A Librarian colleague writes to TTW: Hi, I am reading the beginning of this title The Future of Work through the Online Book Club. The excerpt below made me think of you! The author describes his work as a professor and his contacts with networks of other people who help him accomplish his job. This book has piqued my interest to try to see what we can change here to make the organization less hierarchical and more decentralized. There has to be a balance between top down and anarchy/democracy, we just need to find it. Then we need to train […]
Categories Leadership
35 posts
A few folks have added their lists to the “Ten Ways to Lose Your Techie Librarians”: Karen: http://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/03/how_to_lose_your_tech_people.php Jessamyn: http://www.librarian.net/stax/1681 Librarian in Black: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2006/03/ten_ways_to_los.html Caveat Lector: http://cavlec.yarinareth.net/archives/2006/03/12/fifty-ways-to-lose-your-techies/ (I love the bit about job descriptions being crammed full of every tech thing imaginable! And this wonderfully positive spin by Scott at http://www.rcpl.info/services/liblog.html, who commented on the original post. I’m putting them up top because they are really good! TOP 10 WAYS TO KEEP YOUR TECHIE LIBRARIANS: 1) Treat technology as being as important to your library as circulating books or having storytimes. 2) Try to have a “techie” on as many […]
On page 67 of the January/February Public Libraries magazine is one of the HOTTEST numbered lists I’ve read in a long time: “How to Lose Your Best People” is authored anonymously by “several seasoned librarians.” Points like “Nitpick the dress code – because socks are essential for good public service” are not only humorous but very telling in some libraries. So with apologies to the Seasoned Anonymous Writers, let me offer up: Ten Ways to Lose Your Techie Librarians 1. Dismiss blogs/wikis/RSS as just for the geeks not library users 2. Plan technology projects without involving them until the wheels […]
This is an important one…one to ponder… http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2005/04/does-non-dynamic-library-have-future.html But it’s not just about giving people what they want. Leadership is about creating a vision that you can share with the board, with elected officials and business people, with the library’s clients, and most of all, with the library staff. (One of our side discussions during this meeting was about the importance of not blaming the staff for not being willing to change. If the leaders cannot explain the change and provide a reason for it, the problem lies not with the staff, but with their leaders.) Thus, the importance of […]
Rachel Singer Gordon has put up an exerpt of her new book The Accidental Library Manager at LISJobs and it is GREAT reading! Rachel’s take on all things library always impresses me. I was lucky enough to chat with her over dinner at ALA and we got to cover loads of stuff… including managing and staff morale. http://www.lisjobs.com/newsletter/archives/nov04rsgordon.htm Run..don’t walk to this one.