Gadgets and Greatness
By Walt Crawford
American Libraries Columnist
Senior analyst, Research Libraries Group
Column for November 2004
You’ve heard about a great new service, device, or medium. Should your library hop on it? Is this the next great thing, or one of the many new things that doesn’t pan out? Does it make sense for your library—or as an experiment for your group of libraries?
Some gadgets and services just don’t seem plausible in most libraries. A few new things are such natural fits that there’s little room for skepticism. Mostly, though, the answer is, “It depends”—on your library, your service population, and your resources.
I’m going to suggest a few questions for evaluating a hot new thing—service, medium, device, or resource—that is neither a clear-cut winner nor a loser for your library.
Upside questions
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Does the new thing extend an existing service that works well? If it clearly serves your overall mission, set of programs, and budget, that’s a good start—whether the new thing becomes a replacement (CD for vinyl) or a complement (virtual reference and face-to-face reference).
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If this really is a new new thing, does it constitute a logical expansion of your tools and services? Be cautious of innovations that don’t seem to mesh with anything else; they’re more likely to struggle for recognition and support.
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Is this a true experiment, one your library (or system) can afford to see fail and will allow to fail? Experiments are vital to the health of libraries—but it’s easy for an experiment to become a commitment even as it’s draining resources and failing to improve services. Innovate, but have enough insight to scrap innovations that turn out badly before they harm your institution.
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Does the new thing increase your library’s ability to serve your increasingly diverse population? What could be better?
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Does it increase the library’s accessibility, your ability to make resources available to the whole community? The best argument for new things that serve a small fraction of users is when those users are clearly underserved.
Downside questions
Then there are questions that might give you pause. Briefly:
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Does the new thing broaden the economic and other divides in your community? Does it serve the haves at the expense of the have-nots?
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Are you sure the new thing isn’t just a bright and shiny new toy? Do you have a clear-cut use for the new thing, or are you simply excited about its possibilities?
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Does the new thing conflict with library norms? If it does, can you resolve that conflict?
That last bullet can be a killer. You have an idea for a great new user personalization service. Can you provide that service while maintaining confidentiality? You see a wonderful new medium—but it’s so tied up with restrictive digital rights management that you’ll need to circulate the devices to use the medium as well as the medium itself. Can you square that with library budgetary needs and the way in which libraries traditionally operate?
No easy answers, no single steps
The answers will be different for a well-funded group of suburban libraries, a rural library serving a poor homogeneous population, a library in a university town, and a big-city library in a high-tech region. The answers will be different for university libraries, liberal arts college libraries, and libraries that serve community colleges and the surrounding communities.
Count on this: Introducing a new thing will have unexpected effects on other aspects of your library—and failing to introduce any new thing over a period of years will have substantial negative effects on the place of your library in the community.
You’re librarians. You know how to cope with difficult questions. You can innovate and experiment without losing your library’s way.
Closing the files
When I was invited to write this column in 2001, I put together a list of 30 column topics to be sure I could keep going for a year or two. Those topics covered a broader range than the editors had anticipated—but the range of topics I’ve actually covered is broader yet. I’ve barely scratched the original list, now grown to 60 topics.
This is the last “Crawford Files.” Some of those 60 topics will show up in Cites & Insights or elsewhere; some may turn into speeches or future articles in American Libraries.
It’s been a pleasure to write this column and work with the AL editors. I hope some of you have enjoyed reading these essays as much as I’ve enjoyed writing them.
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