Library Leadership Your Way

Author Jason Martin won't tell you how to be a leader. Instead, he’ll give you a roadmap and the tools to find it out for yourself, guiding you to discover why you want to lead, how you can best lead, and what your own unique leadership practice looks like.

Leadership in Academic Libraries highlights model examples of the move from leadership theory into actual practice. A consideration of leadership theories provides a working vocabulary to facilitate discussions of abstract concepts, while specific topical investigations and case studies illustrate those concepts and show the manner in which theories play out in practice. Chapter authors speak from experience as well as theoretical grounding, and include practitioners, researchers, and formal and informal leaders. Topics include transformational leadership across generations; developing a research agenda in library leadership; methodologies for studying library leadership; connections between leadership models and library-focused research; engaging with business, psychology, and educational administration literature; leadership styles; organizational culture; the role of mentoring in leadership; and the role of women in academic library leadership. Two chapters highlight the dichotomy between positional leadership and socially constructed leadership roles. The research methods used include case study, survey, and action research. Extensive bibliographies for each chapter provide a solid foundation for further research.

Completely revised with even more contributions added by practicing school librarians, this book further examines the responsibility to lead in many areas and identifies the real-world, day-to-day application of established theory and best practices. In today's educational landscape, school librarians need to lead the way in many areas, including advocacy, literacy, technology, curriculum, vision, collaborative instruction, and intellectual freedom. All of these areas are vital to building and sustaining a school library program that enhances and encourages student achievement, as well as to providing enhanced services to students and faculty. This revised edition of The Many Faces of School Library Leadership offers invaluable insights from recognized leaders in the field of school librarianship that detail leadership roles embraced by accomplished practitioners and consider the research regarding best practices. An essential read for practicing school librarians as well as for pre-service school librarians, it offers today's school librarians actionable advice for strengthening their roles, underlining their value, and protecting their future—all while boosting student learning and achievement. The expert guidance and perspectives in this book will bolster those who are facing enormous challenges to meet them and allow school library staff to protect their jobs and to save school library programs from extinction.

Quality leadership is integral to the very future of our profession. And it doesn't only come from the top down. Effective leadership is customer-focused and collaborative, fostering a service culture that invites the involvement of individuals in every part and at every level of the organization, as the authors persuasively demonstrate in this practical new book. Drawing from case studies as well as the literature of business and social sciences, the authors provide guidance on how to apply the values of service leadership to both public and academic libraries. Through the use of examples, exercises, and tools for development, this book walks readers through the steps needed to create a sustainable, service-oriented model by Explaining how a service culture reaches beyond the individual leader with positional authority and extends to all individualsShowing ways to build rapport and trust within an organization, and how to balance encouragement with accountabilityDetailing strategic thinking and planning methods that will lead to improvements in customer service, human resources, organizational development, and trainingHelping library leaders create a sustainable service culture through codifying their organization’s values, with advice on policies and procedures such as recruitment, performance evaluation, compensation, and succession planningDiscussing the environment of change in libraries, showing how a library’s organizational culture is at the center of being responsive and staying relevantThis valuable resource gathers the principles and best practices of leadership, and points the way towards creating a service culture that makes every staff member a library leader.

In three parts--Library Organizations and Academic Culture, The Seven Stages of Leadership Development, and Cultural Intelligence and Global Leadership--Becoming a Library Leader offers a wealth of resources to help you progress through the seven stages of leadership development: Understanding Yourself and Your Leadership Potential ; Emotional Intelligence and Leadership ; Vision and Strategy ; Leading with Intention ; What Leaders Really Do: Communicate and Change ; Correcting through Reflecting ; Mind-Set, Grit, and Resilience.

The LITA Leadership Guide from the American Library Association division charged with information technology brings together three important professional development topics -- leadership, entrepreneurship, and technology -- in one volume, uniting theory, practice, and case studies from experienced colleagues in the field. Topics include: cultivating creativity, career pivots, forecasting and planning for change, keeping tech and leadership skills ahead of the curve, and incorporating lessons and knowledge from across sectors. Additional concepts include: professional development, evaluating risk, overcoming barriers to innovation, and seeding success in your career and organization. The book will help librarians at every level of the career ladder and will supplement leadership and skill-based training workshops. Library leadership teams interested in the development of their staff as a means of improving their organizational performance will find this book to provide context for growth, training, and collaboration. This book provides big-picture concepts that affect the many stages of a librarian’s career: •“Librarian as Leader”, • “Librarian as Entrepreneur”, and •“Librarian as Technologist” and thus is suitable for staff development, discussion groups, or courses. This LITA Guide will help librarians understand how to chart their career development across these three foundational platforms, and become familiar with how peers have successfully created positive change for themselves, and their libraries, as leaders, entrepreneurs, and technologists

"It is not only important for Millennial librarians to have a base of literature from which they can draw information, guidance, or inspiration, it is also important for librarians from other generations to understand what Millennial librarians have to offer and how their entree into library leadership will affect the profession. This book, with chapters written by librarians from every generation and from libraries of all kinds, seeks to fill that void. Section I (Why Lead? The Need for Millennial Leadership in Libraries) brings together chapters that focus on the need for a new generation of leaders in libraries. The chapters in Section II (Workplace Relationships: Bridging the Gap between Generations) touch on library relationships across generations: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Section III (Millennial Leadership Skills, Styles, Strategies, and Stories) includes chapters that detail how Millennial leaders work in libraries, from outreach and marketing to blogging and collaborating. Section IV (Get them in the Door: Bringing Millennial Leadership into the Library (or Not)), while short, is an essential read for any current library leaders or administrators seeking to bring Millennial leaders into the library, or to cultivate the Millennial leadership that's already found in the library. Finally, Section V (Plotting, Planning, Persevering: Making the Most of a Millennial Leader's Career) includes chapters on career planning for Millennial librarians"--Provided by the publisher.

This book provides strategies and practical tips for leadership development in the field of librarianship. With the increase of both new graduates entering the field and upcoming retirements, there is a foreseeable gap in library leadership. Many early-career librarians will move into roles they are not ready for and others will find themselves having to lead without being in traditional leadership roles. This book offers suggestions for librarians facing these challenging new circumstances. The book shows how to create leadership opportunities when none appear to be present, how to take charge of your own professional development, and how to become an effective follower as well as an effective leader. The book helps the reader to recognize and take advantage of the leadership opportunities set before them. Defines effective leadership and followership for early-career librarians Includes stories of common experiences turned into leadership development opportunities Identifies and addresses the need for leadership development in early-career information professionals