You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Leadership' category.
We had a very inspirational guest lecturer in my management class, Wendy Newman (she also teaches a class on library advocacy at FIS). She talked about library leadership development in Canada and library advocacy. I thought she presented a lot of good concrete ideas (sometimes it seems that classes present more questions than answers, so this was a nice change).
Wendy told a great story about the role of libraries in her life. She used to live in a small town with a one-room school, where she was the only student in her grade. The library bookmobile would come to the school once or twice each term, which gave her her first-ever chance to choose her own reading materials. This was a life-changing experience for her, as there was a limited selection of books available at home and in her community. She tells the story much better, so ask her about it if you ever get a chance.
She also talked about the common idea that most MISt/MLIS graduates are not interested in working in management in libraries, but that they’re more amenable to the terms leadership or stewardship. We did a quick survey in the class and it was true that most students were not interested in management. Some of the reasons included the following:
- not really knowing what a management role would consist of
- feeling that one’s skills and experience don’t match those needed for management
- not wanting to take on management roles immediately after graduation (but some students were willing to consider it in the future)
- wanting to work with ideas, books, technology, people, do research, etc. rather than have a managerial role that would likely take time away from these aspects of library work
The lecture has led me to consider my level of interest in management and how I might develop related skills in the future. I initially had little interest in management (in fact, I had planned to avoid it and am still reluctant to pursue it) but I will at least consider it now. Wendy Newman pointed out that if librarians aren’t willing to step up and run the libraries, then libraries will have to import managers from other places, and these new managers will not necessarily value and understand libraries as librarians do.