Book Reviews

Catherine Murray-Rust. Library Next: Seven Action Steps for Reinvention. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 2021. 110p. Paper, $54.99 (ISBN: 978-0-8389-4839-2). https://www.alastore.ala.org/librarynext

Libraries are in a continual state of identity crisis, transforming and reinventing new services and initiatives in an effort to remain relevant. Catherine Murray-Rust argues in Library Next: Seven Action Steps for Reinvention that our institutions need reinvention for “our uncertain future” (viii). Whether libraries need to be reinvented remains to be decided, but Murray-Rust makes her case. She provides advice on how libraries can successfully navigate and implement large-scale change. As the recently retired Dean of Libraries at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Murray-Rust gives seven actionable directions for libraries seeking to transform themselves.

In each of the seven chapters, Murray-Rust outlines one of these steps alongside a story from one of her different academic library positions over the years. These steps form an overall strategy library decision-makers can use to make change. In several chapters, Murray-Rust applies the chapter’s action step to a hypothetical scenario to illustrate lessons learned. Murray-Rust makes a point to include scenarios that feature rank-and-file librarians. However, the focus is on her personal experience as a library administrator and has most relevance to this type of work.

There is a strong human touch in Library Next as Murray-Rust shares personal stories gathered from her many years of experience as an academic library leader. Murray-Rust walks readers through the seven steps, giving examples from her academic library positions: Dean of Libraries at Georgia Tech, Dean of Libraries at Colorado State University, Associate University Librarian at Oregon State University, and several positions at Cornell University. Her personal stories work well to illustrate the value of her steps. You can see how she developed her action-step strategy and how it led to success throughout her career, teaching her valuable lessons in the process.

Murray-Rust’s action steps involve looking outside the profession for inspiration, being curious about the future, making public plans, collaborating with others, creating successful change, ensuring you have a framework, and focusing on impact. Murray-Rust is inventive herself, finding unique sources of inspiration. Her first action step is to draw inspiration from outside the profession; she describes how she visited art galleries, museums, and even a Toyota automotive assembly plant to learn about digital displays, architecture, and employee engagement.

Some steps will be more useful to individual readers than others. For example, those with ready ideas for reinvention may be tempted to skip the first few steps, going straight to step 4, “Cultivate Relationships with Allies and Champions,” for takeaways on finding collaborators. Other chapters offer examples of innovative solutions. In step 6, “Implement a Framework for Action and Innovation,” Murray-Rust describes implementing portfolio management to link technological resources to library services. She was among the first to bring this type of project management method to libraries. Others give practical advice born out of personal experience and shown to be successful. For example, in the third step, “Make Bold, Public Plans,” she describes her “dripping water method” of asking for funding: continually asking and not stopping until the demand is met.

Murray-Rust describes an approachable style of leadership. She balances “courage with kindness,” surely a welcome leadership approach for library workers (5). For Murray-Rust, “libraries are first and foremost human organizations” (8). As an early-career librarian and someone who highly values people-focused perspectives, I found this approach very welcome. She is also honest throughout her writing. For step 5, “Create Successful Change,” Murray-Rust describes challenges in implementing supply-chain models in libraries at Georgia Tech. She admits she was not successful and could have done things differently. It is always refreshing to hear leaders humbly and honestly admit when things did not go as planned.

Murray-Rust’s approachable leadership and refreshing honesty make Library Next of great interest to academic library administrators. However, many types of library administrators can benefit from reading Murray-Rust’s book: academic, public, and special. This is perhaps less useful to library workers outside of management positions, though its brevity (just 110 pages) may be an incentive to take a look.

One of Murray-Rust’s main premises is that libraries need to be reinvented. Do they? This reviewer remains unconvinced that libraries need to constantly change. Murray-Rust is a “self-described library disrupter,” and this label may lead her to reinvent things that do not need to be changed (93). Academic libraries, the scene of many of Murray-Rust’s stories, need to be cognizant of remaining relevant, but they are also embedded in the academic landscape of postsecondary institutions that may see change as less urgent than she describes.

It is also arguable whether libraries must cater so directly to their contemporary users. Murray-Rust’s call to “turn toward the community” has value, but perhaps users should not have undue say in decisions that affect the library, library workers, and well-established services (3). Users who are not aware of the full range of services that an academic library provides may not be those toward whom we turn for large-scale input. There is a contradiction here: Murray-Rust pushes us to look to our users; but those same users, in Murray-Rust’s mind, decided that libraries are not relevant in the first place.

Despite some shortcomings, Murray-Rust succeeds in Library Next by delivering seven actionable steps that library administrators can use when undergoing transition and transformation. The steps are worth trying, and the book is short enough that it is not a heavy commitment to learn Murray-Rust’s strategy. Whether these steps aid in the reinvention of libraries remains to be seen. Readers responsible for guiding the direction of a library will have the chance to try them out for themselves.—Justin Fuhr, University of Manitoba