Cooperative Reference Desk Scheduling and Its Effects on Professional Collegiality

SUMMARY

Since 1995, reference staff at Oregon State University's Valley Library have engaged in a process of cooperative reference desk scheduling. The system was originally adopted to allow staff to have more influence in tailoring desk hours to their individual work schedules, but the department discovered that it also encourages and reinforces a climate of cooperation and collegiality among the reference staff. This paper describes the creation of the system and examines the reasoning behind it, the steps taken to implement it, and how it continues to evolve in an ever-changing library environment. Also examined is how this system has influenced other work done in the Reference and Instruction Department beyond the reference desk, and how it might be adapted and applied for use in other tasks in the future.     

Reference Service in the Context of Library Culture and Collegiality: Tools for Keeping Librarians on the Same (Fast Flipping) Pages

SUMMARY

Reference desk service is the public face of our fast-changing profession. Because libraries often have numerous librarians sharing desk duty, consistent service can be a worthy challenge. Practical tools for promoting consistency (in the context of collegiality and teamwork) are explored. Library “culture” and organizational structure influences our professional worklives and personal job satisfaction. Sharing knowledge with one another and interdepartmental collaboration contributes to the advancement of the profession.     

Transparency

ABSTRACT

Within organizations, employees often discuss the need for transparency but what exactly is transparency? Transparency is often linked with communication in an effort to create an organization that is more informed about decisions and processes creating a sense of employee engagement. But leaders are not able to operate in a completely open manner due to a variety of factors. What leadership activities can be conducted in a transparent manner and how is transparency balanced with confidentiality? Transparency is not just a leader responsibility but other managers and employees contribute to organizational transparency. This column will provide more insights into the complex issue of transparency within libraries.     

A Leader's Toolbelt

Leaders need a variety of tools to be effective in their management, communication, and leadership. These tools should be used for specific jobs and are operational in working with some personalities but not all. Leaders can develop these tools and over time, learn when and how to effectively use them. Such tools will enhance the leader's ability to address a variety of situations and issues drawing upon expertise gained through experience.     

Difficult Conversations

Organizations by their very nature will incur conflict and individuals will need to negotiate differences, behaviors, and performance. Effective leaders understand that difficult conversations are necessary in managing an organization or unit. No one wants to initiate a difficult conversation or to address performance issues but it is essential that leaders face the need to have hard conversations and in so doing, the organization will benefit from an ongoing dialogue. This column will discuss the need for difficult conversations and some tips for facilitating a dialogue. Interested authors are invited to submit articles for this column to the editor at farrell@uwyo.edu.     

Leadership Reflections: Leadership Paradoxes

Leadership faces a number of paradoxes that can be challenging and confusing, particularly as individuals take on new leadership roles. Employees want leaders to be decisive but participatory in decision making, focused on big pictures but contribute to detailed discussions, and engage but not micromanage. It is confusing as mixed messages are given to leaders and the opinions of employees vary, creating a situation in which it is difficult for leaders to fully understand employee expectations. Leaders not only need to understand these paradoxes but develop methods to balance employee expectations and communication strategies that help employees appreciate the balancing act that each leader must develop.     

Leadership Reflections: Leadership Skills for Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is a process that infuses knowledge and decision making across an organization. It not only encourages decision making based on data but also fosters communication among personnel for informed practices and processes. The social connections within an organization facilitate the formal structure and encourage personnel to share expertise, insights, and past experiences to inform decision making. Such a highly interactive organization requires leadership that supports and encourages knowledge management practices. A successful knowledge management organization depends on certain leadership characteristics in order to foster interactions that contribute to the processes. A variety of characteristics and patterns will offer leaders understanding on how to lead within a knowledge management library.     

Leadership Reflections: Extrovert and Introvert Leaders

Leadership calls for the ability to work well with people, communicate with stakeholders, participate in and lead meetings, and often public speaking. As a leader advances within an organization, expectations increase for the individual to engage with others as leaders spend more time working with colleagues and stakeholders to advance the organization. These expectations tend to favor extroverts in leadership roles but organizations may overlook the strengths of introverts as leaders losing out on the potential for effective management. An understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of personality types will help individuals as well as organizations in developing leadership in order to achieve organizational goals.     

Leadership Reflections: Complexity and Our Adaptable Minds – Collaborative Inquiry and Presence-Based Leadership

Abstract

Our guest columnist is Tim Schlak who, like many of us, is on a journey continuing to challenge ourselves to be better leaders and to more effectively serve our organizations. This column presents several of the latest leadership development frameworks that are novel to library literature. Where many leaders assume our minds and identities are fixed, this paper presents theories and anecdotal evidence that our minds and identities are flexible and adaptable to the causes we choose. Complexity is offered as the central feature of organizational life and the responses we make can be intentionally crafted to help us hold our knowledge and our senses of self more loosely. In so doing, we create room to grow and to muster more effective and authentic responses to the complexity we all face in our libraries.     

Starting New

New leaders have unique challenges in orienting themselves to a new position and likely a new department or organization. There are some actions an individual can undertake that will ease the transition and build relationships, create an understanding of the new organization, and build confidence of the employees in the leader. There are issues to be aware of as a new leader adjusts to a new position and awareness will facilitate the transition in working within a new department or organization.     

