The Entrepreneurial Librarian

The old image of an entrepreneur as a scrappy, independent risk-taker has been replaced by the reality of individuals incorporating innovative ideas in more traditional settings. This collection of essays illustrates how librarians are infusing entrepreneurial principles in a variety of arenas, including public, private, academic, and special libraries. It chronicles how entrepreneurial librarians are flourishing in the digital age, advocating social change, responding to patron demands, designing new services, and developing exciting fundraising programs. Applying new business models to traditional services, they eagerly embrace entrepreneurship in response to patrons’ demands, funding declines, changing resource formats, and other challenges. By documenting the current state of entrepreneurship in libraries, this volume upends the public image of librarians as ill-suited to risky or creative ventures and places them instead on the cutting edge of innovations in the field.

Mary Krautter is head of Reference and Instructional Services at Jackson Library at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Mary Beth Lock is the Director of Access Services at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Mary G. Scanlon is a retired librarian from Wake Forest University. She lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Edited by Mary Krautter, Mary Beth Lock and Mary G. Scanlon
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 239
Bibliographic Info: 11 photos & illustrations, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6468-5
eISBN: 978-0-7864-9012-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii

Introduction
(Mary Krautter, Mary Beth Lock and Mary G. Scanlon)      1

Section I: Foundational Issues

1. Navigating the Ethical Waters of Entrepreneurial Librarianship: An Ethical Risk Analysis

(KRISTIN WHITEHAIR)      13

2. Running the Library as a Business

(ANDREA D. BERSTLER)      30

Section II: Intrapreneurs

3. Creating an Open-Access, Peer-Reviewed Journal: The Journal of Learning Spaces

(JOE M. WILLIAMS and STEPHEN H. DEW)      49

4. INSIDE Idaho: Intrapreneurship Through the Collaborative Sharing of Geospatial Data

(BRUCE GODFREY and GAIL Z. ECKWRIGHT)      64

5. The Library as Partner: Sustaining Relevance in a Collaborative, Student-Focused Technology Center

(CHRISTY GROVES and HEATHER LAMBERT)      79

Section III: Entrepreneurs

6. An Interview with Mary Ellen Bates

(AMY ARCHAMBAULT)      101

7. An Interview with Tim Spalding, Founder of LibraryThing

(JEFF TIBERII)      106

8. Market Research Service Partnership at the University of Kentucky: An Entrepreneurial Future?

(PETER HESSELDENZ)      113

9. Putting on a Race for Funds and Fun

(SUSAN SHARPLESS SMITH and ERIK MITCHELL)      129

Section IV: Social and Cultural Entrepreneurs

10. Unlocking the Treasures: Academic Library Entrepreneurs Promote Collections and Raise Funds

(SHAKEELA BEGUM and MANUELA BOSCENCO)      155

11. Value-Based Return on Investment in the Entrepreneurial Disposition of Library Materials

(SHARON K. CURTIS, DORALYN ROSSMANN and MOLLY C. A. ANDERSON)      167

12. Librarians as Sustainability Advocates, Educators and Entrepreneurs

(ANNE M. LESS, BETH FILAR WILLIAMS and SARAH B. DORSEY)      183

13. An Interview with Martha Thomas Larson

(AMY ARCHAMBAULT)      202

14. Librarian as Social Entrepreneur

(MELODY M. ALLISON)      207

About the Contributors      223

Index      227

“thought-provoking…valuable”—Journal of Librarianship and Information Science; “detail foundational principles of ethics and management that should be considered and the different approaches of these librarians”—Reference & Research Book News.