I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Steven J. Bell, the Associate University Librarian for Research and Instruction at Temple University, and current Vice President and President Elect of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL). Steven received his Doctorate in Education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Steven’s most [...]

Inside Higher Ed writes that, Daniel Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning and programs at the University of California System predicts: The university library of the future will be sparsely staffed, highly decentralized, and have a physical plant consisting of little more than special collections and study areas. Particularly over the past decade, librarians have [...]

People seem really concerned about “future-proofing” in a world driven by accelerating change and accelerating uncertainty.  For example: How do we future-proof our schools? How do we future-proof our libraries? How do we future-proof our wealth? How do we future-proof our careers? How do we future-proof our families? This promotes dichotomic thinking along the lines [...]

Van der Heijden, K. A. (2002). Sixth sense: accelerating organizational learning with scenarios. Chichester ; New York: Wiley. Van der Heijden builds upon the ideas in Scenarios and delves into more modern approaches to scenario planning. He argues, scenario-based continuous learning is the best approach for organizations to identify and plan for external environmental inputs [...]

Ogilvy, J. A. (2002). Creating better futures: scenario planning as a tool for a better tomorrow. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press. Ogilvy writes that the future is neither predictable nor constructed of endless possibilities. We can create better futures by thinking ahead and planning with scenarios. In a chapter on using scenarios for educational [...]