TOC 512 College & Research Libraries November 1999 Editorial Library Management and Technology The focus of my January 1999 C&RL edi­ torial was on leadership for academic li­ braries.1 Based on the positive e-messages and letters I have received, my observa­ tions and questions on this topic appar­ ently struck a nerve. Indeed, because of this editorial, I was invited to be the key­ note speaker at a library conference. It is encouraging to see that librarians and information professionals are now more willing to talk about leadership issues. Such was not the case only a few years ago. For some unknown reasons, al­ though academic libraries have been de­ scribed as being well managed and “underled,” librarians have not talked or written about leadership. The department head is one of the most important managers in any library, yet department heads are given very little training and preparation to perform their managerial work well. In the January editorial, it was not my intent to downplay the role and im­ portance of management. Obviously, leadership and management are not the same but, instead, are two different hemispheres. Management focuses on doing things right; leadership implies doing the right things. Efficiency is as­ sociated with management, and effec­ tiveness is more aligned with leader­ ship. Although management and lead­ ership may be perceived as two differ­ ent boughs of the same tree, they are both very important. Owing to scarce resources, academic librarians, of necessity, must be good managers. With user expectations exceed­ ing existing library resources, library managers must manage intelligently and strategically to provide the best services possible to current and future users. Creativity should not be con­ sidered off-limits to managers; quite the contrary, they should be encouraged to use their creative skills to the hilt. Numer­ ous opportunities are available to library managers to engage in creative endeav­ ors that would result in improved service, streamlined operations, and, ultimately, a more efficient library. Forgotten Species Academic libraries, like many other service organizations, tend to forget, or not give priority to, managers at the de­ partment head level. It is not uncom­ mon to discover an excellent reference librarian being promoted to head of the reference department or an excellent cataloger being promoted to head of the cataloging department based primarily on his or her respective experience as a practicing librarian. And then, lo and behold, such individuals discover that there is little or no correlation between their librarian skills and the duties and responsibilities expected of them in their role as department head, and they are left to swim or sink. The depart­ ment head is one of the most impor­ tant managers in any library, yet de­ partment heads are given very little training and preparation to perform their managerial work well. Library directors should recognize the value of the department head and invest more in the improvement of the managerial skills needed by individuals filling this position. 512 Editorial 513 Technology: The Management Enabler Nearly all components of library manage­ ment have been enhanced by modern technology. Numerous examples can be listed to show how technology has im­ proved planning, organizing, staffing, budgeting, and communicating. Comput­ ers are effective tools for developing plan­ ning scenarios, establishing methods to assist with benchmarking, creating use­ ful budget spreadsheets, and forecasting expectations in the library’s future. Tech­ nology can play a pivotal role in the li­ brary manager’s daily work because li­ brary managers tend to work within defined bounds of known quantities, us­ ing well-established techniques to accom­ plish predetermined ends. Perhaps the area of communication has realized more benefits from technology than any other component of manage­ ment. Technology has enabled library managers to vastly improve their commu­ nication with superiors, coworkers, sub­ ordinates, and others. The use of listservs and electronic mail has resulted in a sig­ nificant improvement in efficiency in communication. Listservs have enabled librarians to keep current with best prac­ tices in their respective areas of expertise, and e-mail has reduced the communica­ tion time cycle immeasurably. If we were to compare how many meetings were held and how long the postal system took to deliver a letter prior to e-mail, it would be easy to reaffirm this technology’s many positive impacts. However, some will ar­ gue that e-mail has further depersonal­ ized communication by removing human interaction, an argument that it is diffi­ cult to deny. On the other hand, however, why should one have to go through the process of scheduling a meeting that may last thirty minutes to an hour when the entire communication process could be handled via e-mail in less than three minutes? Thirty-three years ago, Peter Drucker wrote: “Meetings are by defi­ nition a concession to deficient organi­ zation. For one either meets or one works. One cannot do both at the same time.”2 Conclusion Evolving