Developing Leaders at Every Level through Agile/Scrum Practices for Stakeholder Engagement in Library Technologies

Because libraries are technology organizations, developing leaders at every level requires that we engage critically with technology for: developing situated perspectives, engaging with stakeholders, managing projects and processes, and communicating overall on usability, total cost of ownership, return on investment, worker agency, and more. In this presentation, we discuss concepts and methods from agile/scrum technical development and managerial theories based on fairness, fostering self-determination and supporting our communities. We show that library technology is never neutral, never outside of our collective values and ethics, and that this non-neutrality can be wielded to our benefit for developing leaders at every level. When we engage critically with technology, we also put in place the conditions where we can develop leaders in the process. This is because engaging appropriately with technology requires complex understandings for: developing situated perspectives for user needs, engaging with internal and external stakeholders, managing projects and processes, and communicating overall on important evaluations for context, usability, total cost of ownership, return on investment, worker agency, and more.