Sources: The Library Innovation Toolkit: Ideas, Strategies, and Programs
The Library Innovation Toolkit: Ideas, Strategies, and Programs. Edited by Anthony Molaro and Leah L. White. Chicago, ALA: 2015. Paper $55.00 (ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-1274-4).
The Library Innovation Toolkit: Strategies, and Programs itself takes an innovative approach to the selection and exhibition of the content it presents. This deft representation of what it means to think broadly about the role and aims of the contemporary library is spread across six parts and sixteen individual chapters, with a subtle microcosm/macrocosm theme ultimately defining the book’s structure. Indeed, in the introductory chapter, editors Molaro and White point out that “[I]nnovation is not a process as much as it is an organizational (or departmental) culture, mind-set, or worldview” (xv).
The mindset of innovation is explored early on in a chapter concerning the Zen Buddhist “Beginner’s Mind.” Approaching innovation with the mind open and even empty is encouraged, so as to prepare oneself for inspiration that transcends the straightforward thinking of our daily routine. This chapter centers on the individual’s mental state with respect to library work, but it speaks also to the fate of organizations. The Library Innovation Toolkit excels in this regard; it approaches innovation from both the individual level and the organizational level to effectively communicate the value of forward thinking at all levels.
Yet the innovative ideas that result from an open mind cannot take root without support at the organizational level. Bergart and D’Elia’s chapter (“Innovation Bootcamp: A Social Experiment”) serves well as an example of the sorts of macroscale analysis that this text provides with regards to all library types (public, academic, etc.). The authors state that “[l]ibrary management needs to enable, reward, and model risk taking and experimentation” (56), thereby placing the impetus not solely on the individual information professional (who, as the text emphasizes repeatedly, may work at any level of the organization) but rather on the administration, without whose explicit support innovation would not be possible.
Finally, it’s the specific programs peppered throughout, which emerge once the individual and the organization reach an understanding concerning the potential value of an experimental culture, that defines The Library Innovation Toolkit as a critical text for the implementation of new ideas. Two such programs stand out: “Ferry Tales” (from chapter 7) and “Mysteries Underground” (presented in chapter 14) show exactly what innovation looks like when it’s adequately supported and encouraged at all organizational levels. Respectively, this book club on a commuter ferry ride, and the transition of a public library into a cavern-like exploratory space, represent first a mindset defined by openness and then an embrace by higher level information professionals. —Matt Cook, Emerging Technologies Librarian, University of Oklahoma Libraries, Norman, Oklahoma