Fostering change through a resilient safety net: Initiatives of an academic library

Abstract

Change in libraries does not only happen by erecting a fancy building with an innovative architecture. Change in libraries does not mean redacting a modified policy for late fees, either. On the contrary, we assume that librarians, working in these buildings and redacting those policies, also drive change in libraries. At EPFL Library (Lausanne, Switzerland), we have seen how training initiatives for staff and by staff have created a safety net helping librarians take on change, which is happening daily at the organizational level or, more broadly, in the profession. Most of the trainings are informal and lead by staff. The library hierarchy who provides space, time and sometimes-necessary financial resources endorses these trainings. In 2018, we have held regular peer-to-peer teaching sessions about research data management topics and pedagogy. These sessions are led on a voluntary basis, each presenter choosing a topic. The presentation is followed by an informal discussion among peers. Upon the request of some of the staff, we also organised an introduction to programming. Librarians have had the opportunity to learn the basics of Python during three 5-hour sessions led by other librarians.Reflecting upon the last two years, our talk will give an overview of the topics presented during those trainings as well as the applied training formats. Furthermore, as we wish to make our experience scalable for others, we will try to investigate main success factors and their impact for a scientific library. We will show how knowledge and a sense of security can help foster change in libraries and, after all, diminish resistance to change. We will also present the limitations of the current situation.