Proposing adoption of entrepreneurial skills for enhanced library practice in Nigeria
Proposing
adoption of entrepreneurial skills for enhanced library practice in Nigeria
Helen
Nneka Eke
Nnamdi
Azikiwe Library
University
of Nigeria, Nsukka
http://helenekehelen.wordpress.com
helen.eke@unn.edu.ng
Kingsley
T. Ihejirika
Dept.
of Library & Information Science
University
of Nigeria, Nsukka.
kingstochy2k@yahoo.com
Abstract
The paper arises from the need to adopt
entrepreneurial skills in library practice so as to enhance the traditional
library practice in Nigeria. It has been observed that previous studies
emphasize librarians becoming entrepreneurs with the knowledge of information
skills thereby becoming infopreneurs or knowledge entrepreneurs as the case may
be, but the current paper addresses library practice and how skills that make
entrepreneurs thrive could be adopted in order to lift the image of the library
and for librarians to see their work as their own business. The concept of
entrepreneurship is discussed and issues regarding the matching of such skills
with librarianship skills and spotting the basic entrepreneurial skills that
are deemed necessary for the thriving of library services are raised. There are
perceived threats to the adoption of entrepreneurial skills by librarians and
such are highlighted. Resolution and proposal concerning the need to adopt
entrepreneurial skills to enhance library practice in Nigeria are introduced as
the originality of the paper.
Introduction
Library and
Information Science has come a long way and the synergy with the tools of
information and communication technology has brought great opportunity and
prominence to the discipline. The services of librarians are increasingly
demanded across disciplines and institutions. On the other hand, librarians
face a challenging and at the same time an exciting future. Their work
environment is becoming increasingly complex- with constant change in the
organizational, technological and information environment. In their
professional work, they have to keep up with new technologies and systems, new
forms of information, information media and information sources, and new tasks
and roles. They also have to constantly justify themselves and their services,
and demonstrate their value to the parent institution. Entrepreneurial skills
are no doubt imperative for achieving this feat.
What usually comes to mind
whenever entrepreneurship is mentioned is creation of wealth. Although nothing
different is obtainable when an interview is conducted on individuals from
different walks of life, regarding the concept of entrepreneurship because what
virtually everybody views as entrepreneurship is business which is all about
wealth creation. To an economist, an entrepreneur is one who brings resources,
labor, materials and other assets into combinations that make their value
greater than before, and also one who introduces changes, innovations, and a
new order. Entrepreneurship involves certain factors such as risk taking,
competition, wealth creation, time and others. According to Hisrich and Peters
(2002), ‘entrepreneurship is the process of creating something new with value
by devoting the necessary time and effort, assuming the accompanying financial,
psychic, and social risks, and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and
personal satisfaction and independence’. Entrepreneurial skills have been identified
by Torren (2010) as very crucial for people that want to thrive in the business
world to become successful. Five points identified were a) decision making, b)
peoples skill c) planning, d) sales, and e) communication. In the words of
Torren:
“In today’s world, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, there is
certainly an “evolutionary” process that we must all undertake. In other words,
there are skills that we must each learn and hone in order to thrive in today’s
business world, and we need to be able to adapt those skills to our
surroundings, or be left behind with the “entrepreneurial Neanderthals.”( http://www.blogtrepreneur.com/2010/09/17/5-essential-skills-for-entrepreneurial-survival/)..
