MANAGEMENT ISSUES IN LIBRARIES
A Bibliographic Essay By
Maura Yerger and Kathryn Pierce
"Today we live and work in a global economy, an economy built
on knowledge, innovation,
speed and quality; an economy in which change is the order of the day.”
-Spies (2000)
“Manage -1: to handle or direct with a degree of skill, 2: to alter by
manipulation”
| -Merriam-Webster staff (1973) |
,The world is changing rapidly. The primary impetus is innovation in
information and telecommunications technologies. Parallel changes as businesses focus on
customer service and cost cutting are also important. (Layzell Ward, 2001) Management in the business world at large, and in libraries in particular, must respond quickly
to these forces of change to remain viable.
Patricia Layzell Ward, publisher of Library Management, does an
annual review of articles covering management issues. In 2000 the articles she includes are sorted
into fourteen categories: leadership, managing buildings and space, managing
change, managing collaboration and partnership, managing decisions, managing
disaster recovery, managing diversity, managing finances, managing human
resources, managing legal issues, managing performance and quality, managing
technology, marketing, and research methods. (Ibid) In the area of management, these then appear
to be the current areas of concern in the information science and library
professions.
Given the wide spectrum, we cannot cover
all management issues here. In this essay we will review some of the literature
in the areas of the following questions:
§
In what ways do
the organizational structures of our libraries need to change?
§
How should we now
approach professional and staff development?
§
How is the
ever-increasing need for collaboration affecting libraries?
§
How should we
market our libraries?
CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION
Whether we are actively managing it or
not, change is occurring in library organizations as a result of the introduction
of new technologies. The new complex
networked systems need design and maintenance, resulting in new job titles and
descriptions. (Gallimore, 1999) When all
employees have access to the same information on the network, the lines
traditionally drawn between managers and subordinates and between one function
and another begin to fade. (Storey, 1995)
Libraries are expected to go from
self-contained internally networked local services to globally networked
information and learning centers in a brief span of time. One change quickly follows another, allowing
little time for library organizations to adjust. (Gallimore, 1999) There is disagreement in the profession about
the extent to which the structure itself must change. Baltzer (2000) points out that the emphasis
on technology in libraries at the expense of people, processes, and
organization has created imbalanced systems.
Sara Weissman’s viewpoint (2001) is that we
are overreacting to what is merely a change in the pathway of information,
rather than a paradigm shift. She states that the organizational structures in
place can handle what she feels will be incremental changes.
The opposing view, which seems to be more
prevalent, is that library structures need to change in fundamental ways.
(Storey, 1995, Gallimore, 1999, and Spies, 2000) The primary focus of libraries has always
been providing quality service to users.
However, library organizations themselves have traditionally been
structured along the lines of function or subject, or some combination of the
two. (Storey, 1995) It is the opinion of
many that this structure is inherently rigid, that it does not foster
creativity and innovation, and therefore will not respond quickly enough to the
rapidly changing needs of its users.
Business, with a new or renewed focus on
customer service, has come up with some new models that, in part, provide some
assistance. Total Quality Management,
for example, is helpful in the area of collaboration. (Chou, 2000) Another idea taken from new business models
is that managers should work to analyze the capabilities of their entire
organizations as effectively as they do those of individual employees.
(Christensen, 2001) Taken in their entirety,
however, these new models do not truly alter the traditional hierarchical
business structures. In businesses
supposedly organized along their tenets, senior management still offers unclear
strategy, poor verbal communication, poor coordination across functions, and an
inadequacy of leadership skill. (Beer, 2000)
Some information services have turned to
the new sciences to provide models for change. Chaos Theory seems to well
describe the situation in which librarians find themselves. Change occurs rapidly and not always in
predictable ways. Complexity Theory
suggests creating organizations that balance at the edge of this chaos, where
they will have enough structure to hold people and processes together, but
enough flexibility to allow innovation and adaptation. (Wah,
1998) Quantum Theory calls for an
organization of team players, where management facilitates processes instead of
describing tasks, and where the most essential skill is the ability to build
strong relationships with colleagues inside and outside the organization, allowing
for the nonlinear, free flowing communication that is found in natural systems.
