Re: [Publib] Perplexed Librarian 2007 – Part Four/Two

[Dale McNeill]

Gerald Ward ask "Do the Administrators of the Library need librarian
experience to do their jobs?  Does that experience need to be recent or
on-going?"

At one point, my answer would have been swift and sure: yes and yes.

Now, I don't think so.  That may be because I'm an administrator.  That may
be because I'm older.  Or it may be because I've worked with some great
directors--two of whom had no public service library experience.  And, by
every rating I can think of, they were incredible directors.  Another
director for whom I worked in the 1980s was the very model of a library
director:  she raised money, knew the staff well, interacted with customers,
had a daily radio program, fought for the library budget successfully,
treated everyone with the greatest of respect, etc. She did have library
experience, but hadn't worked a public service desk in more than 40 years.
Nor did she have an MLS.

(To be sure, I've worked for and known great directors and administrators
who did have recent and lengthly public service library experience as well.)

When I was in my 20s (I am a first career librarian, got my MLS at age 24),
I decided that I wanted to have some impact on the way libraries were
managed.  So, I set out to work as a children's librarian, an adult
librarian, a branch manager, and a central manager.  I also wanted to have a
lot of collection development experience.  I did all that so that if I
should be selected as an administrator I would have a broad view of public
service.  I also developed and nurtured friendships and on-going
professional discussions with technical services librarians, IT folks,
archivists, and other specialists.

Working as an administrator, I have mostly worked with highly competent and
highly motivated people--each of whom had applied for a promotion to
continue to be a good librarian.  I have yet to meet a director or
administrator who thought mean things about staff and/or the public.  I'm
sure such people exist and have heard stories of them--that I believe to be
true.  But I've had the good fortune never to know one of them.

I do think it's important that administrators truly understand how their
decisions affect staff and the public.  There are many ways to do that.  I
like to work with staff to see the results (as when ILLiad was implemented
at one library and I learned to use it and did so for a couple of hours a
day, every day, for about a month).  But I did other work at the same
time--and stayed late to do this, as I couldn't really justify the taxpayers
paying my salary for me to work as a clerk.  I do think the implementation
was successful; I also think there would have been a lot of other ways to do
it successfully from a greater distance.

One of the least successful library directors I've known (I've never worked
for this person) knows each staff member by name and does work the service
desk every week.  However, this director was unable to secure funding the
the library, was unable to keep positions filled, did not respond well to
customers, and lacked the ability to interact successfully with the funding
authority's own administration.  This director is a very nice person and is
an incredibly good librarian.  But that's not enough to be a good director.

There are poor, OK, and outstanding directors and administrators--and
everything in between.  Also, some directors do well in certain
circumstances (say, a time of conflict and declining revenue) but not in
others (say, a time of increased revenue and hiring new staff).  Even great
leaders don't necessarily lead well in every situation.

Regards,

Dale
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20070609/b53317b6/attachment.htm