In Nigeria today, Youth Corp
Members are being trained on gaining entrepreneurial skills to equip them for
life after youth service. This is done during the three weeks orientation. On March 16 2012, Nwogu Success wrote: “NYSC trains
corps members on entrepreneurial skill”. This refers to Kwara State NYSC
training of Corp members on entrepreneurial skills which was geared towards reducing
graduate unemployment and boosting self reliance. Entrepreneurial skills
amongst Nigerian youths cannot be overemphasized, not only among youth corp
members, but to graduates that are probably working who may wish to gain other
skills either for a better life or to serve humanity. In the library
profession, entrepreneurship has not been quite topical except for tutorials in
classes of which students neglect to put in practice. Librarianship is a
profession that as lasted in Nigeria for some decades, especially with the
advent of public libraries. Apart from Alan Burns’ subscription
library in 1932, the first library that was available to the public in Nigeria
was the Lagos Public Library, opened in 1946 by K.D. Ferguson of the British
Council (Apeji, 1986). Public libraries offer librarians opportunity to meet
more with the public; people from different walks of life, finding out what
they need aside coming to the library to read. This is in contrast to what is
obtainable in other libraries, especially academic libraries where the users
all have almost the same characteristics in terms of purpose of library
patronage. Whatever kind of library, the entrepreneurial skills required by the
workers (librarians) ought to be the same and some of these skills and other
issues are raised in the subsequent part of the paper. In the library
profession, entrepreneurship is gaining grounds especially in the curriculum
whereby University students are being taught entrepreneurial skills and the
library profession. However, the reality of life makes for a wake-up call for
librarians in a bid to embrace these skills and apply them not only in their
private business ventures, but also in their routine job as service providers
in the library environment. Therefore, beyond discussing entrepreneurial skills
adoption by librarians for their personal practice, the paper brings in the
idea of librarians applying such skills
in corporate librarianship whereby they are expected to think and act
like entrepreneurs; applying the same skills that entrepreneurs use in their
business, in library business in a bid to meet the need of the clients in the
contemporary age of business-mindedness and corporate branding.
Thesis
Statement
In a traditional library setting,
there are behind-the-scene services and public services which are aimed at
direct contact with users. Users are offered services in a traditional setting
of a library where they utilize library catalogues to search for resources
available in the library after they must have probably approached a librarian
who showed them the way to the catalogue cabinet. Then, the librarian guides
them through locating the material on the shelf. User services establishes librarian
one-on-one contact with users. Such services as Reference services, Circulation
services. These services are charged with the service delivery of information
needs of the users in the library (Omekwu & Ugwuanyi, 2009). The
traditional library practice has been
that of provision of information to library users within the library terrain
and this service is void of the employ of certain skills that could boost the
service. The advent of such skills are
meant to move the service to a different
shift. This paradigm shift is what has brought library profession to limelight.
In attempting to adapt to the trend in technology, librarians tend to gain
necessary skills to meet up with the trend to be able to meet the need of the
contemporary library users. That is to say, the traditional library practice
has some shortcomings in the contemporary information technology-drive era. One
major shortcoming is that Ranganathan’s fourth law of library science (save the
time of the user) is not fully actualized unlike when information technology
drives the service which is well known to be time-saving. With the introduction
of Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC), library users can access same book
and sieve the bibliographical details at the same time unlike when one person
takes hold of a catalogue tray and all cards are in his custody for about 30
minutes. Secondly, when a user wants to borrow a book, waiting for a librarian
to attend to him during break period eats deep into the time of the user who
might keep waiting until the staff appears. But with the advent of library
application software with the module of circulation services whereby a user can
borrow a book just with a click, these things are a lot easier and hence, obeys
the above-stated law.
Another shortcoming is the
attitude of librarians which has always been known to be that of ‘shushing’
library users. Then librarians hardly wore smiles on their faces so as not to
distract users nor create an environment for chats and noise. Everybody got
busy, both librarians and users – reading until everyone got tired. But these
days workshops are held, exposing librarians to certain managerial,
communication and entrepreneurial skills. The aspect of communication handles
issues like teaching library personnel how to attend users and see them as
customers which they are. Managerial skills are also needed to know what is
lacking and what needs to be done to marry theory and practice to achieve
better goal. Issues like ‘smiling’ to users and creating library jingles and slogans is borrowed from entrepreneurial skills and many more.
Entrepreneurial skills as have been observed by the writers of this paper,
encompasses so many other skills like managerial and communication.
Librarians these days want to be
pushed to do carry out their duties; they do not see the need to render
services as if it is their own business. Once they collect their salary for the
month, they are good and going instead of attempting to build on their skills
and take the responsibility of the success or failure of their organisation. It
is on this note that this paper attempts to address the state of affairs in
Nigerian library system which is about the way librarians run the library as if
it is not their business.
