What Can I Learn from This?

Working in the library and being exposed to many good (and some so-so) books has, at times, caused me to look for lessons in management from other sources. Perhaps it's because I know those good titles will be available so I grasp the "Teachable Moment" in my own life away from reading. But here is a lesson I caught just last night while watching a movie I have seen more than once.

The hero was a person who refused to play by the rules, who was a risk taker. As a pre-teen he steals a car, as a young adult he gets in a bar fight with 4 other guys, in college he figured out an answer that was "outside the box" on a test he did not like, at work he challenges the decision of his bosses and in the end, saved the day and was made the captain of his own ship (ok, it was a movie). But as I watched the last scene play out the thought struck me - would I have done that? And the answer was difficult to listen to - no, I would have played it safe. But he saw what needed to be done, resolved to take the difficult course of action with its inherent risks, and laying it all on the line, saw his decision through.

Being a successful entrepreneurial librarian means that we must also be willing and able to do this. We have to formulate our vision for the future of our library - really see with clarity with it can be, what it should be. Be able to articulate that vision to those closest to us and (here's the hard part) be willing to lay it all on the line to make that vision possible. I will admit that I had such an opportunity several years ago and while the intial seeing and articulating the vision was not a problem, I couldn't follow through. I was not willing to take the risk needed to carry that vision off.

Would I do this now? Can't say, not until I find myself in that same position again.  But I can say that I will grasp the situation better, will understand what needs to be done and the implications of not doing it with more depth.  How about you? What happens when you have to "sell" your vision? Think about it now, consider it before you have to make that decision. 

The movie? Take a guess

The Entrepreneurial Librarian

Not long after I began working as a library director, one of my customers (who later became a board member) commented to me that I was, in fact, an entrepreneur. When I expressed surprise and some hesitancy in accepting this remark she explained that my management style was one of research & survey, trial, evaluation, adjustment and trial again. This is, she explained, very much what a successful entrepreneur did when starting and growing a business. Since she held a top level position in one of the country's largest communication's companys and dealt with business customers daily, I did not question her understanding of the term.

Having been a business major, many eons ago, I chalked the use of this style up to a bit of lecture from some long forgotten class that was running like a subroutine in my brain. In the years since, I have discovered something interesting. Good public library directors, ones whose libraries grow and develop, ones who garner public support and who make their organizations a fundamental part of their community, are at their core - entrepreneurs. They use this same model to keep their business not only functioning but growing. Their businesses maintain position as a core part of their community because they are constantly meeting the community’s needs, they grow and change and are considered vital to the quality of life in the area they serve.

But not all of us are natural entrepreneurs. Not everyone sees all the pieces of the puzzle of a successfully run business. Not everyone will even agree that running a library is like running a business. Actually - It is not like a business, it is a business. And while the “for-profit” business models we read about and learn from fall apart when we try to place them point-for-point on our business, there is no reason to discard them wholly. We are a community service organization – yes. We are a public service place – yes. We are a destination – yes. We are an educational support organization - yes. But we are also a business, it need of planning (strategic, financial, succession and otherwise), a customer base and all the other needs of any businesses.

The purpose of this blog is to explore the world of the public library as a business and the successful library director as an entrepreneur. How well does this business model fit the library sector, what adjustments need to be made in our “not-for-profit” world and what can we, as library administrators, learn to help us keep the public library business growing and thriving and drawing new customers every day?