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How Do We Educate our Future Library Leaders and Managers?
by Mike Crandall and Nancy Gershenfeld, University of Washington Information School
published: September 15, 2006
This
question seems to be a perennial topic of discussion throughout the
library literature, in conference sessions and hallways, and just about
anywhere librarians gather. In recent years, a great deal of
concern has been voiced over the graying of the profession and the
coming void in the leadership and management of the field. In
response, a number of excellent programs have developed within
professional associations (ALA, ASIS&T) and various library
organizations (Urban Libraries Council, many regional and state library
groups) to provide professional leadership and management education for
those already in practice.
But
what should library schools be doing to prepare students for leadership
positions and management tracks in the profession? Both of us
have been deeply involved in the transformation of one library school
into something new and different over the past eight years, as the
University of Washington Master of Library and Information Science
(MLIS) program has developed into what is now known as the Information
School. As part of that change, some hard thinking has gone
into this question (along with a complete revision of the MLIS
curriculum) and although we certainly haven’t answered it
completely, we do have some ideas about the topic that we’d
like to share (and hopefully receive feedback from those of you
interested in this subject!!).
Where are we now?
In
2004, Florence Mason wrote a review article for Library Trends (Mason,
F. “Learning to lead: an analysis of
current training programs for library leadership”.
Library Trends, Summer, 2004) in which she provided a thorough overview
of existing library leadership development programs. Her
results pointed out several flaws in the current approaches to training
and education in this area, including the lack of a clear definition of
what the critical leadership competencies should be in the library
field and a lack of standard evaluation measures for success of
educational programs. She also pointed out that:
“…those
institutions now making significant investments in leadership training
for librarians do not appear to include any significant leadership
programs developed or offered by library and information science
programs.”
This is closely followed by a final recommendation that:
“library
schools and/or other professional bodies define a leadership training
research agenda to be completed in the next ten years. Such an agenda
would have as its focus the creation of a set of tools that could
measurably improve library leadership. A first step would be the
development of a clear and broadly accepted set of general library
leadership competencies for all types of library settings. The second
step would be the vigorous promotion of these competencies in library
training and educational venues of all types.”
This
is clearly a challenge to the library educational community and the
library profession as a whole, but does not stop individual
institutions from making efforts to accomplish some or all of the
desired outcomes. As part of our continuing examination of
the curriculum in the Information School, we have looked at these
issues, and have taken some steps toward changing one
school’s approach to this area. There is a great
deal yet to be done, however, and as Mason points out, it’s
something that needs to be addressed at the national level for true
success.
Some Critical Distinctions
Mason’s
study focuses on “leadership” as opposed to
“management”. As she points out in the
article, these are not the same thing, though inextricably
intertwined. She provides a brief excerpt from Learning to lead: A workbook on becoming a leader (W.
Bennis & J. Goldsmith, 1994, Reading, MA:Addison-Wesley, p. 4),
which calls out distinguishing characteristics of each.
Leadership versus Management
Leadership
|
Management |
A leader does the right things.
|
A good manager does things right. |
Leadership
is about
effectiveness.
|
Management is largely about efficiency. |
Leading is about what and why.
|
Management is about how to do things. |
| Leadership
is about trust and about
people. |
Management is about systems, controls,
procedures, policies, and structure. |
| Leadership
is about innovating and initiating. |
Management is about copying, about managing the status quo. |
| Leadership
looks at the horizon, not just the bottom
line. |
Management is about the bottom line.
|
Unfortunately,
the distinction is not nearly as clear cut as this in real life, and
mastery of the functions of management turn out to be key elements in
the making of a good leader. In many circumstances,
one person must function as both manager and leader, exhibiting the
skills related to each as the situation demands. What then, should the
focus of our library educational institutions be in this area?
Ages and Stages
In
thinking about the answer to this question, perhaps it will be helpful
to take a step back and look at the students we have in our schools,
and think about what they are here to learn. Students span a
wide range of ages, and a very wide spectrum of previous
experience. While many come to us with prior experience in
libraries, there are an equal number with a background in totally
unrelated fields. What brings them here is a desire to learn
the fundamentals of the library profession; the nuts and bolts that
will take them to a career in whatever branch of librarianship they
have chosen as their path.
The
management skills listed above are competencies that are fundamental to
their success in the field, whether they become leaders or
not. At this early stage in their career development, these
are the tools that are needed to understand the workings of a library,
both in terms of the organization and the delivery of its services to
the target population. Some of these students may well go on
to become leaders, but except for a very few, it is much too early for
them to assume leadership positions without some hands-on experience in
the day-to-day basics. However, the desire to lead must be
recognized and encouraged, and all students must understand that
management and leadership qualities are critical for success at all
levels of the profession.
If
this is true, then our educational efforts should be focused on the
basics of management, while providing opportunities for practicing the
skills of leadership in the safe, constructive environment of a
classroom. Opportunities for supervised practice in the
community logically extend the classroom experience. This
blending of the essential knowledge necessary to work effectively in an
organization with coaching and feedback on leadership skills seems an
appropriate combination for early career students. Targeted
education in “leadership” would be more appropriate
for continuing education, either in advanced certificate programs or
through professional associations such as the many leadership
institutes already mentioned above.