(Pienaar, et al, 1999)
Unfortunately, although some authors
describe organizational changes that attempt to line up with the tenets of new
science, the results seem to fall short.
Storey (1995) describes such structural changes in the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University Library, and Pienaar et al. (2000) finds similarities to
each theory in the operation of The Academic Information Service of the
University of Pretoria, South Africa. In the organizational diagrams that both
articles provide, however, the new organizations still appear to be quite
hierarchical, and so would fail to allow for the freeflowing communication
deemed necessary by Complexity Theory.
Sometimes flattened management structures do
not result in the desired increase in communication. Changes imposed by individual managers, or by
outside forces, without consideration of the existing culture of the
organization may be doomed to failure. McCombs (1998) uses ethnography data to
analyze a situation of this type in a university technology department. Resisting the new model, key individuals fail
to communicate and perform as needed.
Some businesses circumvent this situation by introducing interim
managers to impose radical change. While
this tactic may be effective in implementing a single set of changes, it would
probably fail to create an organization more ready to respond to needed
adaptations in the future. Real change
in any organization is only achieved by its people, who are in control of the
ability to reshape the existent culture. (Pienaar et al.)
Digby (2001) describes a situation where
his university’s technology department and he, as sole member of a library’s
automation department, share responsibility for maintaining the library’s
network. Since neither has power over
the other, work can only be accomplished, and users’
needs met, by fostering a respectful relationship, and a high level of
communication among all participants.
This comes closest to a situation that could foster innovation,
according to the theories, however, the community described is very small, and
it is not one organization, but two collaborative ones.
Examination of existing organizations clearly
indicates that there is still work to be done as libraries prepare to meet the
challenge of increasingly rapid change.
So far, top management seems unable to implement structural changes that
foster freeflowing communication.
(Butcher and Atkinson, 2000) New
science indicates that without that, libraries will not have the internal
creativity and innovation necessary in today’s world.
PROFESSIONAL AND STAFF
DEVELOPMENT
Library management should design staff
development in correlation to the needs of the community they serve. Specifically the management must conduct a
needs analysis. This requires fieldwork
to get input from the community. This is
done through surveys, forums and other community activities, and informal
questioning. Each succeeding round of
input allows for more exactly defined needs.
Documentation is essential.
Management should follow the following
steps outlined in The New Planning for Results a Streamlined Approach. ( Nelson, 2001) This is a text written for the Public
Library Association.
1.
Involve your staff in identifying
need for activities that reach your objectives.
2.
Make the staff understand the
difference between effectiveness and efficiency.
3.
Identify the most useful programs in
attaining the needed training.
4.
Plan the programming on an annual, or longer basis.
5.
Explain the need for additional
development of your staff to board members, staff and community.
6.
Implement the changes necessary to
fulfill the objectives set in step one.
This will determine changes to staff, collections,
facilities and technology requirements for the selected objectives.
Patricia Euston, Director of Woodbury Public Library,
Due
to the rapid speed and huge amounts of material that is available, we in the
information business should never stop learning. If we do, the public will seek answers elsewhere. Remember, we are no longer the only
information source available.
NEED FOR COLLABORATION
In reference to human library staff,
collaboration means sharing. Management
must allow for the enrichment of the management level, and see that those who
serve the public understand task operations.
Libraries also collaborate globally, nationally, regionally, and
locally. Globally the Internet allows us access to just about anything. The
libraries of today must provide their patrons and staff members with access to
the World Wide Web. It links people to digital
libraries, news, shopping, auctions, weather, and a lot more. Why you can even earn a degree online!
(Southern
Nationally the collaboration source is the
American Library Association (ALA).
