by Kathy Roegge, MLS

Innovation, as described by Torey Malatia, Chicago Public Radio (http://www.wbez.org/default.aspx) President and CEO, should be disruptive and threatening.  Innovation will often look like failure. As inventor Thomas Edison stated, “If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward…”
 
Malatia spoke about “The Innovating Organization” to a gathering of about 30 academic library staff attending the first Metropolitan Library System (MLS) Academic Forum.
 
The forum took place at Columbia College Chicago 33 E. Congress St. on April 9, 2010.  The event was first suggested during a meeting of the MLS Academic Advisory group http://www.mls.lib.il.us/members/academic_advisory.asp).  The role of the Academic Advisory is to serve as a representation of the larger academic library members and to provide feedback to MLS staff regarding CE workshop ideas, issues and concerns of academic libraries.

MLS convened the forum to provide their academic library members an opportunity to network with their local colleagues, begin a discussion of creating stronger collaborative relationships, share local expertise or knowledge, and suggest ways in which MLS can support academic library service in the Chicago and suburban areas.  When searching for the perfect speaker able to “jumpstart” the discussion in the right direction, Chicago Public Radios’ Torey Malatia was suggested.
 
The day began with an opportunity for the attendees to network with local colleagues.  MLS Executive Director Alice Calabrese welcomed attendees, and Academic Advisory member Christopher Stewart, Illinois Institute of Technology provided an overview of the forum and its purpose.  Academic Advisory member Marc Gartler, Director of Library Services at Harrington College of Design introduced Torey Malatia.

Torey Malatia, President & CEO of Chicago Public Radio talking at the MLS Academic Forum.

Mr. Malatia joined the staff of Chicago Public Radio in July 1993 as vice president of programming and in 1996 became president and general manager. He is the first non-profit leader ever to receive the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall Of Fame. In 1995, he and Ira Glass co-founded, This American Life, a weekly radio series for which Glass and Malatia jointly received a George Foster Peabody Award in 1996.  He has also received the 2003 Public Radio International (PRI) Award for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Torey has an M.A. and B.A. in English Literature from Arizona State University and has done postgraduate work at the University of Toronto in Middle English literature at U of T’s Medieval Centre. Born and reared in Oak Park, Illinois, he resides in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago with his wife.

As an example of innovation, Torey presented  the process the Sony Company used to transfer an analog game to digital. The problem, he said, was that as Ken Kutagari’s “innovation” team  worked on a project, they were influenced by their co-workers in the same department.. Because of this influence the team produced something similar to the original product.  The solution was to move the members to a totally different area away from their co-workers.  After this action, they were able to develop the Playstation,  a product Sony wanted,.  Torey said that innovation teams should be small and include members from all areas of the organization.  They should have their own space, budget and a definite timeline.   It is also important that innovation not be measured with standards set by the status quo.

His speech resonated with the participants and  created the perfect lead into the afternoon’s discussion topics.  After a brief lunch the attendees were ready to start.  The group was divided into six tables of 5 to 6 people, and people from the same organization were asked join another table.  Each table was provided pads of paper, pens and a flip chart to help with the discussion.
 
During the discussion participants were engaged and productive.  After a brief break the groups were ready to share the ideas generated by their discussion.

“Creating strong collaborative relationships”

On suggestion was to hold more meetings to help libraries get to know one another.  The meetings would  be held either in the MLS Chicago office or a member library and would focus on a single issue or topic. Two challenges emerged: someone to take responsibility for the administrative duties and the geographic barrier of members located in both downtown Chicago and surrounding suburbs.  Other ideas proposed were to create networks or communities of practice, develop a librarian exchange or “tourist” program, identify centers of excellence for library tutorials, training or teaching, and encourage libraries to promote their unique collections. 

“Sharing Local Expertise”

Identifying centers of excellence and sharing unique collections, from the first discussion were submitted within this topic. Other ideas proposed included sharing staff expertise in areas such as language, technology and programming, and exploring shared hires between libraries.  Informal opportunities for staff presentations such as “brown bag” workshops or unconferences could be sponsored.  Libraries could create partnerships to support reference or research inquires.  Certain libraries within these partnerships would be identified as “topic or subject experts”.  Another idea was to create ways to share peer feedback on programs, software and databases through demos that area libraries could attend.
 
“What support can MLS provide for the Chicago area academic libraries?”

One suggested way that MLS could provide support for its academic members is to create communication opportunities such as a local social networks or directories.  A MLS page could be provided on Facebook as a tool for promoting programs and other services to academics.  Other ideas included creating a speakers’ list, helping members locate grant opportunities, and MLS providing a local grant or scholarship program for members.  Recipients of these grants would be required to share what they learned with the system membership.  Participants felt an important function the system could meet was to create an infrastructure to connect academics to the schools, a “K-12 bridge”.  This would help meet information literacy and other needs of the students in all grades. 

Other types of support MLS could provide included job-shadowing programs, more support staff training, creating a “failure” idea exchange, offering workshops based on issues ( not library type) and sponsoring competition opportunities such as the “Edible Books” contest.  
MLS staff will explore these ideas and work to incorporate as many as realistically feasible into our services. 

One attendee reported their experience after the event "The program was excellent.  The best part was the sharing of information between the other academic librarians and learning their impressions, updates and upcoming services and events".

An MLS goal is to keep the conversation going among the academic members and to promote a stronger collaborative relationship among the Chicago area academic libraries. 

If you’d like to get more involved in the MLS Academic library membership, contact Kathy Roegge at roeggek@mls.lib.il.us.

Published May 5, 2010 in vol. 4, iss. 9 [View]