This document summarizes a presentation by Stephen Abram on top library strategies for success in the 21st century. [1] Libraries must avoid focusing solely on lack of money and prioritize strategic choices to remain relevant. [2] While the internet poses challenges, libraries can still thrive by focusing on community, learning, discovery, research, and cultural preservation. [3] Libraries must adapt to changing technologies, user needs, and forms of information in order to remain vital institutions.

1. Top Library Strategies for Success
in the 21st Century (not 1999)
Stephen Abram, MLS
Indiana Library Federation
Fort Wayne, IN
These slides are available at Stephen’s Lighthouse blog Nov. 14, 2011

2. Avoid the Climate of Poverty

3. Money is not the key.

5. Strategic Choice
Are there too many choices?
Will disagreements about the
future freeze the process?

6. OCCUPY

7. Is there still life in
libraries in a web world?
Yes, but . . .

8. Change: Are libraries
Future Ready?

9. News Flash
News Flash
Shift Happens

10. 7 Gifts to Libraries, Publishers & Booksellers
1. The book isn’t dead or dying. It is evolving.
2. Our users/customers are improving.
3. Technology is going social and can support social
acts.
4. The PC isn’t dead, but, again, it’s evolving and more
mobile.
5. We know more about our customers than ever
before.
6. Talent, Insight, Community, have social value.
7. Opportunities always exist more in times of change

11. Can You Stand Out in a Crowd?

18. Questions for Libraries & Publishers Today:
1. Are our priorities right?
2. Are learning, research, discovery changing
materially and what is actually changing?
3. Books. Meh.
4. What is the role of information and
recreational reading in the real future (that is
not an extension of the past)?
5. Are we for the 21st Century world that will be
or the 20th Century one that was?

19. What Are Libraries Really For?
• Community
• Learning
• Discovery
• Progress
• Research (Applied and Theoretical)
• Cultural & Knowledge Custody / Conservation
• Economic Impact

20. Challenge 1
Books

21. Fiction
NonFiction
Reading

22. Why do people read?

23. Why do people read?
1. To learn
2. To engage in hearing other’s opinions (to agree or disagree or understand)
3. To develop more knowledge about myself and develop as a whole person
4. To be entertained and laugh, to engage and interact
5. To address boredom and the inexorable progress of time
6. To research and keep up-to-date
7. To participate well in civil society (everything from news to voting)
8. To be informed (and maybe smarter)
9. To understand others (individually and culturally)
10. To escape our day-to-day lives
11. To stimulate the imagination and be inspired or spiritual
12. To write and communicate better through reading others
13. To teach
14. To have something to talk about
15. To connect with like-minded people

25. Challenge 2
DVD/CDRO

26. Challenge 3
Positioning

27. Smelly Or
Yellow Sex
Liquid Appeal?

28. Challenge 4
Schools

29. Challenge 5
Distance Ed

31. Challenge 6
Search

33. Content Spam

34. List of content farms and general spammy
user generated content sites:
 All Experts (allexperts.com)  Experts Exchange (experts-exchange.com)
 Answers (answers.com)  eZine Articles (ezinearticles.com)
 Answer Bag (answerbag.com)  Find Articles (findarticles.com)
 Articles Base (articlesbase.com)  FixYa (fixya.com Helium (helium.com)
 Ask (ask.com)  Hub Pages (hubpages.com)
 Associated Content (associatedcontent.com)  InfoBarrel (infobarrel.com)
 BizRate (bizrate.com)  Livestrong (livestrong.com)
 Buzle (buzzle.com)  Mahalo (mahalo.com)
 Brothersoft (brothersoft.com)  Mail Archive (mail-archive.com)
 Bytes (bytes.com)  Question Hub (questionhub.com)
 ChaCha (chacha.com)  Squidoo (squidoo.com)
 eFreedom (efreedom.com)  Suite101 (suite101.com)
 eHow (ehow.com)  Twenga (twenga.com)
 Essortment (essortment.com)  WiseGeek (wisegeek.com)
 Examiner (examiner.com)  Wonder How To (wonderhowto.com)
 Expert Village (expertvillage.com)  Yahoo! Answers (answers.yahoo.com)
 )  Xomba (xomba.com)

