A response for the Orbis Cascade Alliance

1. The Responsive Library
Organization
Understanding our Landscape and
Planning for our Future
Orbis Cascade Alliance | March 2018

2. Abstract
Academic Libraries are part of a rapidly evolving landscape. Higher education is facing
critique based on its cost, its business model, and its place in society. Academic libraries
are being asked to prove their value, add new services and expertise, and face a
landscape of stagnate or shrinking budgets. We do our work in a landscape that is
changing politically, technologically, and economically.
This presentation responds to Kristen Eshleman’s Entrepreneurial University: Innovation
as a Way of Working with an examination of changes in the academic library landscape,
the ways professional associations and consortiums are responding, and a discussion of
adaptive approaches to change and innovation.

3. Outline
The Changing Work of Libraries
● Culture of the Field
● Clarifying Values
● Evolving Work
The Changing Profession of Libraries
● Membership Trends
● Adapting Associations
● Emerging Consortial Work
Adaptive Mindsets
● Evolutionary and Revolutionary Approaches
● Adaptive Cultures
● Change Frameworks
● Deep Context and Systems Thinking

4. Changing Work
of Libraries

5. Changing
Profession of
Libraries

6. Adaptive
Mindsets

7. Outline
The Changing Work of Libraries
● Culture of the Field
● Clarifying Values
● Evolving Work
The Changing Profession of Libraries
● Membership Trends
● Adapting Associations
● Emerging Consortial Work
Adaptive Mindsets
● Evolutionary and Revolutionary Approaches
● Adaptive Cultures
● Change Frameworks
● Deep Context and Systems Thinking