Survivalism & Librarianship

I recently attended a highly informative and engaging LILRC (Long Island Library Resource Council) seminar presented by the current director of the library at the University of Pittsburgh, Rush Miller, Ph.D. He is also one of the authors of the timely book, Beyond Survival: Managing Academic Libraries In Transition, as well as a degreed medieval historian, giving him a rather unique perspective on libraries as being one of the few "feudal societies" still existing in the modern world, complete with their "serfs, lords, and kings".

Dr. Miller spoke candidly and with the wisdom of experience as he painted a rather gloomy picture of doom for the immenent future of libraries, particularly those academic libraries that are still tightly clutching their archaic shelflists, antiquated mindsets, and operating in the obsolete mold of 30 years past. For libraries such as these, if they are to somehow eek out an existence in the coming years, he predicted their status might more resemble a museum of sorts.

However, despite the advancing glaciers of competition (i.e. google) and the subsequent change in attitudes toward the library it has since fostered, as well as the obvious present economic necessity to aggressively slash budgets, Dr. Miller did layout a functional, eight-step survival plan in order for libraries to remain relevant and perhaps even thrive in these rapidly changing times. Though before launching into any such plan, he advised a basic shift in mentality on the part of libraries to cease merely "claiming value", but instead to now find effective means to "demonstrate" it.

"Change is imperative", he basically scolded the attendees and this is where the eight steps come in as they are essentially ideas for achieving just that, although I wish he'd have used a different word than this oft-repeated and now seemingly meaningless word, "change". In any case, among these steps include shifting from a user-oriented to a user-centric model, rethinking the library mission statement, re-engineering operations, resources, services, personnel, and budget, rethinking the use of space, communicating the library message more clearly, building expertise and infrastructure, producing original content, and changing the organizational culture itself.

Some of these steps are of course a bit easier said than actually done. They are likewise contingent upon factors such as the size of the institution, the board of trustees/directors, and the unique characteristics of the particular community the library serves. When evaluating the possible implementation of Dr Rush's survival plan, it is also important to recognize that each of these steps have been conceived within the confines of academia and in particular, a larger-sized university environment. That being said, they may posses varying degrees of applicability for different libraries.