The crux of this paper therefore,
is an attempt to unleash the entrepreneurial skills to be adopted by librarians
in the traditional library setting; taking the business mentality to the
library service sector in a bid to achieve greater goals set to be achieved by
the library, as this would take the library profession to greater height and
place the library on the competitive as a service-rendering organisation. In
such a setting, the librarian vividly does not need to be called an
‘info-preneur’, ‘knowledge entrepreneur’, nor ‘entrepreneurial librarian’ but
the name ‘librarian’ which has to be retained. Probably, when a librarian
adopts entrepreneurial skills for a fee-based service, the name ‘librarian’
gets branded as afore-mentioned. It is
only the quality of service that needs to be raised by adopting entrepreneurial
skills; looking at what makes entrepreneurs thrive in their circle and bringing
such secrets into the library circle
What
is Entrepreneurship and who is an Entrepreneur?
One cannot talk
about who an ‘entrepreneur’ is without consideration of entrepreneurship and
its history. What is then entrepreneurship? The word “Entrepreneur” was derived
from a 17th century French word “Enstreprendre”
meaning “Undertaking”. Initially, the
word entrepreneur was used to describe people who undertook military
expeditions. In 1755, an Irish man living in France, Richard Cantillion, used
the word “Entrepreneur” to describe people that undertook the risk of setting
up business enterprises (Gana, 2001). Overtime, this notion has dominated the
conceptualization of entrepreneurship by different scholars.
In
a Harvard Business School colloquium in 1983, participants agreed on the
following definition: Entrepreneurship is the attempt to create value by an
individual or individuals through (a) the recognition of significant (generally
innovative) business opportunity, (b) the drive to manage risk-taking appropriate
to that project and (c) the exercise of communication and management skills
necessary to mobilize rapidly the human, material and financial resources that
will bring the project to fruition (Kao and Stevenson, 1984). Two key words can
be deduced from the definition offered above: opportunity and innovation. We
can say that entrepreneurship is the articulate and innovative use of
opportunities for problem solving and/or wealth creation either in an
organization or the larger society. While many think of innovation and
entrepreneurship as only related to business or artistic creation, librarians
have a history of innovating in order to both provide needed resource and
programme for their patrons and to incorporate technology into their
professional duties. In other words, an entrepreneur is one who organizes,
manages, and assumes the risk of a business or enterprise.
Basic
Economics unleashes the three factors of production which are: land, capital
and labor. These factors cannot work well without a proposed fourth factor by
Glaser (2001) which is entrepreneurship. Glaser sees entrepreneurship as ‘the
ability to see what others who came before missed, to make connections between
things that others had not, to get all three other factors to work together to
create that which had not existed before. It is this insight, this creativity,
that makes the other three factors productive’. A post made by Brooks (2012) on Business
Daily, highlights the basic concept of entrepreneurship and skills required. To
Brooks, at its core, entrepreneurship is starting a business from scratch,
which includes everything from idea conception to managing the company for the
long term. Hisrich and Peters (2002)
wrote that ‘entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental
wealth which is created by individuals who assume the major
risks in terms of equity, time and/or career commitment or provide value for
some product or service’. Basically, entrepreneurship has
everything to do with business and making money but this could be viewed from
either managerial or personal perspective. Eke, Igwesi and Orji (2011) noted
that Entrepreneurship is a programme that inculcates
creative, innovative, productive and managerial skills needed in business
enterprises for self-reliance and national development. Entrepreneurship
as a force for innovation is reflected in policies to support the growth of the
knowledge economy and opportunities offered by new technologies, through
improving access to and support for developing new technology. One set of
policies has been to encourage the commercialising and disseminating research
carried out in universities and government research establishment McQuaid (nd).
The view of entrepreneurs as
organisers of businesses with opportunistic and risk bearing roles can be
contrasted with entrepreneurs as innovators (Baumol, 1993). This boils down to
the various entrepreneurial ventures carried out by entrepreneurs in a society.
