A perspective on academic library middle management in the COVID era

Middle managers in academic libraries are often the first point of contact for employees within their departments. Middle managers work as colleagues, advocates, and project managers. While the responsibilities may vary between institutions, it is essential that middle managers develop leadership skills to function effectively in their positions. In the era of COVID-19, middle managers must reconcile their own expectations of their role with the changing needs and responsibilities of those they manage. COVID-19 is a complex phenomenon that has brought many issues such as health and social inequity to the forefront. These issues should be considered in leadership techniques that are utilized by middle managers in academic libraries. When leading a department, the manager must consider the whole person. This column will discuss several leadership styles that consider the whole person and can be effective for academic library middle managers as they navigate the complexities of their positions in the COVID-19 Era.     

Cultural Resource Management in Context

In the United States, much of historic preservation is carried out in a framework of cultural resource management. Cultural resource management is increasingly being conducted as heritage management in the larger context of ecosystem management or ecological stewardship. Cultural resources are an important factor in the human environment, and must be managed in the context of all other biological, social, and geophysical elements in that environment or ecosystem. Good environmental stewardship requires affirmative resource management, including management of our tangible and intangible cultural resources. Many scientists are involved in cultural resource management, either directly or indirectly and either consciously or unconsciously. There is increased public awareness of the value of cultural resources, and their protection involves the knowledgeable and caring collaboration of resource specialists (e.g., anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, archivists, engineers, folklorists, historians), material scientists, decision-making land managers, and the living community with ties to the heritage resources. This in turn involves each participating community and individual (including the scientists) managing the interfaces among themselves. This is done by learning something about (and learning to appreciate) other groups' values and special languages and their operating constraints and opportunities, and about the overall public benefits and costs of cultural resource management decisions.     

Health library partnership programmes between resource‐poor countries and Western Europe

A survey of health library partnerships between the UK and northern European countries and African or eastern European countries was undertaken to complement a similar survey of 24 North American health libraries. Out of 11 partnerships described, six provided sufficient data to be included in a quantitative analysis. These results give some baseline data about such partnerships and their activities, reasons for success and problems encountered. Some libraries have little involvement other than sending duplicate books and journals; others are more deeply involved in all aspects of library activity including professional development. Good communications, both human and technological, are important for maintaining partnership momentum. Staff commitment on both sides and institutional support for the partnership are essential, especially when programmes have costs which must be met either by the institution or outside funders. The financial consequences of partnership may inhibit their initiation, but successful partnerships with demand driven programmes bring benefits to both sides.     

Networks and Communications: issues for the library manager*

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Reflections on Managing a School Library

The school librarian is a manager — despite what others and they themselves might believe. The school library management experience resembles that of the public, special, and academic library. There are common issues of self-sufficiency, conflicting roles, problematic patrons, and lack of respect. School library managers face unique challenges as well. They often have unusually constricted budgets, dubious personnel support, little time to plan, and facilities that are routinely co-opted for other purposes. They are expected to be technology experts and teach on a regular basis. They act as “loco parentis” for their patrons. They must not just promote their services but advocate for their existence. Graduate library schools often offer few courses in school library management for a variety of, usually economic, reasons. Traditional management courses should be supplemented by in-the-field experience and observation as well as input from practicing school librarians. In conclusion, I offer a wish list of school library management tips from my 30+ years of experience.     

图书馆网络的安全保护策略

对图书馆网络连入Internet之后所面临的安全威胁进行了分析，对主要的安全保护策略，如防火墙技术、入侵检测技术、网页保护技术等作了详细介绍，并且对各自的保护机理、关键技术以及它们的优缺点进行了分析。最后，给出了一个网络安全综合防御体系结构。     

Accessibility requirements take on new significance for publishers

Conclusion Publishers may wish to ignore disabilities legislation since it doesn’t apply directly to them, but their customers will not be able ignore the new laws when making purchasing decisions. Thus, as a practical matter each publisher must develop a game plan for how it will position itself to remain competitive in a marketplace where the timely availability of their print works in digital formats is becoming a Sine qua non on purchasing checklists. How individual publishers choose to tackle the new challenges will be determined by a number of variables including the type of content they publish (humanities, math, science, technical), the production systems they use, the length of their press runs, the shelf-life of their products, the level of service they are prepared to provide, the risks they are willing to take, and the dynamics of the markets they serve. A publisher’s strategy will need frequent review and modification because the variables involved in the accessibility environment are changing rapidly. New developments are occurring all the time in the legal environment, in production technologies, in assistive technologies, in distribution technologies, in digital rights management technologies, as well as in file standards. Solutions will need frequent tuning. For publishers, accessibility challenges do not stop with providing alternate formats for printed works. Those delivering their content over private networks via course management systems and over the Internet find that there are other accessibility requirements and standards to be met. It will behoove publishers to develop and implement informed operating policies and protocols that assure that onan ongoing basis its products and services meet applicable accessibility requirements and thus can fully compete in an increasingly demanding marketplace.     

Leadership Reflections: Parent Leadership

Abstract

There are many types of leadership but little known is parent leadership – how parental skills are applied to the workplace. Libraries depend more on soft skills that facilitate work and advance an organization. How individuals work together in an organization is just as critical as the work they accomplish. This depends on the ability of employees to develop and utilize their soft skills complementing their technical skills and expertise. As leaders focus more on behavior, they may tap into their parenting techniques in order to coach, guide, direct, and resolve conflicts. While a leader may not be able to ground an employee or take away their TV watching privileges, they might find themselves resorting to similar techniques in their management.     

