Presentation to the hiring committee, staff, and leadership of the National Agricultural Library as part of their search for a new Director, July 14, 2015.

1. Creating a 21st Century
Vision for Science Libraries
Richard Huffine, Candidate for Director,
National Agricultural Library
July 14, 2015

2. Overview
• About Me
• Why Focus on Vision?
• Exploring a Metaphor
• My Experience with Crafting a Vision
• A New Vision for NAL
• Questions and Discussion
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3. About Me
• Third generation librarian
• North Carolina born; Tennessee raised
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration
• Master’s Degree in Library and Information Science
• 20+ year career in support of federal libraries
• Career focus on science libraries and supporting
research communities

4. About Me
• Leadership positions with:
• Environmental Protection Agency
• US Geological Survey
• ProQuest LLC
• Special Libraries Association
• American Library Association
• Friends of the DC Public Library
• Most recent experience:
• Market segment strategic planning for a large
corporate information provider
• Independent consultant and writer

5. Why Focus on Vision?
A shared vision is the foundation for any successful endeavor.
Every enterprise has stakeholders:
- Customers
- Funders
- Employees
- Peers
Engaging stakeholders in why we do what we do is the best
way to ensure that our efforts have their support and that we
can succeed in our mission.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Solanum_seed.jpg

6. Exploring a Metaphor
It is common to say that trees come from seeds.
But how could a tiny seed create a huge tree?
Seeds do not contain the resources to grow a tree.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Acer_seedling_drawing.png

7. Those resources come from the environment within which
a tree grows.
But the seed does provide something that is crucial:
a place where the whole tree starts to form.
http://ipm-af.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Rice-Ecosystem.jpg

8. As resources like water and nutrients are drawn in, the seed
organizes the process that generates growth.
The seed is the gateway
through which the future
possibility of the living tree
emerges.
- Senge, et al. Presence, 2004. P.2
http://coloring.com.co/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Arbor-Day-Colouring-Pages.jpg

9. I see libraries as the seeds of their institutions,
providing the place for ideas to grow and become great.
http://www.coloring-pictures.net/drawings/trees/tree-with-roots.gif

10. My Experience with Crafting a Vision
• Strategy
• Baseline
• Benchmarks
• Cultural Context
• Internal Drivers
• External Environment
• Changing Capabilities
• Examples
• Communicating the Vision
• Measuring Impact
• Making Adjustments

11. Strategy
A vision establishes the foundation and context for all
discussions of investment, partnership,and positioning for
your function.
- The vision is articulated in the mission, goals, strategies, and plans
of an organization.
- With the right vision, those components can change to meet
specific needs of the moment without changing the vision.
- Defining a new vision takes time, engagement, and focus from
everyone involved.

12. Baseline
Start with what you are currently doing and who you
currently serve. How does that reflect the values of your
organization?
EPA USGS
● The data was a surprise to the
leadership.
● The baseline reflected gaps
across disciplines.

13. Benchmarks
Look for organizations that you can compare yourselves to.
Look at their vision, mission, goals and strategies. Adopt
what resonates and adapt or address what doesn't fit.
EPA USGS
● Diversity of users across the
agency
● Supported common tasks,
collections and systems
● Need a vision to unify operations
● Needed to understand how the
library could strengthen its
position across the survey

14. Cultural Context
Take time to understand the culture of your users and their
current view of libraries, knowledge management, data
lifecycle and other topics that drive both their research and
the library's future.
EPA USGS
● Two vastly different
perspectives and colored views
about the value of libraries and
information services.
● Four disparate research
disciplines each approaching
their research in different ways.

15. Internal Drivers
The vision for the library should incorporate the values of
the larger organization. It should be informed by the
direction that its users are taking in their own pursuit of a
larger vision.
EPA USGS
● Leadership committed to
improving performance
● Open to collaboration and
leveraging current spending
● Leadership determined to
improve interdisciplinary work
● Promote the value of research to
make decisions about land use

16. External Environment
Every organization has peer institutions as well as
institutions they look up to and others that look to them.
It is important to understand where all of these parties
are, what they value, and what they look to you to
provide.
EPA USGS
● Various organizations looking
to EPA for different things
● The Bureau received as much in
cooperative funding as they did in
appropriated funds annually.

17. Changing Capabilities
A vision should encompass what is possible, not just what is
feasible at the present time. While no boundless vision can
be realized immediately, a vision should not be constrained
by current but temporary boundaries.
EPA USGS
● Contracted services and diversity
of skills limited the ability for
branches to cooperate.
● Migrate resources online with
new features and functionalities

18. Examples of Vision
EPA USGS
● Needs Assessment
● ROI Analysis
● Leverage investments in libraries
● The result was a more cohesive
and functioning network with
less duplication and more
efficient use of funds.
● Consultation with internal
and external stakeholders
● Focus on the library’s role to
support virtual research
● The result was a focus on
access, curation and
utilization of digital content
and services.

19. Communicating the Vision
The vision is a lens through which you can view everything
that the institution does. It is important that the products
of the organization reflect the vision and can be viewed as
part of a larger, cohesive, strategy to accomplishing that
vision.
EPA USGS
● Transparency was a key part of
their vision
● Embraced all research disciplines
● Community for Data Integration

20. Measuring Impact
Regardless of the state of your planning, incorporating
assessment means that you can identify strengths and
weaknesses and adjust your plans to address issues and
celebrate successes.
EPA USGS
● Demonstrated efficiency of
operations
● Address needs of users that
were previously unidentified
● Broadened their journal
collection to support all research
disciplines
● Adapted training strategies to
meet researchers across multiple
disciplines

21. Making Adjustments
While a vision should endure across multiple planning
cycles, how it is communicated and what it emphasizes
should change to reflect current trends and issues. Specific
investments and priorities can change without revisiting
the vision.
Lead, take a shot, listen, respond, lead again.
- Guy Kawasaki in Beckwith, Selling the Invisible, 1997. P. 62
EPA USGS
● Feedback from Congress and
General Public
● That feedback impacted
adjustments to their vision
● Adapted vision as the Bureau
reorganized and realigned every
program and activity

22. A New Vision for NAL
What would a new vision for NAL look like today?
What do NALs constituents need today; where do they look for
information?
What can NAL contribute to the information it collects and preserves?
How does NAL compliment other library and information providers?
How do agricultural researchers seek information?
When in the research lifecycle do they seek support outside of their
network?
What are their barriers to sharing data, information and knowledge?
What has worked to disseminate knowledge to the general public?

23. Questions and Discussion
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