Glass Silos

This is a concept I coined in the moment for a professional event, and it has been on my mind ever since. To explain it, I’m going to anthropomorphize grain a bit, but stick with me and you will see why!

To set the scene: You’re on the interstate, driving through the rural Midwest, passing farm after farm. There’s lots to see, like old barns, cows, combines…and grain bins, or silos. You know, those giant canisters. You can’t see inside of them, so you don’t know what’s in there. For all you know, it could be wheat, corn, soy, beans, or even stones. Just like you can’t see the grains inside, those grains have no idea you are driving by (obviously you need to anthropomorphize the grains for the metaphor to work).

To provide the understanding: Silos are essential to farming, as they are a means for storing grains until such time as they are sold. They also address some challenges faced by farmers in protecting the grains from damage due to moisture exposure or other elements introduced from rodents. Having multiple silos can allow a farm to store multiple kinds of grain from different seasons of production without mixing them. A grain elevator moves the various grains through the system and distributes them to their respective silos. When it all works as intended, the grains do not intermingle; they do not move from bin to bin, they do not travel along the distribution path simultaneously, and our anthropomorphized grains don’t even know there are others out there.

Translated to other fields of practice (pun intended), silos are “inwardly focused organisational units where external relationships are given insufficient attention. Breakdowns in communication, co-operation and co-ordination between unit participants and other stakeholders, and the development of fragmented behaviour, are common features. The result is that the organisation falls short of making its best contribution to the needs of immediate and wider groups…problems arise when cultures of organisational units…fail to fully mesh to serve organisational goals” (Fenwick et al., 2009, pp. 3-4). As a result, a “silo mentality” develops, wherein individual employees and departmental groupings of employees with disparate understandings of the whole and where they fit in and with different agendas fail to cooperate. Silo mentality and the silos it produces is “symptomatic of organisational dysfunction” and is “the biggest hindrance to [organisational] growth,” deteriorating the ability of “establishing credibility and building trust” (Stone, 2004, p. 11).

Libraries are very often deeply embedded in the practice of silo mentality. As we might say in the field of librarianship, one side of the house is not talking to the other, meaning that those in public-facing positions are wholly unaware of what anyone is doing in the non-public-facing positions and vice versa. Similarly, on either side of the house, folks in one room, even if they are on the same floor, don’t know what’s happening on the other side of the walls. So, everyone continues doing whatever they were doing without caring about the goings on of anyone in a different silo.

What’s often worse is when most people inside the house don’t know why the house exists, much less how it was built so they can maintain its existence and ensure that what they do doesn’t cause damage. And that aesthetically-pleasing or contemporary alterations can fundamentally undermine the house’s curb appeal.

This is where glass silos come in.

Caveat: In farming, “glass silos” have walls that are made of glass encased in steel. In that case, you can’t see in, and the grain can’t see out. That’s not where I’m headed with this. Glass silos can also refer to the clear bins you find in the bulk section of the grocery store, where you can see what’s inside, and the bulk goods can see you and each other. This is a bit closer.

There is a need for silos to exist in libraries. Those of us who are responsible for the description of resources have specialized knowledge and education to adhere to globally-accepted standards. Those of us who are responsible for purchasing and licensing resources are beholden to agreements between vendors and customers. And those who facilitate placing a library’s resources under the care of its users utilize Personal Identifiable Information (PII) to connect the right resources with the right users, and enforce the policies of trust between us and them. For any one of us to be a jack of all trades but a master of none increases the liklihood that standards, agreements, and trust are abandoned. Masters of at least one will prevent that. This is not to say that cross-training is wrong. There are certainly times when an absence in one workflow will require someone from another workflow to fill in.

Even more so, it is helpful for everyone to know how things work at a cursory level and understand why. That’s why the silos need to have transparent walls.

With glass silos, the events coordinator would be able to see that the data specialists are under the gun to organize a significant amount of data to meet a deadline, which explains why they haven’t signed up to assist with new-user orientation. The data specialists would be able to see the effect of changes to the supply chain in the acquisitions silo, so they know that the expected shipment will be delayed.

With glass silos, everyone can see the information from another silo that affects their work, and see how their work can affect that in other silos. We can all work in concert with each other, increasing efficiency and guaranteeing that OUR stakeholders get the information and service they need.

Disclaimer:
All words and images are my own. If they are not, they are cited as such to give proper attribution to the intellectual property owners.
No words or images reflect the opinions or viewpoints of my current, former, or future employers and educational institutions. They are from my own viewpoint.