Open Community Case Study – Empowering the Periphery

This post is part of our regular series of Open Community case studies, in which intrepid association blogger and freelance writer Deirdre Reid will be digging into associations (and other kinds of organizations when relevant) who are living and breathing their open communities in the ways we describe in the book.  If you have a case study to share, from the angle of any of the “big ideas” in our little book, please contact us.

Community: American Library Association

The American Library Association (ALA) is the oldest and largest library association in the world. Its mission is: “To provide leadership for the development, promotion, and improvement of library and information services and the profession of librarianship in order to enhance learning and ensure access to information for all.”

Champion: Jenny Levine, ALA Strategy Guide

Big Idea: Empowering the periphery

Concepts:

• It’s not about age. It’s about curiosity
• Your community is not your database.
• Is there an echo in here?
• Community unlocks more useful data.

Their Story:

Like many large national associations, the American Library Association has struggled with a “digital image problem” in the last decade. With 1300 committees, 11 dues-paying divisions, 17 roundtables, 57 sections and a myriad of possible membership combinations, members had trouble figuring out how to get involved. Many thought ALA was too bureaucratic and not responsive enough.

Return on Attitude

Senior staff knew something had to change. Over the last three years, a more personable and accessible ALA has emerged. Using its online community ALA Connect and social media, ALA has reached out to members and nonmembers, actively soliciting their feedback, ideas and participation. In return, the industry mood and perceptions have changed. For example, a few years ago when a new registration system wasn’t working correctly, Twitter lit up with complaints. However, “bitching isn’t the default now.” Members know ALA is listening and responding, as a result, when there are problems, the tweets are much nicer. Jenny Levine calls this change a “Return on Attitude.”

Jenny has been in the vanguard of this new approach. She was hired to lead and innovate so she’s given the latitude and trust to experiment and be an ALA ambassador of sorts. Her personal tweet style is authentic and personable – a style that isn’t normally seen at large organizations, but is slowly taking effect at ALA. She knows it takes time for staff to become comfortable with a new communication style – to communicate as individuals, not as departments.

Content and containers

Although librarians are comfortable using the web at work, ALA still continues their traditional methods of communication and engagement because not all members want to participate using online tools. Jenny has found that online participation isn’t determined so much by one’s age as by their experience creating content – teaching a class, maintaining a reading list, putting on programs. Content creators are more likely to adjust to a new medium.

“Content is always separate from the container. That mindset gives us a head start.”

Librarians have an experimental mindset. The librarian profession has adapted to change since 3000 B.C., from clay tablet to papyrus to paper and now, to the cloud.

Getting over the members-only mindset

In 2007 the Library Society of the World (LSW) was created as a reaction to ALA’s institutional characteristics. Their FAQ describes LSW as “an alternative for library and information folks who want the advantages of a badly organized organization without having to pay money to be a member of such a beast.” Groups like the LSW are a new challenge for associations: people feel disenfranchised, frustrated or not interested in the association, or they can’t afford to pay the dues, so they use the web to organize in an ad hoc way.

ALA made the decision to not cut itself off from those, like LSW members, who choose not to belong. Nonmembers can use the online community ALA Connect to view and add public content. 1400 nonmembers participate on ALA Connect. Jenny maintains relationships with LSW and other nonmembers and brings their ideas back to ALA. She says there’s been a noticeable Return on Attitude, less complaining and more trust.

New voices on the periphery

18 months ago another group of young librarians emerged to explore how ALA could reach out and engage them. They started as an informal ad hoc group but then created the Young Librarians Working Group Think Tank in ALA Connect to create formal recommendations to submit to ALA leadership. The group had about 80 people when they started the ALA Think Tank group on Facebook. The group is open to all, members and nonmembers. Jenny and another staff member were invited to participate. She provides context for ALA issues and gets useful feedback. After one week the Think Tank had 250 members, one of whom ran for the ALA council and won. Jenny says it’s been a valuable communication channel with the whole profession.

Datalicious

ALA collects and uses profile data for the benefit of members, nonmembers and the association. They opened up the conference scheduler on ALA Connect to nonmembers so all attendees can create conference profiles, including their interests. With more than 1000 sessions at their conferences, attendees need a tool to find the ones that best match their interests. In a smart marketing move, the scheduler also shows other association products that match attendee interests.

Like many associations, there’s a perception among ALA members that volunteering requires too much of a commitment. ALA Connect’s new Opportunities Exchange shows members there are many ways to get involved and contribute beyond committee work. It matches a member’s or nonmember’s interests to ad hoc volunteering opportunities at ALA, other organizations and in the industry.

Forward Failure:

“I would consider most of the things I tried here failures.†Jenny may joke about her experience with failure but many of her experimental efforts to engage her community have worked. But a few haven’t. Last year she played around with Foursquare and Gowalla, but it didn’t go anywhere. She provided an UnCommons lounge at their conference where attendees could hang out, have impromptu meetings, programs and discussion groups, or just network. It housed a projector, power strips, webcam and digital recorder. But it went unused. She thinks the packed conference schedule didn’t allow enough “white space” for that type of thing. They’ve had mixed success with their UnConference. It had great attendance in its second year but not in the last few years. She thinks maybe they aren’t explaining the concept well enough to prospective attendees.

Proud Moment:

“People are giving ALA a second look. We’re offering librarians a way to contribute and participate even if they can’t afford the dues. That’s a metric the board should like: a positive Return on Attitude.

Check them out:

• ALA Connect
• Facebook
• ALA Twitter feeds

How is your association engaging non-members and embracing the periphery?