I read a variety of blogs and other news sources everyday. There are a lot of ideas that come up everyday, but it is the connections that come up between things that start to shape my thinking.
Reading Leadership in Libraries? and Sum Yung Librarian made me think hard about the business of libraries. I believe libraries should be run like business. To me that means evaluating the effectiveness of reaching the organizations goals. Profit focused business have balance sheets and income statements as a common way to measure their effectiveness. Library measurement is harder.
What should a library measure? I like where technology can take the library of the future, but it isn't right for every library. Sum Yung is right that having a cool library system doesn't mean much to someone looking for GED study guides.
The services that are provided need to support the individual library's mission and meet the need of its customers. While libraries are strong cooperators with other libraries, they have their own goals and customers to serve. Each library will know best.
Tags: library
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