Guest Editorial: Re-Managing the Library

Abstract

Library management is a field that inspires strong feelings from across the spectrum of library and university employees, and for good reason. A strong library director can steer the team to create a vibrant and engaging environment for faculty and staff throughout the University, and their strategic direction can help the library thrive as a hub of scholarship and collaboration. Bad management, on the other hand, can create a workplace that breeds hard feelings among staff, and may allow the library to become a dusty and irrelevant campus building. And, of course, there are endless other variations, from managers who try everything innovative they read in the current library literature and lose sight of the library’s core competencies, to those who are successful at creating a vital part of the institution but are then resented for successfully advocating on behalf of the library.