Embracing the present: Why change is difficult & how we...

Embracing the present: Why change is difficult and how we might move forward
Most institutions struggle with change. How can we start to overcome the obstacles to change? Join library scholars Elliott Shore and Dr Fenella G France, as they draw on their experience in library institutions to inform us on how to nourish change.

Successful change in libraries
It seems that most institutions struggle with change. Can we start to overcome the obstacles? In this talk, Library scholars Elliott Shore and Dr Fenella G France, will draw on their extensive experience with library institutions to suggest ways that leaders can prevent stifling change.

Elliott will draw on his experience in small and large, public and private, higher education and library institutions, and his term as Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries in the US and Canada. He will focus on such issues as the 'disagreement deficit', 'the competency trap', amongst others, and how and why they stifle change.

Fenella will share her breakthrough in how libraries can know the state of books collected in the last 180 years, and how we can use this data to prioritise and maximise the future of our collections.

They will show that change in our institutions is not only possible, but also invigorating and necessary.

About the speakers
Elliott Shore (he/him) is Co-Dean of the Leading Change Institute (formerly the Frye Institute), working with mid-career librarians and information technology professionals to develop skills to create collaborative communities and lead change. From 2013 to 2018 he was the Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), a non-profit organisation of 124 research libraries in the US and Canada. Elliott worked with renowned architect/educator Ann Pendleton-Jullian and radical innovator John Seely Brown to develop a groundbreaking strategic thinking and design process/programme for ARL libraries. He has published books and articles in the history of advertising, the history of publishing, of radicalism, of German-America and of restaurants. He was instrumental in the rebuilding and restoring of two historic libraries in Philadelphia — the Annenberg Research Institute's Library and the Joseph Horner Library of the German Society of Pennsylvania.

Fenella G France (she/her), Chief of the Preservation Research and Testing Division at the Library of Congress, is an international specialist on environmental deterioration to cultural objects. She has worked on projects including World Trade Centre Artifacts, Ellis Island Immigration Museum, Llullaillaco High Altitude Museum in Chile, and the 1507 Waldseemüller World Map. Fenella collaborates extensively with academic, cultural, forensic and federal institutions and has taught courses in the US, the UK, New Zealand, Portugal and Latvia. She is currently Principal Investigator on an Andrew W Mellon Foundation funded project to scientifically assess the condition of print materials in USA research libraries. Her other international collaborations include Inks&Skins, Collections Demography, SEAHA doctoral training, Beast2Craft Biocodicology project and Cultural Heritage Analysis for New Generations. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Library and Information Resources.