An entrepreneur is that individual that applies the principles of entrepreneurship
in a bid to achieve a desired goal which could be to serve the public, to gain
a name, or both. The critical factor is ‘risk-taking’, which is a major
characteristic of an entrepreneur. Emphasizing this 'risk-bearing' factor in
entrepreneurship, McQuaid(nd) wrote that ''one of the earliest uses of the term
‘entrepreneur’ was by the French writer Richard Cantillon, in 1755, who argued
that they were those who carried out ‘risky’ ventures’’. In United
States, the entrepreneur is often defined as one who starts his own, new and
small business. (Drucker 1985). Developing countries look up to developed
countries in gaining entrepreneurial skills and Nigeria is one of such
developing countries that have tried to raise entrepreneurs from different walks
of life. Such skills are not only
necessary but almost mandatory if one should emerge a successful entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurial
Skills and the library professional
The ability to do something well and
with sufficient expertise could be represented as skill. Ideally, an individual
consciously obtains skill or skills as the case may be, in a bid to have a
leading edge over another. In every field, there is need for skills
acquisition. The difference between the educated and non-educated is ‘skills’,
among other things. According to business dictionary dot com, ‘skill’ is an
ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained
effort to smoothly and adaptively carryout complex activities or job functions
involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people
(interpersonal skills). There is need for entrepreneurial skills by the
entrepreneur who intends to thrive in any entrepreneurial venture. As stated in a blog post of March 10,
2011 on Conference for Entrepreneurial Librarians Day 1 , Entrepreneurship
is more of a mindset and not as easy to learn, but characteristics are:
- tolerance for risk and
ambiguity
- 100% client focused; have to
constantly learn what clients want now; figuring how services can be
geared for your client’s needs (and not what you want to offer)
- move out of employee mindset
– or you are doing this because someone else told you to or a force is
compelling you to
- strategic perspective
- self-confidence and
self-discipline
- self-starting (http://lyndamk.com/2011/03/10/conference-for-entrepreneurial-librarians-day-1/)
Driving home some of the
afore-mentioned characteristics, risk taking is one of the major strengths of
entrepreneurs. This is a way of going out of one’s way to invest in a business
both financially and materially. A risk taker entrepreneur is the ideal
entrepreneur who closes eyes to the economic status of any given society,
especially when negative, a situation. Strategic perspective has to do with a
way of branding services and products or advertising just like in information
marketing in library and information centres. This has a lot to do with
positioning services and products in a strategic mode where attention of
clients are drawn. It is all about marketing a brand in the right place and at
the right time and with self-confidence. In the absence of self-confidence and
discipline, an entrepreneur indirectly wishes a business to practically go down
the drain. A good and skilled entrepreneur puts everything possible in place to
satisfy clients. Clients are referred to as customers in the business world. Clients
are usually placed before any other factor in business. A skilled entrepreneur understands that the client
is always right so therefore, all efforts are put in place to maximize this
singular aim by the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurial skills are one of
the skills associated with entrepreneurship. These are skills that complement
the ideal entrepreneur. As identified by Dr. T. J. Kalamanabhan, there are also
technical skills and business management skills. See Figure 1:
The idea of entrepreneurship is
not new in the field of librarianship, but recently a heightened emphasis is
laid on the adoption of entrepreneurial skills aimed at coping with change and
bringing about improvement in the traditional library practice. Traditionally,
libraries were collections of books, manuscripts, journals and other sources of
recorded information (Ogunsola, 2011). In this light, the library processes
such as acquisition, processing, storage; retrieval and dissemination of
information resources are facilitated through manual arrangement such as
bookkeeping and card system. In the typical traditional library practice, the
librarian orders for material from the vendor and waits for delivery; the
cataloguer brainstorms the whole day and sometime a week or more to catalogue a
single material; the catalogue is used to find library materials; users search
out materials on the shelves and presents them for borrowing, to mention a few.
From the foregoing, observation and
practice shows that traditional library practice is fraught with inadequacies
that hinder smooth information handling, retrieval and dissemination in the
contemporary library setting. Suffice it to say that the traditional library
practice does not support a speedy and seamless access to information; it
hardly provides a platform for round-the-clock and remote access to information
materials; due to the time lag required to procure information materials,
traditional library practice does not guarantee up-to-date information
material. On the hand, staff efficiency and effective is usually compromised
and so many functions are repetitive, leading to drudgery and low productive
among staff- this is one of the reasons other profession undermine the
professionalism in Library and Information Science. Hence, there is a need to
adopt certain skills which promotes the professional ethos of the profession such
as ICT skill, communication skills, management skills, entrepreneurial skills,
to mention a few. The skills and competencies question is important to the
profession because of the increasingly difficult and challenging environment
faced by information professionals. Ashcroft (2004) and Osa (2003)
characterized the work environment of information professionals in the 21st
century as one of fast-paced and constant change. They noted that the rapid
introduction of new technologies imply that information professionals have to
be flexible in adapting and adopting new skills and strategies for handling
them.
The
work environment of information professionals as noted by Khoo (2012) often has
the following characteristics:
• Competition:
information professionals face competition from several quarters that threatens
their jobs. Competition comes from other types of professionals, e.g. IT
professionals and business graduates, who compete for the same jobs.
Competition also comes from outside vendors to which the information service
may be outsourced. Information professionals also face competition from new
technologies and Information products that may displace them.
• Changing
and turbulent environment of the parent organization, which may be under
severe competitive pressures and be in a state of continuous restructuring.
• Uncertain
status of the information service, which is viewed as a cost centre whose
value to the parent organization is constantly questioned and has to be
continually defended.
• Rapidly
changing technology and continuous introduction of new products,
which
make
it necessary for information professionals keep abreast of these developments
and assess how the technologies and products can be incorporated and exploited
in their service.
A typical librarian in an
information society where most individual thrive in the utilization of
information for survival, exhibits certain traits which projects the
librarian’s image as a professional. Veronica (2012) answered a question in
wikispaces: ‘what skills are required to be a librarian?’ thus: (see figure 2)
- Education: Education is a key factor in the skills needed to be a
librarian. The training of a librarian begins from the first degree level
where rudiments of librarianship are handled. Further studies could be
embarked upon by librarians to build upon existing knowledge. In some
libraries, one cannot be referred to a ‘librarian’ until the person
obtains an MLS degree. This is what makes for professionalism in
Librarianship in most universities of the world. In University of Nigeria,
a first degree holder in Library and Information Science is referred to as
an ‘Assistant Librarian’, that is, person giving assistance to a bona fide
librarian who is an MLS holder.
- Technical Knowledge and
Training: Learning on the job is a
basic expectation of a librarian so as to get equipped for future
competition. "While
librarians do not have to become technicians, do they need computer
skills? Penny Beile and Megan Adams's content analysis of library position
announcements found that 'as information sources in academic libraries are
delivered increasingly via an electronic medium, the degree to which
computer skills are sought by libraries becomes an important concern"
(Mathews, 2009).
- Organizational and
Evaluating Skills: In this respect, librarians
should sieve information which they serve patrons. The librarians should
be able to recognize useful information and differentiate between relevant
and irrelevant pieces of information. In the words of Veronica (2012), “Librarians must be able to separate good and bad information
from a database or online search in order to give library users the best
answer possible. This can often be difficult today in a world where sites
that pop-up on search engines like Google and Yahoo! may not provide the
necessary or correct information that the patron needs”.
- Business management: In
this context, the library is seen as a business terrain where clients
serve as customers in business and therefore the same way business is
managed should be reflected in the library circumstance. The library seen
as a business can be managed in a business way with the intent of raising
traffic into the library terrain. Therefore, the librarian is expected to
possess business management skills to run the library business. As rightly
stated by Veronica (2012):
Though libraries are not businesses in the popular sense of the
word, they face the same difficulties and concerns when it comes to managing a
business. Often, librarians are under scrutiny from boards or employers to make
sure that the library, while helping to assist patrons, also stays fiscally
solvent. In order for a library to be successful, a librarian has to be able to
market accordingly. “Thinking like an entrepreneur regardless of what kind of
library or information service we work in, we have to market our services
continually. As one librarian put it, ‘The best ideas don't win; the best
promoted ideas win” (Bates, 1998). Providing business leadership allows for the
library to stay fiscally secure and enables usership to remain at a high level.
- Interpersonal
skills: This interprets the
relationship between librarians and clients. Although most library schools do not
offer this as part of their curriculum courses, it is expected of librarians to exhibit interpersonal
skills especially towards clients. “Information professionals are not order-takers in a fast
food restaurant ("Do you want fries with that bibliography,
sir?"). Rather, we are consultants working with our clients,
analyzing their information needs, evaluating the resources available as
well as the budget and time that we can spend on this request, and
determining how we can most appropriately meet their needs. A negotiation
takes place, and this requires specialized skills that even some
experienced librarians don't have” (Bates, 1998).
