Library Leadership & Management (Texas Digital Library - TDL E-Journals)
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How Can We Serve You Better: Customers’ Perceptions of Services and Facilities Offered in a Community Library
No full textThe purpose of this study is to understand residents’ perceptions of the Big Rapids Community Library (BRCL). The study uses a quantitative online survey to investigate the perceptions of local residents who use this community library. The survey focuses on questions directly related to the services and facilities offered to BRCL customers. The results of the survey indicate that residents’ income levels affect their visits to the library. In addition, female residents view access to a community library as more important than their male counterparts do. This project has important policy implications for BRCL and other community libraries because data on customers’ perceptions and satisfaction are increasingly being used to motivate service reforms, budget allocations, and management accountability. In addition, this intention by BRCL can be treated as a “best practice” model for other community libraries trying to build better relationships with their customers
Emotional Intelligence, Emotional Culture, and Library Leadership
No full textThis article discusses the importance of emotional intelligence and emotional culture, provides an overview of emotional intelligence and each of its components, explores ways library leaders can develop each emotional intelligence component, and describes ways library leaders can use emotional intelligence to influence a library's emotional culture
Are you being served? Embracing servant leadership, trusting library staff, and engendering change
No full textIt is self-evident that academic libraries and librarianship are changing in substantive ways, ranging from the types of material we collect, the way we approach information literacy instruction, to our positions within college and university organizational charts. In response to a rapidly changing environment, library administrators may try to quickly bring about changes in library policies, structure, and more. However, in the process, library administrators may inadvertently adopt rigid top-down approaches that can disenfranchise and disengage library workers, resulting in outcomes that serve neither students or workers. A servant leadership approach to authority and influence may be a means to reverse this frustrating trajectory. Servant leadership requires that administrators focus on the existing expertise and the development potential of library workers as the means for ensuring fulfillment of the library’s mission in an environment of constant change. Furthermore, this approach requires administrators to begin by accepting library workers’ perspectives as their reality, instead of dismissing those perspectives. This approach shares the same foundations of two central practices of librarianship: reference and instruction. Librarians must believe users’ information needs, listen to their experiences and with this information, consider ways to aid the user in progressing toward their goal. A challenge to this approach is that it requires more work for library administrators and library workers through consideration of different types of information and looking closely at voices of disagreement and resistance. While servant leadership appears more complex with slower progress, the end result of sincere engagement and effort by everyone in the library has the potential to aid in achieving the changes needed to keep academic libraries thriving
Meetings: A Framework to Improve Effectiveness and Employee Satisfaction
No full textMeetings are a necessary, but often unexamined part of organizational life. Meetings are used to make decisions, distribute information, brainstorm solutions, and report on progress. Meetings take up a massive part of a librarians or managers day, but we seldom talk about how effective meetings are, or how to properly run a meeting. This paper describes the role of meetings on employee satisfaction, employee attitude, and on meeting effectiveness. Drawing upon research and literature in the fields of business and LIS, the paper concludes with a framework and strategies to run more engaging and effective meetings
The Favor of the People: What Library Leaders can Learn from The Prince
No full textThe Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli is as relevant to leaders today as it was when it was written in the 16th Century. The main message of Machiavelli is to keep the people you lead happy. This runs counter to the incomplete and superficial understanding many people have of Machiavelli. The Prince describes six ways to keep people happy: be a good leader and a competent professional, build and maintain relationships with people, stop problems before they start, empower people, have strong values and high standards, and have a vision. This article will briefly explore each of these areas and describe their importance to library leaders
Technology, Collaboration, and Learning: Perceptions and Effectiveness of US Public Library Staff Professional Development
No full textThe primary purpose of this study was to investigate the preferences and perceptions of professional development (PD) activities for public library staff. The survey instrument was distributed to public librarians and paraprofessionals throughout the United States. Beyond the challenges of time and money, a picture emerged from the data of what might best serve the needs of librarians and paraprofessionals for PD. Staff want to feel encouraged and supported about learning for their jobs. The chance to network and meet in groups is preferred by most respondents with short webinars and online learning filling in the gaps, especially if content goes beyond the usual introductory level. From these findings, it is possible to suggest three “action plans” for improving PD for public library professionals and paraprofessionals. These plans include: developing structured and supported PD programs as part of public library administration, promoting a culture of learning throughout the institution, and participating in and contributing to state and regional opportunities for PD of public library staff
New Year’s Resolutions, Career Outlook, and Personality: An Investigation of Library Employees’ Goal Setting Behaviors
No full textMany organizations use goal setting as a professional tool to get employees to achieve gains within the workplace. Many librarians in the United States participate in setting New Year’s resolutions as part of their personal goal-setting behavior. As studies indicate correlations between personal goal-setting behaviors, performance and attitude in professional roles, the researchers posit that learning how library employees set and achieve New Year’s resolutions could provide insight into how organizations can improve employee goal setting. An online survey was conducted in 2016 with 512 respondents. Results showed that respondents who self-reported as ambitious tend to be more successful in achieving their goals. Furthermore, ambitious respondents utilized goal-setting best practices more than less ambitious respondents. Respondents with a less clear sense of purpose in life tended to put in less effort or gave up more often than those with a clearer sense of purpose
Creating an Organizationally Embedded Strategic Communication Plan for Libraries
No full textThis is the first in a series of articles appearing in Library Leadership & Management that provides library leaders with an outline for creating a sustainable and consistent communication plan across all platforms and venues. Going beyond traditional marketing and branding, this series suggests a comprehensive approach to communication - both to people and to the computer networks that people use – for everyday communication, for disaster planning, and for the library’s strategic endeavors. There are many elements that can communicate and convey a library’s identity and values – social media posts, budget structures, library guides, strategic plans, etc. A coordinated and strategic plan for communication and outreach will strengthen your library’s value by creating a common experience and understanding by your library community, including library patrons, boards, administrators, and donors as well as internet search engines, social media networks, and their users. This plan will keep the library focused on objectives from the strategic plan and not straying beyond the plan, which could otherwise drain resources from what is trying to be achieved. This first article outlines the purpose and development of a library’s values, mission, and vision statements, a strategic plan, a communication plan, and the embedding of that plan in organizational culture. Subsequent articles explore offshoots of this communication including budgeting message and presentation, social media strategies, and search engine optimization and semantic web identity
Communities of Practice as a Professional Development Tool for Management and Leadership Skills in Libraries
No full textIn 2012, the University of Wisconsin-Madison's General Libraries developed a community of practice to improve management and leadership skills in staff. This article examines the theories behind communities of practice, the process used by UW-Madison to establish the communities of practice and the results