Annotation
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Keyword

Annotation

Coffey, James R. (1992) Personnel Management in the Urban Academic Library. In McCabe, Gerard B. (ed.), Academic Libraries in Urban and Metropolitan Areas (pp. 197-213). Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

As I begin reading more about library management, the varying duties for which a manager must be responsible is overwhelming. In 1992, Coffey describes the elements of personnel management in an urban academic library. The emphasis is mostly on hiring and the procedures involved while time is spent on how to build interpersonal relationships. The importance of finding good workers who are compatible with existing staff and capable of doing their jobs cannot be underestimated. While I understand that hiring may not be something that must constantly be attended to, it is a wonder that a manager would have any time to do their other duties while involved in this process. The thing that the author does not address is how to work on all these issues while continuing to do the many other things that a manager must maintain control of in order for library operations to run smoothly.

Zarzuela

Drucker, P. F. (1990). Part One: The Mission Comes First: and your role as a leader. Managing the Non-Profit Organization: Practices and Principles (pp. 3-49). New York: HarperCollins.

An excellent and easy to read book, Drucker provides great insight into managing the non-profit organization. Mission statements, which organizations struggle over, must reflect opportunity, competency, and commitment. Managers/leaders of non-profit organizations must remember that the mission is long-term; the goals are short term and need to be frequently refocused. The manager/leader must be able to translate the mission into obtainable, task oriented goals that can be articulated to the board, staff, and constituents; anticipate crisis and be innovative. Leadership is doing.

Sister

Rogers, M. (2000) How do you manage? Case study: whose life is it anyway? Library Journal, 125(16), 68-69.

What happens when the director finds out that the children's library maintains her own internet web site? The analysis of this case study emphasizes the importance of written policies concerning employee conduct. The analysis also stresses that management needs to be prepared for resistance from staff when management meddles in their private lives.

Sister

Todaro, J. B. (2001) The effective organization in the twenty-first century. Library Administration & Management, (15)3, 176-178.

An outgrowth of the first Library Administration and Management Association national institute, this article provides ten guidelines to create an effective organization in the twenty-first century. They are: develop a social contest; emphasize teamwork; survey organizational culture; create a flexible management style; lead and follow; plan strategically; know the customer; communicate; assess; and crate center of and for learning. It is important for libraries to embrace a broader approach to effective organization management and administration.

Sister

Toftoy, C. N. (2002). The key to a librarian's success: developing entrepreneurial traits. Information Outlook, 6(6), 42-47.

Surviving in the changing world of libraries, knowledge, and information it is important for librarians to develop effective strategies and embrace entrepreneurship. According to Toftoy, the twelve entrepreneurial traits for success are: passion, enthusiasm, trustworthiness, creativity, persistence, responsibility, flexibility, self-confidence, perceptiveness, communication, salesmanship, and humility.

Sister

Shuman, Bruce A. (November-December 2002). Problem patrons - reviewing your options. Public Libraries, 41 6, 338-342

What do you do in emergency situations that occur on you watch? You do not have a great deal of time to analyze such situations so it is advisable for staff to participate in a workshop designed to evaluate emergency situations (an angry patron brandishing at another patron) and using intelligent thinking develop a safe solution quickly. Schuman details three situations and proposes several possible solution options. He states, ?There is no single or universal ?correct? solution to an on-the-job behavior problem.? For this reason, he strongly advocates thinking about options, planning responses, and practicing procedures before the situations arise. This is the way the library can protect its patrons and staff in times of crises.

Action

Duggan, David C. (Summer 2001). Crisis Intervention in public schools. References & User Services Quarterly, 40 4, 328-329.

Too often specific library collections are created after a crisis has past and that is not meeting the needs of the audience we serve. As librarians, we need to anticipate patron needs and provide materials to meet those needs. Duggan explains the need of public school administrations to have immediate access to materials addressing a broad range of behavior areas that the school library should have available. Materials that address the problems such as bullying, name-calling, full range of abuse, and neglect are necessary components of the school library collection. Libraries should provide information to students, teachers, counselors, parents, and medical professionals in the form of texts and articles on preventing and responding to a crisis. Additionally, librarians can identify children?s materials that will help alleviate children?s? fears created by a crisis. A list of resources is provided.

Action

Gerhan, David. (Summer 2001). Statistical significance: How it signifies in statistics reference. References & User Services Quarterly, 40 4, 361-374.

Do you understand statistical information? Reference questions involving use of statistics may be answered more efficiently if the librarians understood better what the patron intends (or are assigned) to do with the numbers once acquired. Conducting a through reference interview is essential to making sure that the statistics requested are really what the patron needs. Here the author equips librarians with different methods of analyzing data that should help with understanding the basic meaning and method of statistical significance to improve their reference performance. The article does discuss different types of practical approaches for reference librarians to use when working with statistics reference questions. Some of the information provided requires more time than a quick read through.

Action

American Libraries, January 2003, 26.

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County had a severe budget shortfall due to reduced state funding. They considered closing five branches to make up the difference between their $68.1 million budget and the necessary $49.4 million budget. After residents voiced their disapproval at a number of public hearings, the board took a different approach. They will reduce service hours, postpone equipment purchases and delay construction of four new branches. No staff layoffs are planned, but scheduled new positions will be postponed and staff who leave will not be replaced. Staff will also give up their proposed 2% cost of living raise.

Wedding Planner

Bacal, R. (2000). Dealing with Difficult Employees. Indianapolis, IN: Macmillan.

Some people are tolerant of the pain difficult people can inflict at work. A manager who is one of these must still consider the effect their difficult employee has on other people in the organization. A difficult person might get along fine with the boss but not fine with co-workers or customers. When a difficult person is allowed to continue this behavior, other employees lose faith in management.

Wedding Planner

Sometimes an employee just does not fit in the position for which he was hired. Some offenses are grounds for immediate dismissal. Some of these are drug use during working hours, theft, or giving false information on personnel records. In most cases, the supervisor is unhappy with the performance of the employee. The supervisor should ask for a meeting with an employee as soon as it is clear that there is a problem. The supervisor should clearly explain the deficiencies in performance. Performance standards should be agreed upon, and a date for a second review should be set. This gives the employee a chance to improve performance and termination may not be necessary at all. If it is clear that the employee is going to be terminated, the supervisor must keep a detailed written record of all problems and discussions. Without this record termination may be illegal.

Wedding Planner

Kusack, J.M. (2002) Understanding and controlling the costs of library services. Library Administration & Management. 16(3), 151-155.

The author emphasizes the importance of knowing the costs of services and programs. This knowledge needs to be analyzed in a non-profit organization, just as in a for profit organization. Kusack (2002), states that ³Knowing the cost of things is about accountability and professional responsibility.² He states several valid reasons for knowing the cost of services or programs include; determining the efficiency of the service, determining if the cost is worth the use, examining more cost effective alternatives, as well as being able to stay competitive. According to Kusack, knowing the cost of services and programs helps a library in deciding about future collection development and if the cost of shelving and cataloging a book is worth purchasing it according to use. The author also gives a fairly simple formula to determine costs by adding direct and indirect costs and then dividing by the number of transactions, providing several clear examples for determining the cost of something. Overall, Kusack (2002) states that ³the precise methods may be less important than the examination itself and the steps taken toward professional responsibility and accountability.²

Acadia

Blair, G.M. (2001) What makes a great manager? Retrieved on January 29, 2003 from http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~gerard/Management/art9.html

Blair (2001), states that ³Management is about pausing to ask yourself the right questions so that your common sense can provide the answers.² The three major roles of a manager are as the planner, the provider, and the protector. According to Blair, a great manager should strive to provide vision, values, and verve. ³Vision is that the future must be seen and communicated; Values in that team needs a unifying code of practice which supports and enhances cooperation; Verve in that positive enthusiasm is the best way of making the work exciting and fun. ³ A successful manager needs to stays attuned to what is happening in the company, as well stay flexible in finding solutions. It is maintaining creativity as well as planning, monitoring, and reviewing that will help make a great manager.

Acadia

Lubans, J. J. (2003). A Zabarian Experience. Library Administration & Management. 17(1); 40-42.

