Don’t miss Ken Haycock’s new blog focusing on all aspects of library leadership: http://www.kenhaycock.com/kens-blog.html Here’s a bit of a recent post on “Building A Better Manager:” How do you determine what makes a great branch manager? The results would be fairly obvious, I suspect… along the lines of have a clear vision and strategy for your team, help staff with career development, be productive and results-oriented… All standard stuff. Well, Google found the same results but they took a more methodical approach. How many of us stop to actually analyze those performance reviews, feedback surveys, and nominations for manager awards? […]
Categories Leadership
35 posts
Synergy: The Illinois Library Leadership Initiative 2010 is the statewide library community’s proactive movement to recruit and nurture future Illinois library leaders. Objectives include self-assessment; discovering and developing personal values; identifying the local, state and global environment; fostering and expanding skills and tools for personal, professiona and positional leadership; creating a cohort group; establishing mentoring relationships; and developing a vision of and beyond the field of librarianship. The Synergy 2010 Vision Team (Kerrin Riley, Anthony Auston, Kathy Lynch, Dianne Ludwig, and Deborah Shippy) produced this video and vision statement based upon the vision statements of each of the 30 Synergy […]
Over the next couple months I will proudly be presenting the ILEAD U (hear I lead you) Class of 2010. ILEAD U (Illinois Libraries Explore, Apply, and Discover… not sure what the U stands for) is an ongoing program developed by the super-cool Illinois State Library funded by a grant from the Laura Bush Foundation. Its main stated goal is “To help library staff develop leadership skills necessary to address local community needs (e.g., job creation, education) through innovative applications of participatory technology tools” Or “create awesome librarians” (my version). This took place over 3 3 days sessions in lovely […]
Emerging Leaders, originally uploaded by ALA – The American Library Association. ALA emerging leaders gather for a group photo at their 4th annual workshop. Around 100 attendees are being groomed to become early ALA leaders. I’m honored to be mentoring one of the groups!
I highly recommend everybody taking a look at an intriguing, impromptu, and important discussion on the future of librarianship being had at Toby Greenwalt’s theanalogdivide by some of the finest minds in the field. It all began when Seth Godin wrote a few paragraphs about what libraries/librarians should be doing to remain viable -which some librarians took exception to it on Twitter and elsewhere. Be sure to check out the comments by Kate Sheehan, Bobbi Newman, and even a response by Seth Godin himself! Mick Jacobsen – TTW Contributor
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens Egos can insidiously prevent us from doing what we could do best. Recently, in a late-night conversation, a few trusted librarian colleagues told us how much damage an inflated ego can do to a library’s culture. One in that small circle had clashed with a department member and been called out by the administration for “only thinking of herself” in planning and implementing a new project. Another had been recognized in a national forum as a rising talent, only to have that accolade ignored by employers. A third led a well-regarded project but was […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens Dear MLS grad (and others who may be looking for a new position), We’re glad you are ready for the first (or next) step in your career. We know that the job market can be tight and that most newly minted librarians are happy to get their foot in the door, recognizing that no one library will conform to your workplace ideal. Still, we’d like to offer some pointers for a good fit. First, look at “In Search of an Emotionally Healthy Library,” by Nancy Cunningham (now director of the Learning Resources Center at […]
As part of Dominican GSLIS Emerging Library Leaders series, we had Kathryn Deiss, ACRL Content Strategist, in to present on Leadership. I captured some of her points but it was so interesting I stopped typing to listen. Her slides were beautiful — filled with lovely images of nature and flowers. Some thought provoking statements/questions: Multiple communication channels are available now for social interaction. How do we lead in this environment? How do we innovate? Some libraries are innovating like crazy: Users vist the Delft DOK library get an automatic text: “Welcome to the world’s most modern library!” It’s got to be fun. The […]
Are you a decision maker for your library’s ILS? Make sure you checkout this report (which has received some great notice, I am late to the party) Breeding’s observations are useful and concise: Polaris emerged as the system with the highest positive ratings. Libraries that use Polaris rated their system higher in all categories than any of the competing systems and are the least interested in open source alternatives. Only 1.56% of responding libraries indicated they were considering migrating to a new system. (I keynoted their User Group meeting in 2006 – what a cool bunch!) The Library Corporation scored […]
Excelent piece from John Berry at LJ. He mentions that he teaches at Dominican (!) and sums up very well what I’ve also observed in library school and in our realm here: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6515838.html Like those who came before them, the current cadre of librarians bring new tools for the job ahead, technologies that make access to information much easier but just as corruptible. They bring that vitality and spirit that, in themselves, are enough to force change and even shape its outcome. At first, those in power will hang on, as they did decades ago. Ultimately, if we remember the […]