Library Leadership & Management (LL&M) (E-Journal)
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Library Administrative Core Duties: an Annual Guide for Planning and Sequencing Events
No full textLibrary Administrative duties are varied and complex. While a very large portion of duties require administrators to respond to unique and disparate projects and to develop novel programming and new tasks, a portion of administrative duties are cyclical and can be anticipated on an annual basis. Creating a macro level list of tasks and commitments by utilizing a GANTT chart will allow administrators to more effectively operationalize strategic plans. Additionally, this organizational tool will allow departmental project planners to track staff and funding availability in order to ascertain when additional resources will be available for programming. While the GANTT chart we provide here is not exhaustive, we believe it highlights many of the core tasks and duties performed on an annual, cyclical basis and can serve as the granular planning tool to assist administrators in effectively operationalizing institutional strategic plans
Meeting a Need: Piloting a Mentoring Program for History Librarians
No full textMentoring is a mainstay of librarianship. Professional organizations can offer specific guidance for librarians through mentoring programs. This article describes the development and assessment of a mentoring program for history librarians by the Academic Librarians Committee of the Reference & Users Services Association’s History Section. The study examines the findings from a survey of participants. Respondents indicated overall that the program was beneficial. Mentors and mentees who interacted through web conferencing tended to report higher satisfaction. The responses suggest improved practices for future iterations of this program, including evaluating the process for pairing mentoring matches, creating an onboarding process, providing more structure for communication, and considering the potential of peer mentoring. These findings could be applied to other mentoring programs for librarians
Balancing Profession and Family: A Survey of Female Library Professionals with Children
No full textMore women are delaying having children until they complete their university education. Due to this, there are more women with young children working and more women of childbearing age in the workforce than at any other time. In this study, we investigate whether female library professionals delay career opportunities based on family planning or managing childcare. By investigating questions related to female library professionals’ pursuit of career opportunities based on the age of their children, the study shows the connection between perceived barriers and competing obligations that women contend with during the most professionally productive years of their lives
Using Popular Culture Resources to Build Affective Leadership Skills
No full textThis paper discusses an autodidactic approach for strengthening one’s leadership skill set, in an informal, lower cost manner through intentional consumption of, and reflection on, popular culture resources. This paper posits that popular culture is rife with learning opportunities for affective skill building to be used alongside more formal leadership trainings and professional development. This paper provides a concrete example of the application of popular culture lessons to strengthen one’s leadership skills, such as empathy, listening, giving feedback, and dismantling biases to create a positive and inclusive work environment. Drawing on books, podcasts, television shows and movies, the paper provides a model for matching engagement with all types of media to intentional reflection to strengthen one’s leadership skills
Academic Library Innovation: A Selective Review
No full textThis is an intentionally selective compilation of resources and ideas on innovation in academic libraries. The goals of this article are: to demystify innovation in academic libraries by providing a foundation for those wanting to learn more about it; encourage librarians to explore different types of innovation; introduce practical ideas for implementing library workplace innovation (as well as supporting innovation on campus); and provide provocative ideas to help spark creativity locally
Effectively Capturing Stakeholder Views in the Mission and Vision Creation Process
No full textThis paper outlines a case study of a mission and vision creation process in a small, public university. It focuses on the process used to create buy-in for key stakeholders, outlines how that success was assessed, and discusses how the process can be replicated. This approach used a representative system to create feelings of being heard, built feedback into the process of writing the statements, and then assessed respondents to measure alignment between the final product and their own view of the mission and vision. That alignment was high, and the process itself can be replicated and refined to fit the needs of institutions who have struggled with staff buy-in in the past
Outside Our Wheelhouse: Reflections from Technical Librarians Serving as Interim Public Services Managers
No full textLibraries often utilize interim leaders to fill essential vacancies. Most literature on interim leadership focuses on the top library administrator position and relatively few articles address the experiences of interim middle managers or discuss the value of librarians leading departments outside their areas of expertise. In this article, Author 1 and Author 2, a systems librarian and a special collections and archives technical services librarian respectively, discuss how they leveraged their technical knowledge and soft skills while leading departments that were not within their fields of expertise. They explain how serving outside their wheelhouses benefitted the organization and enriched their job satisfaction
A 360 Degree View: The Ideal Qualities of Library Leaders and Employees
No full textThe rapidly changing demands of library customers across different fields of librarianship mirrors that of general society. Are the qualities deemed important for these jobs five or ten years ago still deemed important today? Are these administrators and employees satisfied working in a field that requires such constant change and growth? Our study seeks to address these questions by providing further insight into what qualities library leaders look for in today’s library employees while also providing insight into what qualities library employees look for in today’s library leaders for a 360 degree view. Using a research study crosswalk, interview and survey questions were developed to ensure internal and construct validity and close alignment. The study’s total sample was 289 participants, which included interviews and an online survey completed by public, academic, school, and special libraries in North Carolina and a large public library system in Arizona. The authors found the following: 1) leaders are associated with creating vision, motivating staff, and driving an organization forward, 2) managers are associated with following operational procedures, being task-focused, and being approachable to staff, and 3) excellent library employees show initiative, are self-motivated, are passionate about the work, and demonstrate a willingness to learn new skills
Academic Library Leadership Lessons from COVID-19
No full textLeadership played a critical role during the COVID-19 crisis. During the first ten months of the crisis, the library leadership at the Norman Girvan Documentation Centre at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, had to make some serious decisions that impacted all stakeholders. This article outlines some of the key library leadership lessons drawn from the experiences of the library leader that other librarians can reflect on, especially as another wave of the virus looms in the near distance