I have spent the last year working...I mean, really working! I started a new job last Fall and was unable to do that work and also do my research. This week, a colleague and I launched a survey to determine the innovative characteristics of librarians who work with the top entrepreneurship programs in the U.S. to see how innovative those librarians are.
My dissertation is intended to examine a corrolary to this research: does organizational structure impact innovation within academic libraries? I think that while some librarians "go rogue", innovating despite what their managers may support, that many more librarians either are not innovative or feel inhibited because they feel they may not be supported. Similarly, I think that there are librarians who may not naturally be innovative, but find that their managers support experimentation, so they are then more willing to take a chance...perhaps even that some librarians are more innovative at work than they are in their personal lives!
So, don't be surprised if you start reading posts for the next couple months from me about my methodology or about how existing research resonates with me...and now I am off to start re-examing my methodolgy!
My sense is that librarians (at least in the public library arena) tend to be more reactive than innovative. We (the royal we of public libraries) have been so comfortable in our roles for so long that are having a hard time realizing the future doesn't just happen -- someone decides what is going to happen and then they do it. We need to shift into that type of mindset. And quickly.
Posted by: Mark Pond | Monday, January 24, 2011 at 07:32 PM