Your Name and Title: Nancy Faget, Information Resource Center Chief

Co-presenter: Louise LeTendre, Technical Libraries Team Leader

Library, School, or Organization Name: Army Research Laboratory

Area of the World from which you will Present: United States

Language in which you will present: English

Target Audience(s): Anyone interested in a close examination of the current services provided by your organization or in designing new services to meet customer needs

Short session description (one line):  Top management wants a bookless library, librarians roaming with iPads, staff promoting knowledge management and collaboration.  Find out how we began to chart a path forward for our organization with the help of our patrons.

Full Session Description (as long as you would like):  The director of our organization envisions a completely electronic library rebuilt with comfortable sofa, coffee bar, slick training areas, all set in the middle of a collaboratium with a free flow of patrons and researchers.  How do we begin to transform into this environment? 

The library planned and hosted a "visioning exercise" with patron groups, a various of librarians from external organizations, subject matter experts, and top management.  Some said it was very risky, but with big risks comes big rewards.

See how we set up the agenda and facilitated discussions to encourage participation and extract as much information about services as possible.  Learn how important it was to involve the agency CIO who threw the doors open to the day by saying there are no barriers to what we might accomplish.  Find out what we consider are the big rewards gained from the exercise.

Websites/URLs Associated with your session: