Library design | Human resources | Academic libraries
by
Catherine Murray-Rust | September 1, 2017
As librarians, we’ve all felt, at some point or another,
like one of the great loves of our lives has been judged hopelessly
irrelevant. In an era when information is digital and abundant,
demonstrating the value of libraries and librarians is more urgent—and
can be more difficult—than ever.
At Georgia Tech, we knew that using words to explain and defend would
not accurately demonstrate the impact we have on inspiring and
accelerating the intellectual achievements of faculty and students. So
we set out on a library renewal project.
When we started four years ago, the project largely centered on
building renovations. Over time we realized that renovations are the
easy part of a transformation. We are fortunate to have creative
architects, designers, engineers, and construction experts. We have the
financial and political support of the administration and the University
System of Georgia. And we benefit every day from the advice of
consultants and subject-matter experts.
The biggest challenge to our transformation was organizational. We
soon saw that we had to change the culture of the library from passive
to active, and we had to retire models that focused narrowly on the
library rather than those that supported the larger institution. We had
to commit to organizing in a way that envisions a future that is
digital.
How? We are adapting techniques used in disciplines such as supply
chain thinking and portfolio management to radically restructure the way
we operate. Our goal is to make the transactional parts of the
library’s work as efficient as possible in order to free up resources to
sustain new services such as intelligent agents, visualization, and
data science.
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