1. From Futuring to Innovation
Kit Stephenson and Corey Fifles
Adult Services and Outreach
Bozeman Public Library

2. Who thinks about the future?
(Corey) Who thinks about the future- futurists, sci-fi writers, conspiracy theorists… now in libraries… management? Just management? NO! Everyone who wants to move forward and progress.

3. Why do we think about the future?
(Kit) ALA Leadership Institute Summer 2017, library trends, staying current

4. Miguel Figueroa
(Kit) Miguel figueroa and the center for the future of libraries
How we think about the future - Miguel is in agreement with other futurists in thinking that looking at today’s trends can lead us into the future.
He has developed sets of cards that lists trends that he has found (with help from many librarians). He claims that looking at signals (in the media, advertising, experiences, observations) can help you identify trends.

5. Trends for the Future of Libraries
(both trade off explaining each, with examples)
Society- red
Technology- light blue
Education-dark blue
Economics- purple
Politics and Government- orange
Environment- green
Demographics- yellow

6. Some examples

7. Trends
(from MFig) So first, as a group, you’re going to pick a trend. You can use the deck of cards we handed out, but you all are smart people and probably have some trends at the top of your head right now.

8. Signals
(from MFig) Yes, this is the boring part. Spend a little time thinking about the signals or indicators that show your trend working in the world. News stories, magazine articles, examples from the people coming into your library, or anecdotes from your community. This may seem boring, but you will need evidence to address skeptics. If you can show that a trend exists, you can build the case for why you need or want to address that trend.

9. Curiosity-> Creativity -> Innovation
(both, from MFig) For thinking about creativity and innovation in our own work, we need to think along this system – that curiosity can fuel creativity and can shepherd innovation. Define each term… Curiosity- the process of exploring, investigating, learning. Creativity- the process of coming up with new ideas. Innovation- the process of implementing new ideas into useful solutions…
POSSIBLY SKIP Inbound change vs outbound change-
There is inbound change – change that happens to people. And this makes up the majority of change that we experience as individuals and institutions. We are individuals in a world of multitudes. The majority of change is coming at us. There is outbound change as well, change that we produce ourselves. We can think that this change if unique to ourselves, but in a lot of ways it is that change that happens from our response to inbound change – it is the learning and actions that inbound change compels us to undertake or it is the change that comes about when we play with the future.

10. What is “the future” for Montana libraries?
Ask the audience- what do we see as the future for Montana Libraries?
Then, before we break into our small

11. Time for a group activity!
Kit
Time for a group activity!
Trends- 5 minutes
Signals- 2 minutes
Values- 5 minutes
Innovation- 10 minutes ?
Share out- rest of time.

12. Values
What are some values you have as a librarian? How do these values relate to your trend?
(from MFig) One of the most important elements you are going to layer into your innovation is values. Why are we innovating – what makes this relevant and important for libraries? You are going to pick 1 – 2 library values that might be positively affected by these trends (and used to our benefit) or negatively affected (and warrant a response)? A little trick – as a group, you might want to say, before trends, we want to look at values. You may decide that as a school librarian, you are most interested in education and literacy and you want your innovation to flow from that commitment. Cool. Then pick those two values and then comb through the trends to pick the ones that provide the best opportunity for you to innovate around those values.

13. Innovate
(from MFig) Play with the future. Imagine a creative solution that brings together the selected trends and values into the library of the future ( years). Propose a specific service, space, partnership, or program that could develop out of the trends and advance library values. Write it. Draw it. Sketch it. Outline it. DO NOT CHEAT. Try to be specific. So many people just write “The library will introduce virtual reality.” Or “The library will gamify it’s services.” It needs to be specific in order to stick. Let me go back to Ryan Gravel and his Beltline idea, he says of the traction it received in Atlanta “Politically, the weight of other demands never translated into a force powerful enough to shake the Atlanta Beltline from the public’s imagination. The bell had been rung, and nobody could unring it.” You need a bold, specific idea that people can get around. “The library will introduce virtual reality” is not a bold, specific idea. It’s vague. It lacks the details to stick in people’s heads.
We will take time before the session ends to share our new innovations!

14. Additional Resources http://www.ala.org/tools/future