This paper aims to examine library technology initiatives that underperformed on first deployment and traces how library staff diagnosed and redesigned them. It argues that the redesign phase, rather than the launch phase, is where the more transferable practitioner lessons reside.
Five technology initiatives from three Indonesian public library agencies are examined, drawing on field research conducted between 2020 and 2023 and on institutional documentation published between 2024 and 2026.
Four recurring diagnostic patterns emerged: infrastructure assumptions that did not match user conditions; provision without programming; instruments that could not measure their own use; and announced features that never shipped. In each sustained case, the corrective action addressed service design rather than technology specification.
Published library technology case studies overwhelmingly report successes. This paper reports first-attempt shortfalls and the specific diagnostic reasoning that followed, offering practitioners a set of failure signatures they can recognise in their own services.
