I recently had a chance to talk with Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, author of Creating a Culture of Innovation: Design an Optimal Environment to Create and Execute New Ideas (Apress, 2020; 140 pages). While the focus of her work is on moving beyond innovation “theater” and enabling people to truly work more creatively and effectively, she also offers a useful perspective on how libraries can be seen as innovation partners within their organizations.
As Deschamps-Sonsino noted, information centers exist within larger entities, made up of people who are time- and attention-poor and looking for shortcuts in order to stay on top of the relevant information in their domain. One of the most popular shortcuts is, of course, social media—including both public platforms and internal collaboration apps such as Slack or Microsoft Teams—and information professionals are beginning to establish…
