Week 1 (Weekly Assignment)

Starr Hoffman / Week 1 (Weekly Assignment) / 09.02.2007

Hernon, P. (2004, Nov.). Academic Library directors: What do they do? College and Research Libraries, 65 (6), 538-562.

This article detailed a study of the daily activities of eleven directors of ACRL and ARL academic libraries. The data for this article was gathered in the form of a diary, in which each director recorded his or her activities for two weeks. The summaries of each director’s activities revealed that library directors have vastly different functions and daily tasks. Some of these differences may be related to the size of the university and/or the library, but many are not. Two of the most commonly reported activities were fundraising and attending meetings. I expected that answering email would be common, as it was, but I was surprised to hear a few directors report walking through the library building.

In the conclusion, the authors of this article state that one of the primary uses of this study is to identify a common skill-set that academic library directors ought to develop. The overlapping tasks, such as attending meetings and answering email, certainly attest to this. However, I believe that overall, the study more clearly revealed the differences between each director’s job than it did the commonalities. This may be because I was familiar with the most common tasks, thus the differences stood out more. As I read the article, I found myself wondering if these differences indicated that these universities and/or libraries were fundamentally different, or that each director approaches the job uniquely, regardless of the university and/or library environment they are placed in.

I believe that this is a very useful article, particularly for someone considering such a leadership position. It reveals that almost every director is a very busy person, with a variety of responsibilities and functions. It shows the wide variety of environments and tasks a person in such a position can expect.

Higa, M. L. et al. (2005, Jan). Redesigning a Library's organizational structure. College & Research Libraries, 66 (1), 41-58.

This article focuses on the organizational change in a library that had experienced a major shift from a primarily print collection to a primarily digital one. As library resources and functions had shifted, workflows and job responsibilities had not, creating many problems. Digital initiatives were primarily dealt with by teams, instead of being assigned as regular tasks to departments or individuals. This was indicative of the fragmentary nature of the library as a whole. Departments were reorganized into three “regions,” and tasks previously assigned to teams were largely worked into new departmental responsibilities.

I was a little surprised that the new department structure was divided in terms of format (print versus digital) instead of the more traditional division by function. I was also surprised that such a major reorganization was undertaken while the library was without a director. On page 51, the authors state that “major staffing changes require strong leadership and guidance,” yet there was no central leader at the library at this time. This causes me to wonder if there was much staff resistance to this reorganization, or if anyone voiced concerns that a new library director might merely start the reorganization process over again once being hired.

I liked the first paragraph, particularly the first sentence, of the library’s new vision statement--except that nowhere were the “clients” defined. The vision statement was three paragraphs long, yet did not define the clients the library was to serve. I felt that was a major oversight.