Lubans (2003) discusses the leadership skills of Saul Zabar, one of the owners of Zabarıs, a famous specialty food shop in New York. As owner of this famous store, Saul is actively involved in the ins and outs of the business. Saul actively participates in daily decisions including decisions about the quality of the products at Zabarıs. He struggles with ways to properly compensate staff, improve their standard of living, as well as staying creative with approaches to new products and services. While Zabarıs is not a library, the author effectively makes connections to management concerns of Zabarıs with management concerns in a library; including the future of the business, and ways to stay current in the market.

Acadia

Marcus, B. and Coffman, C. (1999). First, Break All the Rules: What the Worldıs Greates Managers Do Differently. New York: Simon & Schuster.

From interviews of many great managers in a variety of fields, one insight that they all had discovered is that people do not change very much. Helping people fix their weaknesses is less productive than helping people become more and more of who they already are. Drawing out their strengths is the work of the best managers. When people do what they do best, they are more productive and happier.

Wedding Planner

Marcus, B. and Coffman, C. (1999). First, Break All the Rules: What the Worldıs Greatest Managers Do Differently. New York: Simon & Schuster.

The managerıs function is to speed up the reaction between two substances, creating the desired end product. The great manager speeds up the reaction between the employeeıs talents and the companyıs goals. The manager must do four activities very well to accomplish this. Select a person, set expectations, motivate the person, and develop the person. These are the managerıs most important activities. If you know the difference between talent, skills and knowledge you will select a candidate that is right for the given job. Talent cannot be taught, but skills and knowledge can be taught. Good managers look for talent.

Wedding Planner

Robbins, S. (1998). Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

People learn to behave to get something they want or to avoid something they donıt want. Managers are concerned with shaping behavior. They can do this through positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment and extinction. Positive reinforcement follows a response with something pleasant, such as verbal praise. Negative reinforcement is withdrawing something unpleasant. A worker who makes himself look busy when the boss walks by has learned that the boss is not likely to give him another task at that time. He has prevented something unpleasant. Punishment is causing an unpleasant condition in an attempt to eliminate undesirable behavior. Giving an employee a suspension from work without pay is an example of punishment. Extinction eliminates any reinforcement that is maintaining a behavior. When a behavior is not reinforced it gradually will disappear.

Wedding Planner

Dale Carnegie & Associates (1975). Managing through people. Making the decision (pp. 75-100). New York: Simon and Schuster.

To determine the best solution to a problem, managers must examine several alternatives through a process called rational analysis. First, one must have a clear understanding of the goal/objective. Next, various alternatives/solutions to achieve the goal are determined. These alternatives are compared through analysis of various factors. Factors may include: availability of staff, costs, work quality, time to implement, risks, strengths, weaknesses, effect on long-range goals, and other various issues (benefit to public image, employee satisfaction, etc.). Evaluation of alternatives may be made by computer, a panel, or an individual (individuals must strive for objectivity...

Hiker Mom

Dale Carnegie & Associates (1975). Managing through people. The organizational structure (pp. 100 - 150). New York: Simon and Schuster.

Effective organizations are built on a results-oriented foundation. Critical activities and major job functions are determined and effectively structured. The best-qualified staff are assigned to appropriate positions. Clear, concise job descriptions and an understanding of the line of authority are necessary for all employees. Managers must be willing to delegate. When handled correctly, delegation encourages innovation and boosts employee morale. According to Carnegie, delegation involves three actions: ?1. Assignment of duties, 2. Granting of authority, and 3. Creating an obligation.? Organizational charts may assist wi...

Dale Carnegie & Associates (1975). Managing through people. Planning (pp. 153-185). New York: Simon and Schuster.

The best-qualified staff need to be found to fill positions. With new technologies, there exists a greater need for specifically trained and educated staff. The first step in filling a position is determining what the job entails (duties and responsibilities). The next step is deciding job specifications (i.e. required education and experience as well as any physical, mental or psychological characteristics). Evaluating candidates for open positions (excluding top management) involves reviewing applications, interviewing, sometimes testing, and verifying references. In reviewing various candidates, applications tend to be more useful than resumes as they allow comparisons on standardized forms.

Hiker Mom