What We’ve Done Right
If
this approach is the correct one, how might it be implemented in a
masters program? There are probably as many answers to this
as there are schools, but the University of Washington may be a good
example to examine because of the relatively recent changes in the
structure and purpose of our school.
As
part of the transformation from a school focused on developing only
library practitioners, the Information School has expanded its
curriculum and degree programs to cover other professionals interested
in information management. The school now offers an
undergraduate degree in Informatics and a second Masters degree in
Information Management, along with a PhD program in Information Science.
A
necessary corollary of this expansion has been the inclusion of faculty
members from a wide variety of backgrounds, ranging from computer
science to business management. This greater breadth in
perspective has resulted in many changes in curriculum that might not
be possible in a school focusing solely on library science.
In particular, the Information Management program has developed a
number of management and leadership courses, which are now available to
all students in the school—courses such as Strategic
Information Initiatives, and Information and the Management of
Change—along with foundational management courses
specifically targeted to information professionals in finance and
accounting, marketing, and human resources. These courses
supplement the introductory management courses, and provide an
opportunity for those students interested in leadership and management
to move further in their explorations while in school.
The
availability of these courses enhances our MLIS curriculum by schooling
students in concepts and sound practices from the business community
that can be utilized effectively in any environment. Within
the MLIS program, the foundation course “Management of
Information Organizations” examines practices related to all
types of information organizations and information roles, which include
public / academic / school / special library environments as well as
technology and project management roles in the profit and non-profit
arena. Students are also encouraged to consider
elective courses in complementary academic units, such as public
policy.
A
second change has occurred as a result of increased emphasis within the
school on broader community engagement through the use of practitioners
outside the field of libraries both as guest lecturers and adjunct
faculty. This has resulted in the exposure of students in
basic management classes to senior managers and leaders in a number of
local organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, Microsoft, Real Networks, and many more. That
does not mean we have ignored the outstanding leaders in our library
community either, however; advanced courses like Public Libraries and
Advocacy are being taught by local luminaries such as Deborah Jacobs
from the Seattle Public Library. Students are also engaged in
projects within the community to gain additional first-hand experience
through directed field work and class exercises. Independent
study opportunities provide hands-on experience with managing projects
and collections in all information environments.
A
third change is the establishment of the masters portfolio, which
includes demonstration of a significant leadership experience as one of
the five required elements. In this graduate
portfolio, students not only stretch themselves in new experiences, but
also demonstrate how these experiences expand their abilities as
information professionals. We find that the portfolio
experience not only enhances the students’ awareness of
leadership qualities, but demonstrates to the students that leadership
is needed on many levels, not just at the top of the
organization.
What Still Needs to be Done
All
is not perfect, of course, and many of the issues Mason called out in
her article still face us as well as the library education community as
a whole. The Information School doesn’t have a
clear research agenda in this area, something that would provide a
strong underpinning for a consistent approach to solving the problems
outlined by Mason. The integration of the various curricula
of the programs within the school is a work in progress, and
understanding how best to blend the students and faculty is a
continuing and exciting challenge.
Encouraging
promising students to enroll in the advanced management and leadership
courses, providing more hands-on opportunities to work with real-life
issues, requiring more than a minimum exposure to the principles of
management and leadership, and perhaps selecting different students
that might be more interested in this area as part of the admissions
process are all steps that can be taken to solidify the gains we have
made in the past few years. More students are expressing
interest in leadership roles in their applications; we must endeavor to
mentor these students as educators and position them to take advantage
of advanced opportunities for management and leadership training as
they progress in their careers .
The Challenge
Perhaps
the most promising of current developments is the formation of a
network of Information Schools, which met for the first time in 2005 at
Penn State University (http://iconference.ist.psu.edu/). A second conference will be held this year at the University of Michigan (http://iconference.si.umich.edu/).
This is a wonderful opportunity to bring some of these issues to the
attention of a broad community of schools that, like the University of
Washington, have begun to move toward new models of educating our
future professionals. However, it is not clear that the topic
of leadership and management for library professionals is at the top of
the discussion list, so perhaps some input from the broader community
to the schools participating in these conferences is needed.
The
University of Washington is not unique in our approach or our problems,
of course, as evidenced by the rapid growth of the Information School
movement across the country. To move toward the consistent,
measurable, and cohesive leadership and management educational agenda
as envisioned by Florence Mason, much work remains to be done on a
national level. We’re interested in hearing how and
what you think the best approach to this might be, so please send your
feedback to us or raise the issue here on the Library Leadership
Network for discussion.
Mike
Crandall is Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Master of Science in
Information Management Program; Nancy Gershenfeld is a Lecturer in
Management courses at the Information School
Comments
This was a really good article! I am
working on developing a set of competencies for public library leaders for my
dissertation, and teach management and am developing and teaching a set of
course for the new ALA/APA certification for public library managers - so this
is a topic very close to my heart.
Thanks for putting this out!
Mary Wilkins Jordan
University of North
Carolina
©
2006, Library Leadership Network.
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