CHRIS BATT consulting

Libraries and Revolution: Seven Challenges for the 21st Century Chris Batt OBE CHRIS BATT consulting

Can libraries really be active agents for change and development?

Aggregation Reach Mediation Trust Library Power

People as Catalysts Users Consumers Citizens Communities Audiences Knowledge workers

Seven Challenges for the 21 st Century Knowledge Worker

Love Learning Challenge 1

Learning NOT education Learning for life Learning must remain at the heart of the library mission In the knowledge society communities will constantly need to learn new things Enabling and sustaining communities of interest Learning and understanding breed tolerance

How do we empower every person to want to learn and discover more about the world, every day? CHRIS BATT consulting

Challenge 2 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 Development Agency Library Foundations of bridge building

Challenge 3 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 need Set 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 needs Other services joining in

Challenge 4 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 Manifesto Libraries have always provided solutions to people’s problems, enabled them to learn They respond well to changing needs and behaviours Knowledge and understanding of the world make individuals better citizens Better, more confident citizens, create better communities A good library service will change lives forever

Challenge 5 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 purpose A shared narrative To catch the imagination of politicians and policymakers Learn the elevator pitch QUESTION:

Five-year vision Access for all Convergence 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 BATT consulting

In the Knowledge Society, knowledge institutions support… Information diversity Creativity and innovation Knowledge economy and enterprise Social development Learning Cultural identity For everyone CHRIS BATT consulting

Challenge 6 Be Leaders

Service leadership skills Giving leadership to others

Service leadership skills Leading Modern Public Libraries Programme 660 staff at all levels attend residential course Future Leader: “I feel more confident and aware. I feel invested in by my service and appreciate that”

“In comparison with leaders in other parts of local government, public library leaders on the whole display stronger Transformational Leadership behaviours”  “BUT they lack confidence in their own abilities, and that lack of confidence is often transmitted to their bosses” 

Giving leadership to others Empowering partnerships with others Leading the Knowledge Society Organising knowledge, metadata maestros

Challenge 7 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 collections Create online versions of traditional services Buy commercial online resources Test out Web 2.0 tools

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

Prime Minister 2038

Cabinet Ministers 2038 Minister for Culture Minister for Culture

Libraries and Revolution: Seven Challenges for the 21st Century Chris Batt OBE CHRIS BATT consulting