36. Challenge 7
Experiences

37. The Baker’s Dozen: LVA Top 13
1. Health and Wellness / Community Health / Nutrition / Diet /
Recovery
2. DIY Do It Yourself Activities and Car Repair
3. Genealogy
4. Test prep (SAT, ACT, occupational tests, etc. etc.)
5. Legal Questions (including family law, divorce, adoption, etc)
6. Hobbies, Games and Gardening
7. Local History
8. Consumer reviews (Choosing a car, appliance, etc.)
9. Homework Help (grade school)
10. Technology Skills (software, hardware, web)
11. Government Programs, Services and Taxation
12. Self-help/personal development
13. Careers (jobs, counselling, etc.)
14. Readers Advisory was 14th

38. The new
bibliography and
collection
development
KNOWLEDGE
PORTALS
KNOWLEDGE,
LEARNING,
INFORMATION &
RESEARCH
COMMONS

41. Challenge 8
Literacy

42. Trans-Literacy: Move beyond reading & PC skills
 Reading literacy  News literacy
 Numeracy  Technology literacy
 Critical literacy  Information literacy
 Social literacy  Media literacy
 Computer literacy  Adaptive literacy
 Web literacy  Research literacy
 Content literacy  Academic literacy
 Written literacy  Reputation, Etc.

44. Challenge 9
Economy

50. Challenge
11

51. The Evolution
of Answers

52. Sensemaking: Too much choice

53. Grocery Stores

54. Grocery Stores

55. Grocery Stores

56. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

57. Cookbooks, Chefs . . .

58. Meals

59. Why do people ask questions?

60. What are your top 10-20 questions?
What is the service portfolio model
that goes with those?

62. Challenge
12

63. Mobility: Where
the Patron Is

65. Challenge
13

67. Challenge
14

69. Take
back the
Strategy:
Rebalanc
e

71. Cafe
Press

72. Challenge
15

74. The Essential Definitions

75. Advocacy is Different
 Public Relations is getting your libraries
message across – This is who we are and what
we do, where and for whom.
 Marketing is understanding your customer
and how to best deliver services and products
 Advocacy is marketing an ISSUE. Support and
awareness are built incrementally. Advocacy is
an agenda and not an event!

79. Ask Yourself . . .
How do libraries differ as an issue?
From the listeners point of view and
experience.

81. Selling Ideas
You are engaging in an INFLUENCE agenda.
Selling is not a dirty word!
Politics is not a dirty word!

82. Essentials for Advocacy
 Someone who needs to care
 Courage
 Trustworthy
 Passion
 Belief
 Proofs
 Stories and Knowledge
 Respect for whom you need to influence
 Understanding beyond caricature (e.g.
Politicians, the “Boss”, Teens, Seniors, The
“Public”, Vendors...)

90. Speak Up!

91. Libraries
Are Social
Institutions

95. The Virtual Handout
 The Value of Public Libraries
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/06/the-value-of-
public-libraries/
 The Value of School Libraries
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/06/the-value-of-
school-libraries/
 The Value of Academic and College Libraries
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/07/value-of-
academic-and-college-libraries/
 The Value of Special Libraries
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/07/value-of-
special-libraries/
 Library Advocacy: Save the Library Campaigns
http://stephenslighthouse.com/2010/04/01/save-the-
library-campaigns/

102. Learn to tell a
story for
influence and
not just
Information
and
entertainment

105. Stephen Abram, MLS, FSLA
VP strategic partnerships and markets
Cengage Learning (Gale)
Cel: 416-669-4855
stephen.abram@cengage.com
Stephen’s Lighthouse Blog
http://stephenslighthouse.com
Facebook or Google+: Stephen Abram
LinkedIn / Plaxo: Stephen Abram
Twitter: sabram
SlideShare: StephenAbram1