Adopting
entrepreneurial skills to library practice
Librarians, most at times
referred to as information professional, are highly engrosses with finding
better jobs and updating their profile and resume simply because there is need
for more bread on the table, especially in the Nigerian scenario. As such, they
do not pay much attention to the job on hand and practice how to serve the
clients better. These days, employers require librarians that are registered
with the Librarians Registration Council before they employ them. This is owing
to the fact that a registered librarian is assumed to have grabbed certain
skills of expertise in the profession. Such skills mostly required are Information
technology skills which has raised the rate of competition among librarians/
information professionals. Adding to this, Khoo (2012) stated that ‘employers
are also emphasizing appropriate attitudes personal traits that are needed by
information professionals to be effective in the new era. Information
professionals have to be user-oriented, service, oriented, adaptable and
flexible, quick to pick new skills, and have an entrepreneurial or enterprising
spirit’.
Creating a hypothetical scenario
where a librarian and a patron are exchanging pleasantries could go a long way
in bringing to limelight, the urgent need to adopt certain skills for library
services. About three years back in an academic library system in a developing
country, a patron approached a librarian working in the reference section and
asked: ‘excuse me ma’am, I would want to find out the largest river in the
whole world’. The librarian replied: ‘‘C’omon little boy, can’t you see I am
eating my lunch? Moreover, the shelf where the book containing the information
you seek is very dusty and I cannot risk going there to dirty my newly bought
clothe. Could you come back another time, maybe on Friday when I will wear a
less official clothe to help you find it? Our cleaners are on strike and so, did
not dust the shelves and I have been denied promotion for three years, so
nobody can ask me to go dust that shelf. Moreover, the sad news is the shelves
area is out of bounds to undergraduate students. Assuming you were a post
graduate, I would have allowed you to enter’’.
The above scenario is typical of what happens in some libraries where
librarians have serious low self esteem and are nonchalant in learning new ways
to serve patrons (innovation and risk-taking, etc). Many librarians do not deem
it fit to expand their horizon and consciously invest in attending workshops
and trainings whether sponsored or not. Eke (2011) listed ‘lack of sponsorship’
as one of the problems associated with conference attendance. They have all got
‘Education’ (See Figure 2), but lack basic skills which ought to be applied in
a bid to boost their services. The fifth content of IFLA code of ethics
emphasizes Neutrality, personal integrity and
professional skills In an attempt to match basic skills of a
traditional librarian and the entrepreneurial skills they ought to adopt,
figure 3 x-rays vividly the basic entrepreneurial skills librarians need to
adopt to do justice to their profession otherwise, they will be relegated to
the background, especially with the emergence of the Internet. Consider Figure
1 and Figure 2 as Entrepreneurial versus Librarianship skills as figure
3 thus represents:
Matching the skills above, a
librarian has education by default but beyond the education lies on-the-job
skills that are required for a librarian to take the job as a business;
establishing facts that ought to change the mentality of librarians to start
seeing their job as serious business and so, adopt entrepreneurial skills which
actual entrepreneurs use to thrive in their business. The following three out
of the six outlined entrepreneurial skills have been highlighted as the ‘three
proposed entrepreneurial skills’ to be adopted by librarians in the enhancement
of library practice:
a.
[Inner
Discipline]: Knowing your clients and their needs is a
requirement as a professional. But beyond this lies the zeal to satisfy them
and this culminates in certain development such as discipline. In this context,
a librarian should cultivate the taste of satisfying a client within and beyond
work periods.
b.
