Target Audience and Purpose

Aimed at library science students and librarians with newly assigned administrative duties, the book is about improving one’s thinking and decision making in a role as a library manager. Most librarians get very little exposure to management issues prior to finding themselves in a management role. Furthermore, most library science students do not expect that they will need to understand management yet they quickly find that there is a need to understand this perspective to be effective at almost any library job.

Key Topics Covered

Effective library management is about having some tools to make decisions (such as a basic understanding of management theory and how it applies in the library environment, understanding common traps we all fall into, etc.), knowing yourself, being able to motivate others, fostering a diversity (especially within workgroups), being able to communicate effectively, and having an understanding of one’s organizational culture. The book touches on all of these aspects of library management.

Features of the Book

Provides a concise understanding of theories from management, psychology, etc. and applies them to practical everyday library issues

Contains real world cases for considering how theoretical concepts might apply in real library-related situations

Cuts out much of the extraneous material often found in books of this kind and focuses more on what you actually need