Culture, Strategy, and Boundaries in Academic Libraries

Roy Wagner (Invention of Culture) once warned:

“For every time we make others part of a ‘reality’ that we alone invent, denying their creativity by usurping the right to create, we use those people and their way of life and make them subservient to ourselves.”

In academic libraries, this is the danger of strategy without culture. When decisions are made in isolation—whether about collections, services, or technology—communities are denied their right to shape the reality they live in. At the same time, culture without structure risks fragmentation. The challenge is to build strategies rooted in culture and supported by boundaries that honor diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA).

The Problem: Boundaries Without Equity

Libraries often adopt strategies—digitization, collaborative collections, or AI tools—that inadvertently silence voices. When underrepresented communities are not consulted, or when staff expertise is overridden by external mandates, boundaries become barriers instead of frameworks. Wagner’s warning becomes reality: communities are made subservient to someone else’s vision.

The Solution: Boundaries as Equity Frameworks

A more sustainable approach is to treat boundaries not as restrictions but as equity safeguards. Boundaries clarify roles, ensure accountability, and prevent any one group from dominating decision-making. In a learning organization model, they become the scaffolding for inclusive participation.

Practical Solutions for Libraries

1. Create Communication Boundaries
   
   
   • Hold regular listening sessions with faculty, students, and staff from diverse backgrounds.
     
   • Set a clear boundary: no major strategic decision (collections, services, technologies) moves forward without documented community input.
     
     
2. Build Adaptability Boundaries
   
   
   • Pilot new initiatives (e.g., collaborative collections) with opt-in phases and feedback loops.
     
   • Establish a boundary that pilots must be adjustable based on equity concerns, not locked down from the start.
     
     
3. Design Learning Boundaries
   
   
   • Train staff in DEIA-informed practices (e.g., inclusive metadata, accessibility standards).
     
   • Require reflection checkpoints: every project must assess whose voices are included and whose are missing.
     
     
4. Manage with Boundaries as Guardrails
   
   
   • Define clear agreements for shared collections: what stays local, what goes consortial, and how faculty access is guaranteed.
     
   • Use boundaries to ensure innovation doesn’t erode trust—strategy moves forward only when access and equity are preserved.
     
     

Case Study: From Strategy to Learning Culture with the CALM Framework

In one collaborative collections initiative, faculty worried about losing materials central to their disciplines, while students feared delays in access. Instead of imposing a top-down plan—Wagner’s “usurped reality”—the library adopted a learning organization approach guided by the CALM framework.

• Communication: Boundaries were set by consulting faculty and staff in structured forums before finalizing agreements. Open channels ensured decisions were transparent and inclusive rather than imposed.
  
• Adaptability: Policies allowed for periodic review of retained titles. This created a boundary against permanence, assuring faculty that decisions were revisited with equity in mind, not locked down in ways that excluded them.
  
• Learning: Staff training emphasized critical reflection on equity in resource allocation. Boundaries here acted as checkpoints, requiring teams to ask whose voices and communities were included and whose might be missing.
  
• Management: Service agreements guaranteed fast delivery for any deaccessioned item, protecting faculty access while advancing the strategic goals of collaboration. Boundaries became guardrails, preventing efficiency from eclipsing user needs.
  
  

By embedding the CALM framework into boundary-setting, the library avoided inventing a reality for others. Instead, it co-created one that was strategic, equitable, and culturally grounded.

Why This Matters

When libraries frame boundaries as equity commitments, they transform strategy from a controlling tool into a collaborative process. Strategy then grows from culture rather than suppressing it. Boundaries ensure inclusivity, accountability, and sustainability.

At Inclusive Knowledge Solutions, we believe the way forward for libraries is clear:

• Listen first.
  
• Set equity-based boundaries.
  
• Adapt continually.
  
• Treat strategy as culture in action.
  
  

This is how libraries become true learning organizations—where no one is denied the right to create.