[Risk-Seeking]: Taking risk in business ventures is a major
trait of entrepreneurs and so, being a trait to be adopted by library
practitioners, it becomes paramount for a them to become not only risk-takers,
but seekers of risk. Responsible risk-taking
implies taking carefully calculated chances and being willing to get out of the
comfort zone to accomplish worthwhile goals (Lorenzen, 2010). In his blog post
on ‘why libraries are not creative organisations’, Matthew (2012) noted that
‘....it becomes very hard to library organizations to
truly reward risk-takers, so therefore we don’t cultivate them in our
libraries’. .Many librarians in Nigeria are afraid
of taking risk which they think might threaten their career. Trying out a new
idea in professional practice is risk-taking. Taking steps to adopt new
technology is a risk taking venture. For instance, if a client visits a
library, the librarian tries as much as possible to attend to his needs by
claiming to be computer literate, especially when the client needs to consult
the OPAC and database of the library. This posing challenge therefore, sends
the librarian to go and gain more technical skills. Librarians are facing a lot
of trials in this contemporary world where Google, Amazon and Starbucks are
directly confronting library clients even inside the library where computers
that are connected to the Internet are displayed. A client can easily log onto
the system and pay for more current books via amazon, barnes and nobles and
google books. Ledden (2011) noted that librarians are facing a 21st
century identity crises. Such is interpreted to mean a situation whereby
librarians struggle to be relevant amidst the latest technological development.
A conference tagged R-squared: The Risk and Reward Conference was organised and held in
Telluride, Colorado September 9-11, 2012 and the conference was designed for library professionals at all levels who are curious
about creative thinking in libraries. The goal was for attendees to recognise
their own creativity, analyse risk and reap its rewards, and become confident
in creative problem solving to help establish libraries as leaders inspiring
creative thinking in their communities. The conference was brought to a close
with a parting speech by Pam Sandlian Smith, Library Director of
Anythink (http://www.anythinklibraries.org/). An
excerpt of Pam’s speech:
“......Now we
all know that libraries are in a similar situation with the transition to
digital media. And we know that we have to adapt, to make changes to get ahead
of this curve. We have to take some big risks to combat that sense of becoming
irrelevant or redundant. Libraries are too important to a democratic society to
let them go the way of dinosaurs, to fail like so many newspapers. It is up to
us to lead this charge. ......You have
faced the tasks and challenges, some of you have faced alone and you have been
assisted by others as you faced some of the challenges. You have survived this
challenge and discovered a piece of important self-discovery. Now we must
return to the ordinary world, facing even greater challenges. You have earned a
gift that can be used to improve our world, our libraries as you return to your
work. It is our responsibility to take the risks to insure the success of our libraries.... (http://rsquaredconference.org/)”
c.
[Innovation]: Libraries need to be seen as innovators and vital assets to
their communities. They need to assert their relevance (Ledden, 2011). In
February 2011, a group of Colorado library professionals began brainstorming
how libraries can avoid extinction, reinvent themselves and strengthen their
role as vital parts of their communities. With that, R-Squared – The Risk &
Reward Conference was born. Members of the Colorado State Library, Colorado
Library Consortium (a 501(c)3), Anythink, Wilkinson Public Library and others
have partnered with Denver-based marketing agency Ricochet Ideas to develop a
way to share the philosophies that have inspired some of the most inventive
libraries in the nation with others who are interested in creative thinking in
libraries (http://rsquaredconference.org/about/vision).
As earlier stated, the conference took place September 9 -11, 2012 and
participants were challenged to come up with marketing ideas that would earn
their libraries recognition and attract more users. As stated in the blog (http://rsquaredconference.org/blog), Gale-Cengage Learning partnered with the R2
Team to bring participants an exciting opportunity to reap the rewards of their
most innovative, risky thinking. Participants were asked to think of an
innovative, risky, inspiring way to tell the world about their library. There
was a brainstorm activity during the conference which comprised nine (9)
groups. Group one was asked to create their own library card (each member of
the group designed their own library cards) and so were other groups asked for
innovative ideas. The conference is designed to
encourage fun, creativity and risk in an unexpected format. Time was built into
the programme to include bungee jumping, rock climbing and fly fishing!.
Speakers included creative experts and risk-takers from industries like
hospitality, retail, marketing and technology provided a fresh perspective and
inspired innovation (Ledden, 2011). Bailey,
Blunt, & Magner (2011) cited in Leeder (2011) describe how librarians can
leverage technology skills, in this case video and multimedia creation, to
support faculty goals, instruction, and conference presentations. Innovation is
one of the skills noted by Alonge (2012) who stated that in
the networked information environment, Information professionals need Generic
Skills; Managerial Skills and Professional Skills and Innovation was one of the
various generic skills outlined.
