Library and Information Science Commons^™

What Is Innovative To Public Libraries In The United States? A Perspective Of Library Administrators For Classifying Innovations, Devendra Potnis, Joseph Winberry, Bonnie Finn, Courtney Hunt

School of Information Sciences -- Faculty Publications and Other Works

Innovations are critical for public libraries but rarely any primary research studies the scope and interpretation of the term “innovation” by public libraries. Also, few of the existing innovation typologies are based on data collected from public libraries. This study fills in the gap by eliciting 80 innovations reported by the administrators of 108, award-winning public libraries in the United States, and proposes the first organic classification of innovations for public libraries, with the following four types of innovations: Program (access-oriented/use- oriented), Process (efficiency-driven/effectiveness-driven), Partnership (internal/external), and Technology (web-based technologies/assistive technologies/artificial intelligence). Findings can advance the state of innovations in …