technology is making the li­ brary manager’s job easier. Efficiency is being greatly improved. It is not diffi­ cult to find several examples of how pro­ ductivity has improved as a result of technology. Managers now have more people reporting to them due to the im­ proved communication linkage via tech­ nology; thus, there has been some move­ ment from hierarchy to flatter organizations. Moreover, technology is enabling professionals to inject more cre­ ativity in their daily work. Paraprofes­ sionals now can handle many of the rou­ tine tasks (such as copy cataloging) by using online cataloging facilities. Decision making is an important part of any library manager’s job. Indirectly and directly, technology has made the decision-making process less complex. Managers are much better informed to­ day than only a few years ago. Simula­ tion and scenario building are becoming more common in today’s library manager ’s repertoire. However, we should not expect a machine to replace human judgment and intuition. More­ over, the work of the manager does not exist for the sake of the tool; rather, the tool exists for the sake of the manager.3 DONALD E. RIGGS Editor Notes 1. Donald E. Riggs, “Academic Library Leadership: Observations and Questions,” College & Research Libraries 60 (Jan. 1999): 6–8. 2. Peter F. Drucker, The Effective Executive (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 44. 3. ———, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (New York, Harper & Row, 1973), 224. << /ASCII85EncodePages false /AllowTransparency false /AutoPositionEPSFiles true /AutoRotatePages /All /Binding /Left /CalGrayProfile (Dot Gain 20%) /CalRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CalCMYKProfile (U.S. Web Coated \050SWOP\051 v2) /sRGBProfile (sRGB IEC61966-2.1) /CannotEmbedFontPolicy /Warning /CompatibilityLevel 1.3 /CompressObjects /Tags /CompressPages true /ConvertImagesToIndexed true /PassThroughJPEGImages true /CreateJobTicket false /DefaultRenderingIntent /Default /DetectBlends true /DetectCurves 0.0000 /ColorConversionStrategy /CMYK /DoThumbnails false /EmbedAllFonts true /EmbedOpenType false /ParseICCProfilesInComments true /EmbedJobOptions true /DSCReportingLevel 0 /EmitDSCWarnings false /EndPage -1 /ImageMemory 1048576 /LockDistillerParams false /MaxSubsetPct 1 /Optimize true /OPM 1 /ParseDSCComments true /ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo true /PreserveCopyPage true /PreserveDICMYKValues true /PreserveEPSInfo true /PreserveFlatness false /PreserveHalftoneInfo true /PreserveOPIComments false /PreserveOverprintSettings true /StartPage 1 /SubsetFonts false /TransferFunctionInfo /Apply /UCRandBGInfo /Preserve /UsePrologue false /ColorSettingsFile () /AlwaysEmbed [ true ] /NeverEmbed [ true ] /AntiAliasColorImages false /CropColorImages false /ColorImageMinResolution 151 /ColorImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleColorImages true /ColorImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /ColorImageResolution 300 /ColorImageDepth -1 /ColorImageMinDownsampleDepth 1 /ColorImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeColorImages true /ColorImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterColorImages true /ColorImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /ColorACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /ColorImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000ColorACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000ColorImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasGrayImages false /CropGrayImages false /GrayImageMinResolution 151 /GrayImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleGrayImages true /GrayImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /GrayImageResolution 300 /GrayImageDepth -1 /GrayImageMinDownsampleDepth 2 /GrayImageDownsampleThreshold 1.10000 /EncodeGrayImages true /GrayImageFilter /DCTEncode /AutoFilterGrayImages true /GrayImageAutoFilterStrategy /JPEG /GrayACSImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /GrayImageDict << /QFactor 0.15 /HSamples [1 1 1 1] /VSamples [1 1 1 1] >> /JPEG2000GrayACSImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /JPEG2000GrayImageDict << /TileWidth 256 /TileHeight 256 /Quality 30 >> /AntiAliasMonoImages false /CropMonoImages false /MonoImageMinResolution 600 /MonoImageMinResolutionPolicy /OK /DownsampleMonoImages true /MonoImageDownsampleType /Bicubic /MonoImageResolution 1200 /MonoImageDepth -1 /MonoImageDownsampleThreshold 1.16667 /EncodeMonoImages true /MonoImageFilter /CCITTFaxEncode /MonoImageDict << /K -1 >> /AllowPSXObjects false /CheckCompliance [ /None ] /PDFX1aCheck false /PDFX3Check false /PDFXCompliantPDFOnly false /PDFXNoTrimBoxError true /PDFXTrimBoxToMediaBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXSetBleedBoxToMediaBox true /PDFXBleedBoxToTrimBoxOffset [ 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 ] /PDFXOutputIntentProfile () /PDFXOutputConditionIdentifier () /PDFXOutputCondition () /PDFXRegistryName () /PDFXTrapped /False /CreateJDFFile false /Description << /ENU (IPC Print Services, Inc. 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