Crucible Moments: Inspiring Library Leadership

Bell (associate univ. librarian for research and instructional svcs., Temple Univ.; LJ contributor) uses the concept of crucible moments, or difficult situations that require leaders to evaluate their values, to frame this book about library leadership. He argues that librarians tend to avoid business literature, but that he has found stories about such leaders' journeys to be helpful and inspiring. He asks a diverse group of influential librarians, primarily from academic institutions, to contemplate their own quests to becoming role models and the crucible moments they have encountered along the way. Each author offers his or her own take on how to incorporate existing leadership theory and research into the narration of his or her story. Many of the same themes appear throughout the chapters, including the importance of mentoring, education, initiative, and collegiality. However, each contributor's experience is quite different, meaning there is no single path to becoming a leader.