture

Minister forCulture

Libraries and Revolution: Seven Challenges for the 21st Century

Chris Batt OBEChris Batt OBE

CHRIS BATTconsulting

cbatt@mac.com