The key to a librarian's success: Developing entrepreneurial traits

Information Outlook, June, 2002 by Charles N. Dr. Toftoy

Twelve Steps to Entrepreneurship

LIBRARIANS HAVE TO BE CHANGE AGENTS, KNOWLEDGE MANAGERS AND entrepreneurial thinkers in order to survive. Changing demographics, customers and vendors accepting technological advances and changes in the political economy (funding of Libraries) are forcing Libraries to fight for survival. Therefore, library management may benefit by aligning itself with business management. A librarian needs to develop an effective strategic plan (building on the Library's unique strengths) and then use this plan to set direction for the days yet to come. The library operation must be regarded as a business operation.

Many 'thought leaders' in library science emphasize the need to escape from the old ways--being reactive and risk-averse, lacking management skills, maintaining archaic traditional methods, being inflexible and bureaucratic, working at a slow pace and remaining resistant to change. The library user's problems will also become easier to solve if the librarian can work at improving and developing entrepreneurial traits.

In his article "Entrepreneurship and the Library Profession" from The Journal of Library Administration, Herbert S. White says:

"They [libraries] have a hardening of decision arteries brought about not only by the risk avoidance tendencies of many librarians, but by a preference for minimal or no changes by the library's clientele, be these academic faculty members, special library users whose preconceptions come from what they have seen as university students, or the public library patrons heavily skewed toward children and the elderly. All are groups that have an affinity toward the library just as it is. Individuals who like the library just as it is do not tend to try to change it. They just ignore it and as we already know from a variety of research investigations, the existence of an inadequate library does not pose an insurmountable barrier. Users adapt to poor service, find other approaches to information, or pretend they never needed the information in the first place."

Guy St. Clair describes in his book, Entrepreneurial Librarianship, the characteristics of successful librarianship--tenacity, high service standards, quality of information, customer service, desire to serve and willingness to take on users' problems. He agrees that librarians cannot stand still. They need to look at better and different ways to do things--to take an entrepreneurial approach. Librarianship requires creative entrepreneurs to help select, implement and manage total automated systems, public relations, media, marketing, financial techniques and selling proposals. Libraries are being judged today just like other businesses. Librarians, as the provider of information services, have to think more like an entrepreneur, according to St. Clair.

The American Society for Training and Development characterizes entrepreneurial thinking information services, as follows:

* Enabling customer/user success (as defined by the customers/users)

* Continuous improvement of processes

* Out-of-the-box thinking

* Boundary-less, breakthrough thinking

* Entrepreneurial managers (innovative, risk-taking) vs. "custodian types"

* Vision

* Interdisciplinary awareness and abilities

* Cross-functional

* More than one right way

* Creating value where value didn't exist before. (This often involves considerable risk. Simply employing entrepreneurial thinking, on the other hand, creates value with much less risk.)

Keys to Success

There are 12 key entrepreneurial traits for success. These traits are applicable whether your library is corporate, government, academic or public. I have developed these traits after gaining many years of experience in the real business world with all sizes of business, in all parts of the world. In addition, these traits were developed from my experience assisting more than 1,500 small- and medium-sized enterprises, from high-tech to low-tech, with their most urgent problems.

The Twelve Steps:

[1] passion

I have met thousands of entrepreneurs and the successful ones have passion. Some of these entrepreneurs show passion by being visibly self-assertive, aggressive, powerful in appearance or loud. Others are quiet, soft-spoken and silently forceful. But after talking with them for several minutes, I could tell I'd met a very special person who has depth. This depth has been developed due to their emotional drive and pervading spirit to accomplish something that means a lot to them. These people believe in what they do and love what they do. At the same time they are turning a profit and/or providing a contribution to society. Passion is the most important entrepreneurial trait for success.

[2] enthusiasm

Possessing enthusiasm is second most important entrepreneurial trait. The earnestness and gusto of an entrepreneur inspires all of those around her/him, allowing others to see that the entrepreneur is eager to carry out her/his vision. The entrepreneur's high-flying spirit allows them to persevere.

[3] trustworthiness