New initiatives are supposed to be what we’re all about in the library world these days. Certainly that is what you read on Twitter. The thing is, what is new in some places is not at all new in others. In my current position, I spend a lot of time thinking about what others have done that would match what we are here. For redesigning the library website, it made the most sense to draw on Dominican’s relationship centered culture, and invite people to work together to build a solution we could all live with. The first such session was today, but no one showed up. There are four more, and I suspect scheduling may be better for some of the other sessions, but it still leaves me feeling a bit worried.
Again, focus groups for user centered design aren’t even remotely a new thing, but it’s a new thing for this particular library. I’m hopeful that this will turn around and will end up working out. In the end, I think everyone who wants to weigh in on the website will get a chance to do so. I want the way I chose to go about this to work out, but I also know that if I have to reinvent as I go along, I can do that too.