Change Management In Academic Libraries

"Institutions of higher education and academic libraries are not the traditional organizations they once were. They are subject to a variety of forces, including shifting and changing populations, technological changes, public demands for affordability and accountability, and changing approaches to research and learning. Academic libraries can no longer establish their excellence and ground their missions, visions, and strategic directions using the old means and methods. Leading Change in Academic Libraries is a collection of 20 change stories authored by academic librarians from different types of four-year institutions. Librarians tell the story firsthand of how they managed major change in processes, functions, services, programs, or overall organizations using John Kotter's Eight-Stage Process of Creating Major Change as a framework for examining change at their institutions, measuring their successes and areas for improvement, and determining progress. In five sections--strategic planning, reorganization, culture change, new roles, and technological change--chapters discuss tackling common challenges such as fear, anxiety, change fatigue, complacency, unexpected changes of leadership, vacancies, and resistance; look at the results of their tactics; and provide effective practices they found. Each section ends with a thorough analysis of the stories within and the most effective tips for leading that kind of change. Leading Change in Academic Libraries can help you establish flexible, nimble, and collaborative decision-making processes, and facilitate the transition from legacy collections-based libraries to forward-looking service-based libraries"--from the ALA website.

Massive technological change has been impacting universities and university libraries in recent years. Such change has manifested in technological developments impacting all areas of academic library activity, including systems, services, collections, the physical library environment, marketing, and support for university teaching, learning, research, and administration. Many books and papers have examined these changes from a technical perspective. However, there is little substantive reflection on what technological change means, and how best to get out in front of it, for the academic library. Technology, Change and the Academic Library systematically reflects on technological innovation, the successes, failures and lessons learned, the nature, process and culture of change, and key aspects including impacts on library staff and users, roles and responsibilities, and skills and capabilities. The book takes an international perspective on the massive change currently affecting academic libraries. The title gives an overview and literature review, considers technological innovation and change management, future technologies and future change, and provides information on further reading. Case studies describe the rationale, aims, and objectives for particular technological innovations, and consider methods, outcomes, and recommendations for the future. Finally, the book reflects back on how technological change can best be wrought in academic libraries. Gives library managers and librarians insight into how best to identify, plan, and implement technological innovation Provides a wide-ranging overview, literature review, and a series of reflective case studies on technological innovation in libraries Emphasises current trends, lessons, and critical issues for putting technological innovation into place Offers an international perspective on technological innovation in the academic library Uses a critical methodology to reflect on what works, what does not, and how managers can apply lessons from real cases worldwide

Managing Change in Academic Libraries helps academic librarians plan, implement, and manage changes to the fundamental structure of their organizations. It shows readers that in academic libraries the two driving forces behind most change are economics and technology. Declines in funding for education and in the purchasing power of libraries have made it impossible to maintain the status quo, let alone realize growth, in traditional information services and collection development. Add to this downward trend in library economics, the explosion of new information technology and its potential for radically altering communications and knowledge management, and one has the ingredients for some amazing changes in libraries. To help manage these many changes, chapters in Managing Change in Academic Libraries approach change with a mixture of radical and rational ideas. Readers learn academic librarians’views on dealing with change as they read about: an environmental scan which identifies both internal and external forces that are increasing the amount and scope of change in academic libraries technological change and its impact in academic libraries the academic library director’s role as an agent of change how two large library systems managed to change in some very fundamental ways when faced with serious economic and political challenges difficult personnel issues faced by academic libraries as they move into new organizational structures and adopt new management styles the future of traditional reference services in light of rapid developments in computing and networking how to change bibliographic control to better serve the changing expectations and needs of user communities conducting a restructuring study and recommendations for organizational change in a large research library system Each chapter shows academic librarians how they can respond imaginatively and nimbly to economic, political, and technological change that envelopes their professional work life. Academic librarians will refer to Managing Change in Academic Libraries again and again as a survival tool as they meet with challenging and unpredictable changes.

Traditionally, academic librarians have delivered “beck and call” service to educators both in and out of the classroom. However, far from being merely auxiliary to the learning cycle, academic librarians are educators in their own right. If the primary challenge before them is to change how they’re perceived within their institutions, Reale proposes, the key lies in becoming a proactive teacher and collaborator. Offering strategies applicable to many different areas, this book shows how the academic librarian can be an educator in both structured and unstructured spaces on campuses. Blending practice-based evidence with a warm approach, Reale discusses the changing perception of academic librarians, how they are seen and how they see themselves;shows how academic librarians can and should assert their rightful place in the learning cycle;looks at how to match teaching goals with academic librarians’ mission;advocates for the indispensable roles the academic librarian should play, including co-collaborator, one-on-one research consultant, expert-at-large in non-structured spaces such as the dorm or student lounge, and embedded librarian in the classroom; offers talking points for self-advocacy, looking at the many ways academic librarians are making a difference; andexplores activities and programming for engagement and learning. This book will empower and validate academic librarians by demonstrating their indispensable roles as educators.

This book, first published in 1993, features the perspectives of library practitioners as well as other higher education professionals on using innovative management techniques. The book includes practical discussions of Total Quality Management, team management, the impact of gender differences, managing an older work force, and educational needs. Through this valuable book, library administrators will find the best methods for adapting management strategies to the major political upheaval, economic reprioritizing, and organizational restructuring that has been characteristic of this decade. They will benefit from the case studies and practical overview from professionals who have already experienced change in their own libraries. Some of the important topics covered by the contributors include: fostering the democratization of the workplace and the development of the staff through empowerment; proactive, assertive, and collaborative roles of libraries in the scholarly communication process; library management education that prepares professionals both to anticipate change and to bring about change in their institutions in response to societal needs and shifts; managing the academic library through teamwork; the possible impacts and implications of female leadership on the library profession; organizational change in research libraries; older workers in technical services; and using the budget as a planning tool.