Cathryn M. Cooper. The Experimental Library: A Guide to Taking Risks, Failing Forward, and Creating Change. Chicago, IL: ALA Editions, 2023. 184p. Paper, $59.99 (ISBN: 978-0-8389-3965-9).

Abstract

The Experimental Library: A Guide to Taking Risks, Falling Forward, and Creating Change by Cathryn M. Copper is a short, handy guide for anyone looking to bring about a different way to solve problems and implement change in their library. The book is divided into three short sections: “A Culture of Experimentation,” “The IDEAA Anti-Method,” and “Mapping Experimentation to Your Organization.” Summarizing successful corporate businesses that reinvented or transformed themselves provides the foundation that libraries could follow. The meat of the book, however, is in Part 2, where Copper explains the steps in the experimentation “anti-method” and how it is relevant to libraries. Moving libraries away from being risk-adverse and towards embracing exploration into new operational procedures or innovative programming is a major theme of the whole book. Experiments do not have to take a lot of money or space in order to be implemented—all they need is to be well thought out. This book takes inspiration from the tech sector and startups, highlighting companies like Apple and Google as experimentation models to emulate. Libraries can imitate the environment of a startup organization by encouraging small experiments and reconsidering what it means to fail. This book is ideal for someone in a leadership position who is looking to bring about changes, both large and small, to their organization. At a slim 184 pages, this book is easy to read as part of a professional-development group or for everyone in leadership to consider.