New Approaches to Digital Strategy in the 21st Century

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate how the United Kingdom’s public museums, libraries and archives (collecting institutions) might, in the future, take strategic advantage of the dramatic changes in individual and social behaviours and expectations driven by the socio-technical determinism of the Internet since 2000.

Methodology/approach

The chapter summarises the evidence and outcomes of PhD research completed in 2015 that used the tools of hermeneutic phenomenology and systems theory to examine the current state of digital strategy within the United Kingdom’s collecting institutions and to compare this with the Internet’s fundamental drivers of change and innovation. The research sought not to predict the future, but to define the key opportunities and challenges facing collecting institutions in face of sustained socio-technical change to maintain strategic fit, delivering maximum value in the digital space.

Findings

The outcomes of the research demonstrated that libraries, like museums and archives, are ill-prepared to face continued socio-technical determinism. The key drivers of the Internet are single channel convergence, rapid innovation, instant two-way communication driving social interaction and dramatic change in the relationship between the supplier and the user. Collecting institutions, on the other hand, operate within vertically integrated silos restricting horizontal collaboration that has led to fragmentation of developments and constraints on strategy across and within the various institutional sectors. The major challenges that libraries must consider are summarised.

Originality/value

The research takes an approach that has never before been attempted, either in scope or depth of analysis. The conclusions may not make comfortable reading for practitioners, but they offer an agenda for new ways of thinking about how public institutions must change to sustain their strategic fit in a digital future.

Citation

Batt, C. (2016), "New Approaches to Digital Strategy in the 21st Century", Innovation in Libraries and Information Services (Advances in Library Administration and Organization, Vol. 35), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 289-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0732-067120160000035020