Overqualified: Changing the Culture of Hiring Practices in a Public Library Special Collections Department

All too often, applicants for low level paraprofessional positions in libraries are passed over or rejected, not because they are not qualified, but because they have professional experience or advanced degrees. The rationale behind these decisions is that the overqualified staff member in a low level position will continue to look for a better position more aligned with their skills, experience, and education; and when they find another job they will leave and their positions will have to be filled again. This essay argues that this reasoning is flawed and, regardless of the perceived inconvenience, library managers and administrators should want the best and the brightest working in all levels of their library.     

The environmental self and a sense of place: Communication foundations for regional ecosystem management

In order to engage in large‐scale ecosystem management, natural resource managers must take into account the perceptions of citizens living in areas to be managed in a sustainable manner. Among other bases for perception, an individual's “sense of place” and beliefs connecting the self to a larger environment play pivotal roles in the process of attending to advocacy regarding natural resource policies. This study examines the perceptions of individuals living in the Lake Superior basin regarding their identification with a sense of place. Analysis of interview and survey data reveals that interviewees relate themselves to their region and environment primarily by way of “natural” and “social” features in their daily lives and that one's focus on either of the two dimensions, as well as their perceptions of various activities, is mediated by how long they have lived in the area. Implications for the development of ecosystem management communication campaigns are discussed.     

中国省级公共图书馆信息系统管理的关键问题

文章以“信息系统管理的关键问题”研究模式为依托,结合我国省级公共图书馆的现状,采用问卷调查法统计出中国大陆31家省级公共图书馆信息系统管理的关键问题。围绕统计出的十大关键问题,论文依次解释了它们成为图书馆需要迫切投入资源来解决的原因;以地缘为切入点,比较和分析了不同地域的关注焦点;讨论了信息主管所承担的主要信息化工作职责。最后,对省级公共图书馆的信息化建设提出相关策略建议。     

Missing in action? Content of records management metadata in real life

During the last 15 years, records managers and archivists have focused on defining requirements for functionality and metadata of electronic records management systems. So far little is known about metadata that are actually created in these systems. This study examines metadata in records of a Finnish government agency. The metadata comply with the national SÄHKE records management metadata specification. The main findings are that a substantial number of metadata elements in SÄHKE remained unused. Generated metadata were largely about event history. Optional metadata elements were used rarely. The metadata show clear patterns, which may suggest systematic recordkeeping processes and possibly minimal human intervention in metadata creation.     

推荐系统适用于图书馆吗？

Borrowing From e-commerce; Are Recommender Systems Good for Libraries? For past 10 years recommender systems have attempted to match customers to materials in the e-commerce world. Utilizing specifically designed recommender systems to meet the needs of patrons, collaborative filtering, and content-based recommender systems are the two basic types with several hybrids created from these two have been significantly enhancing digital library services. Security issues come into play in a special way with libraries, and plagiarism can also affect recommender quality. Open Source tools may be the answer for libraries and their customers, enabling a better utilization of all that a library has to offer.     

武汉大学图书馆地图资料管理现状与对策研究

与一般的图书、期刊不同,地图文献具有许多自身的特殊性,在数字环境下如何更好利用地图文献资源给图书馆管理人员提出了新的研究课题。通过分析武汉大学图书馆地图资料管理现状和当前地图文献建设工作中存在的实际问题,提出在信息时代加强地图文献资源建设的对策和措施。     

Bridging strategy versus buffering strategy: enhancing crisis management capability in public management for relational and reputational improvement,and conflict avoidance

This study seeks to understand the effectiveness of an organization’s communication strategy in enhancing its crisis management capability in public management. The relationships between two types of communication strategies (bridging and buffering), crisis management capability in public management, relational improvement, reputational improvement, and conflict avoidance have been tested to suggest how an organization’s overall strategic orientation may help its ability to weather a crisis. A survey of communication managers was conducted in South Korea with 105 responses, representing 105 organizations. Results revealed that organizations which are predisposed toward adopting the bridging strategy as their main communication strategy also report better crisis management capability in public management, and as a result, experience positive relational and reputational outcomes.     

A study of voice change in boys between the ages of eleven and sixteen∗

Disclosing creative possibilities of thought and action is an important function of communication, especially of narrative rhetoric. This essay describes some of the problems which must be addressed in developing a rhetoric of possibility. Then it examines how rhetors disclose the human capacity for various states of mind. After showing why such possibilities are significant, it explores two ways of disclosing them. Rhetors may tell stories of deeds which reflect characters’ states of mind, or they may enable or challenge people to perform such acts themselves, with striking consequences for their own life stories. Often, however, performances disclose specific states of mind only when rhetors make them revealing through commentary or the careful stipulation of narrative details. While both methods are useful, they have different rhetorical implications.     

A lesson from the New York Times: Timing and the management of cultural change

Abstract

The author places newspaper decision‐making models within a timing framework, using the infamous New York Times‐Jayson Blair‐plagiarism case to illustrate how the U.S. newspaper industry can feasibly and sincerely engineer the change in newspaper culture suggested by an earlier industry‐commissioned study. Using arguments from timing theory, the author illustrates how the framework generates timing‐related questions about management style that would not normally get asked. Ultimately, the argument challenges newspaper managers to re‐consider the essence of the managerial concept of control and, eventually, their own managerial style and culture. Cultural transformation, the author argues, does, indeed, start at the top but with management acknowledging that it has much to learn and that popular culture‐enhancing management tools must be used only when managers consider the timing‐induced paradoxes inherent in decision‐making, where the “when”; becomes just as important as the “what.”;     

Book Reviews in Psychology and Related Fields

Book reviews are no longer the main source of information for collection management, particularly in the sciences, but they still provide an important backup to other selection tools. Research libraries use them to fill in titles that may have been missed in the initial round of purchasing. Smaller libraries can use them to select items of quality, though certain biases in book reviewing must be taken into account. All librarians can benefit from reading reviews to keep up in their fields. A list of book review sources in psychology and related fields is appended.