A space for innovation: Proposing a maintenance schema for library work

Abstract

This column proposes a schema to help librarians identify and communicate the importance and function of maintenance in library practice in order to challenge uncritical views of innovation. Understanding maintenance as an interdependent and multi-faceted concept, essential to library work and practice, challenges the narrative that innovation alone can solve problems caused by limited budgets and insufficient staff. The proposed schema can be engaged at both microscopic and macroscopic levels, benefiting individuals, specific departments, and entire libraries.