Culture, Strategy, and Boundaries in Academic Libraries

Roy Wagner, in The 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 the right to shape the reality they inhabit. At the same time, culture without structure risks fragmentation. The challenge, then, 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 rather than frameworks. Wagner’s warning becomes real: 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

Create communication boundaries

Hold regular listening sessions with faculty, students, and staff from diverse backgrounds. Establish a clear boundary: no major strategic decision involving collections, services, or technologies moves forward without documented community input.

Build adaptability boundaries

Pilot new initiatives, such as collaborative collections, through opt-in phases and feedback loops. Set a boundary that pilots must remain adjustable in response to equity concerns rather than being fixed from the outset.

Design learning boundaries

Train staff in DEIA-informed practices, including inclusive metadata and accessibility standards. Build in reflection checkpoints so that every project asks whose voices are included and whose are missing.

Manage with boundaries as guardrails

Define clear agreements for shared collections: what remains local, what moves to the consortium, and how faculty access is guaranteed. Use boundaries to ensure innovation does not erode trust. Strategy should move 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. Rather than imposing a top-down plan—Wagner’s “usurped reality”—the library adopted a learning organization approach guided by the CALM framework.

Communication: Boundaries were established by consulting faculty and staff through structured forums before agreements were finalized. Open channels ensured that 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 would be revisited with equity in mind rather than locked in ways that excluded them.

Learning: Staff training emphasized critical reflection on equity in resource allocation. Here, boundaries acted as checkpoints, requiring teams to ask whose voices and communities were present and whose might still be missing.

Management: Service agreements guaranteed rapid 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 grounded in culture.

Why this matters

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

At Inclusive Knowledge Solutions, we believe the path 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—places where no one is denied the right to create.