Interim Leadership

ABSTRACT

Leadership training tends to focus on development and performance of leadership skills with the implied understanding that the position is permanent or the appointment is formalized. Yet organizations require temporary leaders during leadership gaps but there is limited information on serving in an acting role or for a short period of time. Serving as an interim leader has unique challenges and opportunities but several considerations should be made to make this a positive experience providing smooth transitions for an organization.     

Leadership Reflections: Who Are Your Peeps?

Leaders need to surround themselves with colleagues, mentors, and individuals who will support, challenge, and encourage development. Forming a network will aid a library leader in their individual growth as well as provide informal consultants who can see the broader pictures or tease out an issue that might not be evident to the leader. Colleagues who share the same vision or goals will encourage each other and provide support during personal and professional challenges. A library leader should be strategic about selecting and curating a network that will meet a variety of needs as well as being a resource. Doing so, a leader will have a sounding board to consider ideas and strategies while gaining different perspectives. The end result is that a library leader will build professional relationships that will enhance personal and professional success.     

Smoking in the Workplace

No abstract available for this article.     

提高科技期刊编辑与作者沟通效率的研究

科技期刊编辑与作者沟通的效果决定了稿件的下一环节是否顺利以及作者对期刊的好感度.在与作者沟通的前后,如果可以在主观上有意识地去了解作者,分析作者的准备度类型,并因人制宜地换位思考,将有助于沟通效率的提高及日常编辑工作的正常化.     

Incivility and Dysfunction in the Library Workplace: Perceptions and Feedback from the Field

Issues associated with lack of civility, less than ideal functionality, and employees that may not self-reflect as much they should are all challenges in the modern workplace and libraries are no exception. The purpose of this study was to determine which issues associated with a lack of civility such as mobbing, bullying, workplace dysfunction, and lack of abilities regarding self-reflection were found in the library workplace and to what extent. The data represents the feedback of 4,168 library employees through a self-reporting survey instrument designed by the authors with the help of the American Library Association. Data is both quantitative and qualitative and seeks to examine the issues addressed across all types of libraries. While useful for all library employees, this study and report are especially relevant to the modern library administrator.     

Polygraphs in the Workplace:

No abstract available for this article.     

Vision and Vulnerability: Thoughts on Leadership and Conservation

ABSTRACT

Testimony from colleagues in the cultural sector suggests that there is a common perception of leaders as authoritarian, infallible and invulnerable. However, developing leaders soon come to understand that good leaders often have an authenticity of their own. Being able to embrace authentic leadership in this way requires confidence. It involves accepting vulnerabilities, learning to be comfortable making decisions without all the information, and daring to risk potential failure as the best way to encourage creativity, innovation and learning. Given this dichotomy, is there a potential for the development of leadership in conservation? This paper explores the unique challenges we face as conservators in a changing sector. In it, I reconnect with professional experiences of my own and those I gained as the first conservation fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme as well as examining testimony from others in the profession and the wider cultural sector. The ideas generated are supported by literature from a variety of sources inside and outside the conservation field. Starting from what draws people to conservation in the very beginning and working through to the leadership of the profession, the paper identifies four main areas of challenge for conservation in a twenty-first-century creative economy. These are around a lack of diversity, a lack of confidence, the strength of voice and perception and issues around support, for our decision-making and for the profession as a whole. The paper concludes that a new vision for the future of conservation could not only help rebalance the diverging preventive and remedial specialisms but also be instrumental in the perception, interpretation and preservation of cultural heritage. If we expand our horizons, the bigger picture of heritage and what it can achieve for the society could be crucial to us not only changing but thriving in the modern world.     

On the same page: Improving the connection between public services units in academic libraries

Communication quality between public service units in academic libraries can make the difference between mediocre and exceptional service. If units do not communicate well, patrons may receive inaccurate information and experience short-term frustration, leading to long-term damage to the library's reputation. Poor communication creates adverse effects on employees through decreased productivity, negative work culture, and low morale. This article explores the importance of quality communication through a review of the literature and a case study at one academic library. The authors share practical communication improvement strategies for libraries of every size and fiscal ability.     

Interpersonal Skills in the Reference Workplace

SUMMARY

Reference librarians are expected to interact effectively with a variety of clientele and are taught skills such as approachability, showing interest, and verbal and non-verbal cues. Librarians who have a knack for interpersonal skills do very well both at the reference desk and interacting with their co-workers. An area that is rarely addressed in the literature (or in library school) is that of educating librarians about how to establish professional, collegial relationships with one another. It is assumed that if a reference librarian can interact well with patrons, in a professional manner, he or she will be able to successfully “fit into” almost any reference department. This article discusses the importance of interpersonal skills within the Reference Department and ideas for improving these skills to enhance co-worker relations.     

Navigating the ‘invisible nets’: challenges and opportunities for women in traditionally male-dominated South Asian newsrooms

‘Invisible nets,’ ‘labyrinths’ and ‘glass ceilings’ are a sampling of the metaphors used to describe the impediments and challenges women face along their paths toward professional advancement, including those in media settings. Expanding on previous research, this article investigates newsroom management expectations and experiences related to communication and teamwork as managerial competencies among a sample of female journalists in Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Using a quantitative research design, the researchers outline opportunities and challenges for women in navigating the various obvious and subtle obstacles they face as they seek to advance professionally in traditionally male-dominated South Asian newsrooms.