Their website, www.ala.org offers a multitude of information to librarians all over the world. One
of the
One means of regional collaboration is
through written publications. In
Another form of regional collaboration is
the courses and training offered through automation providers. Lion, connect, and
bibliomation are some of the services familiar to me. They are companies who provide computerized
services and share them with several libraries. The last regional form of
collaboration is through local universities.
Relatively few universities offer online degrees, but of course
information and classes are available via the web. Locally libraries collaborate with city and
town governments in training and support.
They collaborate with patrons by offering book discussions, travel
exhibits, and programs teaching how information technology can provide patrons
with continuous learning opportunities.
In conjunction to information technology,
collaboration can be a process such as MARC records. As we learned from the reading in unit four,
Marc records originated as sharing cataloging information. They make the best use of limited
resources. Many libraries can share thru
their computers the information cataloged by one, but used by many.
Collaboration greatly increased in the
state of
Collaborative computing, otherwise called
workgroup computing, allows groups of people to use networks of personal
computers to share information and work on projects. Collaborative computing is made possible by
the software called groupware. Groupware software allows people to connect
inside a computer network, but also allows for outside connections. The major
supplier of groupware is Lotus Notes. It
allow for users to store data on a common database. Lotus note 4.0 lets
people create and display documents on the Web.
One can also surf the Web with its built-in browser. The security on Notes is also good. Groupware is helpful for the staff at large
libraries, and keeps directors and other supervisors in touch with their
colleagues. Large companies have
incorporated groupware software and eliminated the need for secretaries.
Peer to peer sharing, that was made
popular by Napster, is an area where I see future changes to digital
collections. For a fee libraries could
share any information collected by any other entity. Legal issues concerning this system must be
settled first however. When managing the ever-increasing need for
collaboration, supervisors must gather information, budget, and decide what
suits their community.
MARKETING OF LIBRARIES
A continuing problem of public libraries
is that they are widely thought of as stuffy, unexciting, and out-of-date. (Gallimore,
1999) Some librarians think commercial
type marketing is not appropriate in the public sector, but with so many other
sources of information available now, it is important to keep the capabilities
of libraries in the public eye. (Weissman, 2001), Therefore managers must
develop political, communication, and strategic skills to address this aspect
of their job.
Most libraries, already on tightened
budgets, have little to spend in the area of marketing. Our professional organizations are taking on
some of the burden. For example, the
In addition to professional websites,
numerous other sources of free and low cost marketing ideas exist that even the
smallest libraries can use. Here we can
only mention a few. The Gale Group
offered free ideas and materials in a “find yourself in the library” campaign.(St. Lifer, 2001) Listservs and journal articles can also be sources. In an article entitled “Survival Alphabet
Soup”, McGown (1997) lists 26 no, or low cost ideas
to promote a school library. For $74.95
a year, libraries can subscribe to Marketing Library Services. (Dempsey,
2001)
Another aspect of marketing is the
never-ending need to sell the importance of libraries to government funding
bodies, and when they fall short, to alternative funding sources. Jennifer Baker, a librarian with Seattle
Public Libraries considers this the most important issue facing management
today. [personal e-mail,
Using the focuses outlined above,
libraries, large, small, and whole systems have successfully revitalized their
position. Lakewood Public Library in
CONCLUSION
As
they manage today and prepare for the future, library supervisors must cope
with rapidly changing technologies in hardware, software, and
connectivity. This necessitates
continuous education and training for both professionals and staff. Collaboration provides assistance in this
training, and also in the organization of an ever-increasing amount of digital
information. Managers must develop
marketing skills to sell the importance of libraries to government bodies and
alternative funding sources. They must
also promote themselves to communities that now have a lot more sources of information. One line of current thought is that by
becoming less hierarchical, library organizations will develop the enhanced
staff interaction necessary for creativity and innovation. Only an intense
focus on these and other management issues important in our globalized world
will allow libraries to remain viable into the future.
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