Risky Business


Book Description

YA service innovators Linda W. Braun, Hillias J. Martin, and Connie Urquhart explain how to be smart about taking risks without shying away from them.




Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship in Libraries


Book Description

Learn how you can use creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship as powerful forces for positive and productive change benefiting staff and users. Given the pressures of automation, budget issues, and staff development concerns, creative thinking in the library profession is a necessity, not a luxury. For the first time in a single volume, librarians share specific, practical ways in which managers can release creativity in themselves and their staffs, in order to find solutions to new problems, as well as new ways to address old challenges. The contributors to Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship also describe how they used creative thinking to develop a very successful fund raising plan, significantly reduce the risks of developing new services in library networks, take part in effective communication between library educators and practitioners to ensure that library science students are better prepared for the field, and much more.




The Entrepreneurial Librarian


Book Description

The old image of an entrepreneur as a scrappy, independent risk-taker has been replaced by the reality of individuals incorporating innovative ideas in more traditional settings. This collection of essays illustrates how librarians are infusing entrepreneurial principles in a variety of arenas, including public, private, academic, and special libraries. It chronicles how entrepreneurial librarians are flourishing in the digital age, advocating social change, responding to patron demands, designing new services, and developing exciting fundraising programs. Applying new business models to traditional services, they eagerly embrace entrepreneurship in response to patrons' demands, funding declines, changing resource formats, and other challenges. By documenting the current state of entrepreneurship in libraries, this volume upends the public image of librarians as ill-suited to risky or creative ventures and places them instead on the cutting edge of innovations in the field.




Entrepreneurial Librarianship


Book Description

Although libraries are not businesses, library management must be driven by the same characteristics that make a business successful -- responsibility, performance, and control. Entrepreneurial Librarianship offers specific techniques for creating an entrepreneurial environment in a library or information services organization -- or initiating such techniques where a less-successful operation is already in place.




Risk and Insurance Management Manual for Libraries, Updated


Book Description

Amidst uncertain times rife with challenges and potential catastrophes, prudently managing risk will bolster your library's resilience in the face of adversity. And by being attentive to lowering risk, you’ll help keep insurance costs in check. This succinct manual for trustees and administrators offers straightforward guidance for designing and implementing a library risk management program. You’ll get succinct advice on such essentials as - the five major areas of risk and loss for libraries, with an overview of the types of property and casualty coverage common to most libraries; - how to determine if the new framework of enterprise risk management is right for your library; - elements of a good risk policy statement; - tips for determining the value of your collection, plus a sample risk assessment template; - the most library-relevant portions of the National Fire Code; - insurance considerations for remodeling or construction projects; - advice on cybersecurity and handling cyberattacks; - setting up an emergency response team that is ready when disaster threatens; - developing a financial plan that assures uninterrupted service despite adverse conditions; and - guidance on the paperwork a claims adjuster will require. This to-the-point resource will lead you onto the best path to safeguarding your library’s assets and future.




Business Planning for Digital Libraries


Book Description

This book brings together international experience of business planning for digital libraries: the business case, planning processes, costs and benefits, practice and standards, and comparison with the traditional library. Although there is a vast literature already on other aspects of digital libraries, business planning is a subject that until now has not been systematically integrated in a book. Digital libraries are being created not only by traditional libraries but also by museums, archives, media organizations, and any institution concerned with managing scientific and cultural information. Business Planning for Digital Libraries is designed for practitioners in the cultural and scientific sectors, for students in information sciences and cultural management, and in particular for people engaged in managing digital libraries and repositories, in electronic publishing and e-learning, and in teaching and studying in these fields.




Risk, Uncertainty and Profit


Book Description

A timeless classic of economic theory that remains fascinating and pertinent today, this is Frank Knight's famous explanation of why perfect competition cannot eliminate profits, the important differences between "risk" and "uncertainty," and the vital role of the entrepreneur in profitmaking. Based on Knight's PhD dissertation, this 1921 work, balancing theory with fact to come to stunning insights, is a distinct pleasure to read. FRANK H. KNIGHT (1885-1972) is considered by some the greatest American scholar of economics of the 20th century. An economics professor at the University of Chicago from 1927 until 1955, he was one of the founders of the Chicago school of economics, which influenced Milton Friedman and George Stigler.




Business Risk Management


Book Description

A comprehensive and accessible introduction to modern quantitative risk management. The business world is rife with risk and uncertainty, and risk management is a vitally important topic for managers. The best way to achieve a clear understanding of risk is to use quantitative tools and probability models. Written for students, this book has a quantitative emphasis but is accessible to those without a strong mathematical background. Business Risk Management: Models and Analysis Discusses novel modern approaches to risk management Introduces advanced topics in an accessible manner Includes motivating worked examples and exercises (including selected solutions) Is written with the student in mind, and does not assume advanced mathematics Is suitable for self-study by the manager who wishes to better understand this important field. Aimed at postgraduate students, this book is also suitable for senior undergraduates, MBA students, and all those who have a general interest in business risk.




Measuring and Managing Information Risk


Book Description

Using the factor analysis of information risk (FAIR) methodology developed over ten years and adopted by corporations worldwide, Measuring and Managing Information Risk provides a proven and credible framework for understanding, measuring, and analyzing information risk of any size or complexity. Intended for organizations that need to either build a risk management program from the ground up or strengthen an existing one, this book provides a unique and fresh perspective on how to do a basic quantitative risk analysis. Covering such key areas as risk theory, risk calculation, scenario modeling, and communicating risk within the organization, Measuring and Managing Information Risk helps managers make better business decisions by understanding their organizational risk. - Uses factor analysis of information risk (FAIR) as a methodology for measuring and managing risk in any organization. - Carefully balances theory with practical applicability and relevant stories of successful implementation. - Includes examples from a wide variety of businesses and situations presented in an accessible writing style.