People

Every academic library should have a set of standards for how people are expected to conduct themselves in our facilities. If it’s nonexistent at your library, now is the time to create it. If there is one that has languished for years, it’s time for an update.

Even if you think you lead without exploiting the power and privilege of your position, the way your formal leadership or management role affects your library workers might surprise you.

If the prospect of going through another change management exercise leaves you groaning and wishing for a better way to adapt to change, you may be ready for change readiness.

Why do many academic librarians have a problem referring to their students, faculty, and staff as customers? Public librarians are so over that, and they are benefitting from it.

No matter what your teaching responsibilities are in higher education, you likely have opinions about extra credit. The challenge for librarians is how to deal with extra credit when they have no control over it.

Brian Bannon, commissioner of the Chicago Public Library (CPL) system since 2012, was recently named the Merryl and James Tisch Director of the New York Public Library (NYPL). LJ caught up with Bannon during his last month in Chicago to hear about the inspiration for his move to NYPL and his strategies for leaving a thriving CPL.

Leaders must make tough decisions. At times quick decisions are needed, but even then wise leaders will take time to act thoughtfully and consult in the interests of the best outcome.

There is no such thing as a totally independent library board when the library’s funding stream is controlled by another entity. Libraries will never achieve consistently satisfactory funding levels as long as they are one of many agencies governed and/or solely funded by a larger political unit. When public libraries compete for funds with police, fire, sewers, schools, planning, and assessor’s offices, they lose. The tremendous cuts and closings weathered by public libraries in the UK over the past decade provide a cautionary tale.

Since the dawn of the Internet, claims have been made that libraries were doomed to obsolescence. While that has proven a false narrative, what is the possibility that libraries might someday achieve “peak library”