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Book Description

In this information age it is widely recognised that, in order to maintain relevance and to gain a competitive edge, libraries and other organisations in the business of information must continuously assess their roles, collections, services and perhaps most importantly, their business practices. Scenarios are a way of predicting and describing a future three to five years away while strongly engaging one’s community in choosing the future which is preferable. The horizon in which assessments about future roles change is growing shorter and shorter. While it is almost clichéd to state that change is the only constant, differing scenarios of what libraries might be allow all of us to contemplate futures we might otherwise not allow. Drawing on extensive experience in libraries in different parts of the globe, the authors provide a rich analysis of planning, managing and implementing change in information organisations through scenario planning. Through extensive practical applications, both actual and theoretical, the authors provide a strong background understanding and direct the reader through a planning process that is both readily applicable and innovative for all information organisations, irrespective of their size or client base.

  • Extensive exploration of what it means to ‘shape our futures’ rather than having our future shaped for us
  • Valuable techniques for understanding futures and creating different scenarios
  • Practical applications are illustrated through examples and real life experience

Table of Contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Dedication
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. List of figures, table and case studies
  9. About the authors
  10. Chapter 1: What are scenarios?
    1. The future is not linear
    2. What is the value of scenarios?
    3. The future impacting on libraries
    4. What is the future and does science fiction predict the future?
    5. Change
    6. An initial view of the Internet
    7. Change of attitudes toward the future
    8. Development of scenarios as a discipline
  11. Chapter 2: The complexities of our informational environment
    1. This chapter
    2. What is the environment?
    3. Libraries and their environments
    4. Disruptive technologies
    5. Broad disruptive technological impact on libraries
    6. Issues in the wider environment
    7. Open source
    8. Open source implications
    9. Digital content
    10. Digital content implications
    11. The author–publisher–library relationship
    12. Content balance
    13. The future of work
    14. Implications for the future of work
    15. Emerging trends
  12. Chapter 3: The future and the past: models are changing
    1. This chapter
    2. The mirror as a powerful tool
    3. Library models in transition
    4. Consortia in our corporate lives
    5. Changing roles of and pressures on consortia
    6. What are we doing, or what is our business model?
    7. Future business models
  13. Chapter 4: Understanding choices
    1. This chapter
    2. What are choices?
    3. Beginning to construct scenarios through choices
    4. Keeping options open
  14. Chapter 5: Toward a new way of thinking
    1. This chapter
    2. How to organise for decisions
    3. Is it all straightforward?
    4. Confronting sameness
    5. Research as a group
  15. Chapter 6: Designing your process
    1. This chapter
    2. Not every process is the same
    3. Scenario construction beginnings
    4. The suggested process
  16. Chapter 7: Scenarios and implementation
    1. This chapter
    2. Preferred Library Scenario
    3. Keeping the scenario alive
    4. Mid-term review
    5. The staff in the implementation of the Preferred Scenario
  17. Chapter 8: Choice, chance and (less than) certainty
    1. This chapter
    2. Chance and randomness
    3. Adoption of risk
    4. Issue 1: abundance of data
    5. Issue 2: search engine capability
    6. Issue 3: avoid group thinking
    7. Issue 4: learn to take risks
    8. Issue 5: continue to build a trust metric for the library
    9. Issue 6: so what is your future?
    10. Conclusion
  18. Chapter 9: Case studies
    1. Case study 1: A major Hong Kong university library
    2. Case study 2: A major Australian university library
    3. Case study 3: CAVAL Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
    4. Case study 4: SOLINET scenarios
    5. Case study 5: Public library
    6. Case study 6: The possible world of library consortia
  19. Chapter 10: Implementation and the impact of change
    1. This chapter
    2. Change, demolition and reconstruction
    3. The human side of change
    4. Getting involved and involvement
    5. Following through and embedding the change
    6. Change and scenario planning
  20. Further reading
  21. Index
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