Threats
to entrepreneurial skills adoption by librarians
Sticking to the existing curriculum and
traditional library practice is a mentality that librarians carry and such
affects the rate at which they advance. Collaboration does not only imply
writing of books and journal articles, rather it goes beyond that, cutting
across joining ideas with the faculty/ library school responsible for
curriculum development so as to ensure library and information science students
are raised in the knowledge of entrepreneurial skills not only as an
elective course, but a major course.
This brings a level of consciousness of the basic entrepreneurial behavior into
future librarians that would take up the library profession as a business that
ought to grow and make waves. Some of the perceived threats affecting certain
entrepreneurial skills adoption would be:
i.
Distinction between entrepreneurship and
librarianship:
There is a thin line between entrepreneurship and librarianship.
Entrepreneurship is profit-oriented while librarianship is
not-for-profit-oriented. Matthew (2012) wrote:
The
major distinction between the library organization and a business is the
“bottom line.” Businesses are in business for profit. Since a service business
is most closely analogous to a library, a service business either delivers
better service than their competition, or they earn no profit. Without profit
they won’t stay in business. Libraries also provide a service and should be
able to measure the “profit” of their service. The problem is that libraries as
a governmental agency operate like all government agencies – as a cost center –
where the bottom line profitability is virtually never measured. Considering
that not all businesses are highly profitable, there is a continuum of
profitability. If your business is highly profitable then you are thriving. If
your business is unprofitable, you are dying. That’s an undeniable business
principle – if you’re not thriving, you’re dying. To keep from dying a business
must thrive.
This
boils down to lack of sufficient funds to help the library business thrive.
This singular factor (lack of funds) has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigerian
library system. Nevertheless, this is no excuse in raising the image of the
library from mediocre to competitive edge and then to leading edge whereby the
basic skills applied by entrepreneurs are domicile among librarians with the
support of the management – whether library or government in sponsoring the
requirements of the library towards achieving this goal.
ii.
Misplacement of priority: It is quite appalling, the manner in
which priority is being misplaced in the library environment. Instead of some
librarians to attend workshops to build on existing knowledge and skills, they
register for programme to further their education to earn them promotions. But
promotion without contribution is commotion.
iii.
Fear of the unknown: Probably librarians are scared of
trying new skills and utilizing them to aid their services.
iv.
v.
Low competitive
spirit:
mostly, librarians do not think they are as professional as other professionals
like medical doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects, nurses, and others.
Librarians see themselves as servants to other professionals by acquiring,
organizing and circulating information resources to them.
Discouragement
factor: Probably certain times, some librarians may be
willing to take the library where they are working as a business venture, but
the management poses as a threat – discouraging them from manifesting business-like
traits due to stereotyped modus operandi which
is almost transcending to rigidity. Management can discourage adoption of
entrepreneurial skills by lack of funds provision to necessitate action to that
effect. Leonard and Clementson (2012) wrote on ‘Business
Librarians and Entrepreneurship:
Innovation Trends and Characteristics’ and concluded that ‘while innovation is
essential to these librarians and their managers, it must be clearly defined
and openly supported by library administration.’
Resolution
and Proposal
Following the perceived challenges that
could threaten librarians’ adoption of the afore stated skills which are always
related to technophobia; insufficient skilled manpower; lack of available
technical equipments, lack of exposure to varied media like social media
platform; smart phones and ipads and other gadgets; workshop opportunities;
etc, librarians are encouraged to brace up and surmount such personal and
management-induced challenges. The numerous challenges facing librarians and
the rendering of services to clients cannot pose a major hindrance to achieving
greater heights by librarians. Hence, the need to adopt skills that would make
the profession to move forward is timely. The secrets of successful people
should be adopted into the library so that the success unction would rub off on
the library and as such, the skills of entrepreneurs are brought into scene as
factors that could help improve library services. The writers thus propose
three major entrepreneurial skills to be adopted by librarians in the journey
of rendering quality service to clients and making the library profession a
relevant one. The proposed skills are Inner development, Risk-taking and
Innovation (IRI) which would make the library become more business-like
which falls in line with the advocation of Matthew (2012) that 21st Century libraries need to operate more
business-like, and that 21st Century librarians need to develop business acumen.
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