This paper examines the Skokie Public Library in Illinois as a model learning organization, applying the community of practice framework to evaluate how its staff and structures facilitate lifelong learning. The paper describes the library's extensive services — from digital media labs and ESL resources to bookmobiles and children's programming — and assesses the extent to which it already functions as a learning organization. It then applies service-dominated logic (SDL) to propose strategies for enhancing effectiveness, identifies barriers to implementation, and concludes that the Skokie library represents an exemplary, if improvable, model of community-level organizational learning.
The paper demonstrates applied theoretical synthesis: it selects frameworks from organizational learning literature (Lave and Wenger's community of practice; Cohen and Levinthal's absorptive capacity; Vargo and Lusch's SDL) and systematically applies each to a specific institutional context. Rather than merely summarizing theory, the author tests each framework against observable features of the library, showing how theory explains practice.
The paper opens with an empirical description of the library's services, then justifies the choice of the community of practice framework. A findings section maps library staff roles onto the framework's dual-knowledge requirement. Subsequent sections assess the library's current status as a learning organization, propose SDL-based improvements, address barriers and solutions, and close with an overall evaluative summary. References follow APA style throughout.
The Skokie Public Library in Illinois is distinctive in many respects, not least because it has won several awards, including the 2008 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. The library functions on the premise that it exists to assist its users in finding and gaining information, and all of its activities revolve around that central purpose.
A special vocational counselor attends the library once a week, and there is an Employment Resource Center where patrons can find information on career development, job opportunities, and self-employment. Community members are also involved in presenting informative and entertaining lectures about their work. Competitions are held so that users of all ages — from teens upward — may participate and win prizes; these include piano recitals, poetry readings, and similar events. During the summer months, the library runs a range of workshops categorized by age group and featuring a wide selection of activities designed to inform and entertain. Throughout the year, the library holds recitals and outdoor movie screenings where families gather to picnic and watch films on the lawn.
Unlike most libraries, the Skokie library covers an exceptionally broad range of subjects — from neuroscience to sociology and archaeology and beyond — so that patrons regardless of profession or interest can find material relevant to their needs. To that end, the library has assembled a group of professionals from specific fields whom it consults regularly regarding new acquisitions, which are frequent and well selected.
Earphones are strategically placed throughout the various sections so that users can sample prospective music. At least two movie screens display instructive documentaries continuously for both children and adults. The children's section features a puppet show, a Lego area, and computers tailored for various age groups — with the youngest children's stations showcasing games and read-along books. Chess sets are available for adults and children, and during the summer and other seasons special themed toys are set out accordingly. The children's and adolescent section is divided into three segments, with furnishings and content reflecting the needs of the very young, middle-school students, and adolescents respectively. In each segment, computers, workstations, and seating reflect the age group and its interests.
Computer resources for adults and teens are available throughout the library, and free Internet access is provided. The library also loans out laptops. There is a Digital Media Lab where patrons can produce their own films, compose music, and create posters — in effect offering all the capabilities of a desktop publishing studio. To help users acquire basic and advanced computer skills, the library runs regular free courses at various levels. There is also a dedicated section with literacy material for ESL students.
To ensure that patrons are helped as thoroughly as possible, the library maintains a round-the-clock inquiry station (Information Services) where people can call, email, or engage online with research staff.
This description touches only the surface of what the library offers. Its credo is to promote lifelong learning, discovery, and enrichment through a broad spectrum of materials, technologies, and experiences — and it certainly goes far in delivering on that promise. When asked to identify a model learning organization, none more readily comes to mind than the Skokie Public Library.
The analytical framework applied here operates at the community level of learning: the library, centered in its locality, focuses on the surrounding community in general while also taking individual learning into account by carefully attending to the needs and interests of individual members.
Although Cross and Israelit (2000) suggest that community-level and team-level learning parallel each other, a distinction applies in this case. In many organizations the differences between the two may not be clearly delineated, but here they are apparent: team-level learning generally represents learning organized or conducted within the boundaries of an industry in order to enhance that industry's performance. The library operates independently of commercial profit and, rather than focusing on employees as central to its scheme, focuses on a clientele that is external to its institutional "industry."
The framework chosen here is the community of practice, in which an organization becomes a learning organization by virtue of its teachers, support personnel, and administrators who — interspersed throughout the organization — actively practice and disseminate training and knowledge (Orr, 1990; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Brown and Duguid, 1991; Wenger, 1998). The community of practice incorporates teachers, support personnel, and administrators — all practitioners — who share similar workplace skills and knowledge.
Communities of practice can sometimes function as cross-functional teams; their similarity in objective and skills, despite differences in specific roles, makes for optimal problem-solving and integration of specialist knowledge across the breadth of their field (Cross and Israelit, 2000). Practitioners in a community of practice need to nurture and maintain two kinds of knowledge: first, their vocational knowledge — what they will pass on to others — requiring them to remain current and knowledgeable in the subjects they teach; and second, their pedagogical skills — the abilities that enable them to transmit their knowledge effectively. The effectiveness and resilience of the community of practice depends primarily on team members successfully developing and retaining both kinds of knowledge.
Furthermore, although most scholars agree that organizations themselves cannot learn but are composed of individual learning that migrates to the organizational level (Kim, 1993), the larger organization can and must help by having supportive structures and mechanisms in place to assist both practitioners and their clients. In this way, both consumers and practitioners learn through the act of imparting and receiving knowledge (Brown and Duguid, 1991).
The library was chosen as an ideal instance of the community of practice because its workers collectively constitute a core competency centered on enthusiasm for and knowledge of literature, music, cultural themes, and anything that may serve to instruct others. All employees have different skills — some work as librarians, others staff the research section, operate computer stations, direct workshops, catalogue materials, instruct children, or run equipment — but all share one defining element: a love of and interest in books and learning.
Furthermore, all staff members optimize the two kinds of knowledge described above. They are current and knowledgeable in the subjects they teach: librarians are clearly informed about books and current topics, disseminate knowledge by informing patrons about the most recent reads, and guide inquiries into available resources. Likewise, staff who work at individual computer stations are well informed about their subject matter. In addition, all staff possess the skills necessary to impart their knowledge effectively. Each employee is college- or university-trained in his or her specific area of expertise — generally, though not exclusively, in library science — and librarians who staff the children's section also hold pedagogical or child-related qualifications.
Finally, the library as a whole, through its generous and impressive range of resources, enables the community of practice to reach out most effectively to its patrons by providing the tools, supportive structures, and mechanisms with which to do so.
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