Isn't the corporate Library due for Disruption?

In the digital age, everything is expected to transform. Why should the library be an exception then?

The enterprise of today boasts of thousands of books on varied topics in its corporate library. Corporates have huge budgets for the library management. The benefits of reading books is no hidden secret. And I am sure, the librarian must be having a tough time quantifying the ROI of investing in a corporate library.

Here's an interesting report predicting the budgets of libraries. 

From the report

"When it comes to justifying their spend librarians and information specialists put a lot of stock in usage statistics: 86% use them to prove the value of their purchases, second most important is feedback from users (77%). "

The aim of this post to increase the usage statistics and score top in the user feedback about the corporate library.

Why should the library change?

The look and feel of the library has been the same for ages now. Nothing has changed. You see the same old racks filled with books that are classified on the basis of topic, genre, author etc.

I believe in the new avatar, the library should

1. Be more personalized, more interactive and more aligned to the corporate culture and strategy.
2. To the employee satisfaction.
3. Enable measurement of ROI of the corporate library.

What should be the look of a modern library?

   --Library should drive the corporate culture and the strategy

The culture of a company is defined by the way its leaders behave. The leaders are known( Or are expected) to be avid readers. They are reading all the time. While traveling, in the morning, on weekends. So why not have a book shelf that showcases the favorite books of the leaders in the company. The workforce gets a good understanding of what the leaders think and what is influencing the corporate strategy and culture by reading this books. They also get a chance to build leadership qualities. I strongly feel, this is an interesting and effective way of connecting the grass root employees with leaders.

--Have a shelf that showcases the top in-demand books

The concept of peer pressure works everywhere. People want to start reading but they are searching for starting points. By having a shelf that showcases the most read or most-ordered books, you are giving the starting point these folks.

This also created a bridge between the employees indirectly. As a next step, the names of the top readers should be showcased on the library portal with ranks and they should be invited to share their reading list and learnings. They could be the mentors and curators of the library. The personalization element is the value derived from this initiative.

--Library search portal should be a social network where people share their reading experiences

A critical piece in the Digital story of Enterprise is leveraging the social media. And this is to be done to reach the customers in the right context and personalize the user experience. Why not apply the same business drivers to transform the library search portal. The portal should be a social network for readers. The readers can share what they are reading, why they are reading and their learnings. The inputs derived from the social network can help the leadership get a feel of the employee mindset. People are honest in casual conversations rather than in Open houses.

---a shelf based on roles

One of the top challenges faced by leaders today is reskilling the workforce. The technology landscape is changing faster than ever before. The internet has improved the customer awareness about the newer technologies and their benefits. Hence, it is imperative to get the workforce future ready. The corporate library investment should be exploited to achieve the reskilling targets.

The employee also understands the need of learning new skills but he/she is not sure if the new skill will guarantee the job security and help him grab the new role.

To fill this gap, books should be stacked in shelves dedicated to the job role. By looking at this shelf, people would get an idea of the new skills that they need to acquire to be future ready.

These are some of the ideas I had in my mind. I firmly  believe, there are many more innovative ways to transform the corporate library. Do share your thoughts. 

During my research on for this post, I stumbled upon the following interesting reports, do check them out for further details on corporate library.