1. Identify the stakeholders who will help you fulfil your goals
Who are the influencers and key players who can help you get things done, and who can prevent plans from being realised?
How are you supporting the … More
If you want to share a new idea, update a colleague on progress or address a user issue, some of these tactics might help in your communication. They have been acquired from leadership courses and training along … More
For some fun at Christmas, and linking to all things Open Science / Open Scholarship, here is my version of this classic Christmas song / carol: The Twelve Days of Christmas.
The 12 days of OPEN Xmas… More
I have been involved in an Open Knowledge Leaders Program for part of this year run by Open Knowledge International, and led by Rufus Pollock and Irina Bolychevsky.
Over 20 participants from across the world came together … More
Your mission describes the purpose of your library. It is part of your strategy on how to achieve your vision. It tells your users who you are and what value you have to offer. It tells them … More
If you are exploring a new idea, a common issue, or mapping out the core activities for the year, diagrams can help in your communication either during the process or as a final output.
Here are a … More
This blog post is based on a paper presented at LIBER’s 2016 Annual Conference in 2016, which won a LIBER Innovation Award.
The majority of this data comes from numerous librarians’ lessons learnt when engaging with their champions … More
Twice a year I look at over 100 academic research institutions – mostly universities – and their research support offers. If you are thinking of expanding and/or improving on your current service offer, it can be useful to … More
You can help develop or implement your Open Access or Open Science policy and achieve faster cultural change within your institution by engaging more with certain stakeholders.
Find a mind map listing a variety of research performing … More
Academic libraries have been focussing their efforts for some time now on helping increase the visibility of the work of its researchers and its institutions.
Libraries are doing this through scholarly communication activities, including publishing; by helping improve … More
Recently I attended an inspiring creative thinking workshop held by the HatRabbits brothers in Rotterdam.
I wanted to find other methods to help libraries solve stubborn problems or to help when generating new ideas.
After trying and … More
This academic library strategy toolbox includes outputs that will help bring even more focus and structure to pinpoint your library’s priorities in the years ahead.
They may help you gain more insight into a specific area, or highlight … More
The start of the year often sees the implementation of strategy in a bigger way. In this context, I will share 20 project management (PM) tips based on lessons learnt from my 20 years of managing international and … More
For some fun at Christmas, and linking to all things Open Science / Open Scholarship, here is my version of this classic Christmas song / carol: The Twelve Days of Christmas.
The 12 days of OPEN Xmas… More
Having a successful project or being inspired for a service idea at a conference is the fun and easy part. However, to come up with a service that really hits the spot with your users, one that they … More
If you are interested in further developing your data management support services, this overview might help you further.
It is based on looking at 100 academic libraries worldwide, i.e. on a Proud2Know benchmarking study maintained every 6 … More
You know the feeling, when it’s one of your regular departmental meetings and you think …groan, this could have more energy and be a bit more inspiring…. In that case, perhaps one of the following ideas taken from … More
Use a stakeholder analysis to see who could help you implement parts of the project, programme or service development that local staff cannot. Consider the roles and responsibilities of a new initiative together with your key stakeholders. Who 
Here are a few inspirational quotes for the summer holidays from both library leaders and the famous.
In last month’s blog: 10 steps to a library value proposition, I looked at part of Alexander Osterwalder’s & Yves Pigner’s Business Model Canvas honing in on analysing library customer segments, pains and gains for a strong library … More