Report from the NJIT Library Retreat on Friday May 21

On Friday May 21, the NJIT Library had its annual staff retreat in the Campus Center with Steven J. Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University, as the speaker. We were joined by about 10 colleagues from other New Jersey academic libraries.

Steven spoke on design thinking as it can be applied to designing a future-proof library. His talk was based on several of his publications on this topic. We received copies of:

Design Thinking. By: Bell, Steven J.. American Libraries, Jan/Feb2008, Vol. 39 Issue 1/2, p44-49, 6p

'Design Thinking' and Higher Education http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/03/02/bell

Some of the points that were made during the talk:

--The IDEO method of design thinking in five steps
--The user experience can be improved through a design process.
--We can design a future-proof library by using a design thinking approach to make it happen.

There are strategies that academic can use to keep their libraries thriving and relevant in times of turbulent change. I am thinking about the reference function and how the number of transactions have diminished greatly over recent years. How can we revitalize reference and show management that we are still relevant?

In the afternoon the NJIT library staff had a meeting to discuss:

--The results of recent focus groups to assess how we can improve our services to users
--How can we link library goals to the NJIT goals as outline in the strategic plan for 2010-15.
--We were joined by Ian Gatley, the new Provost at NJIT. He was concerned about issues that we presented to him and hope that he will be supportive of the library’s role in the university’s strategic plan.