If you're leading a library in 2024, you are leading it for the first time! A conversation with Tony Zanders

Shelf Matters by CAVAL

In this episode, Jaime McCowan, CEO, CAVAL, interviews Tony Zanders, Founder and CEO of Skilltype, about his journey from Silicon Valley to the library world. Tony shares his transition from working in tech to tackling challenges in the library profession, including skill gaps, leadership, and technology adoption. They discuss Tony's experience founding Skilltype, a platform designed to help libraries manage staff development and meet evolving needs. The conversation also covers entrepreneurship, raising investment, and the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in shaping the future of libraries.

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1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Silicon Valley to Library World (00:02:27)

3. Libraries as nonprofit software companies (00:02:27)

4. Recurring theme and pain points (00:04:28)

5. Pandemic forces out of the ‘eagle's nest’ (00:09:49)

6. The 'Civil Rights Movement' connection (00:12:07)

7. transactional vs strategic relationships (00:14:24)

8. If you're leading a library in 2024, you are leading it for the first time. (00:16:30)

9. Over-indexing collections? (00:19:09)

10. Why is Australia so strong in collaboration? (00:20:53)

11. The American way of working (00:23:16)

12. Four generations in the workplace (00:24:41)

13. Think about the business model behind Libraries (00:27:00)

14. The wild wild west of training (00:27:59)

15. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion has got a bad rep? (00:31:57)

16. Diverse presenters, different sort of voices (00:35:01)