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competency A

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competency D

competency E

competency F

competency G

competency H

competency I

competency J

competency K

competency L

competency M

competency N

Statement of Competency D

In which I discuss the fundamental principles of planning, management and marketing/advocacy.

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He whose ranks are united in purpose will be victorious.
Sun Tzu (Griffith, 1963, p. 83)

Before coming to the United States, I worked in a company that, among other things, organized seminars. We did not choose the subject of a seminar, but were responsible for the organization – finding and negotiating the space for the lectures and accommodation for the participants, bringing everybody in, keeping everybody happy for duration of the seminar and then seeing them all safely off. With time the whole process became quite routine, but it taught me an important lesson how important is planning for the execution of a whole project.

In the group project for the Information Organization and Management class and my EVIDENCE 1 for this competency, we were required to develop the strategic plan for a future library. The type of library and environment in which it will operate was left to our decision. Because there were a number of people in the group who worked in school libraries, we decided that their expertise would help the quality of the project. The process of decision making and planning as well as the steps involved in developing and writing the plan are described at the end of the paper.

My particular contribution to the strategic plan was the organizational chart showing how the school media library and its staff relate to the wider school environment. It appeared that drawing an organizational chart would be a quite simple task, but it took some time and several attempts before we coordinated my understanding of anticipated positions, their relationship to each other and responsibilities in educational process; with ideas about the same positions held by students responsible for developing goals and objectives of the library as well as students in charge of staffing section.

One of required sections of the plan was a “management style” essay. I did not write or contribute to that section of the project, but it presented me with an interesting intellectual question: what does it mean to be a manger? Is he a leader that takes his troops from the one battle to another; motivating them with the promise of reward for their loyalty and sacrifice? Or is he the first among the equals, a part of the team that goes towards the chosen goal because they all want to get there? A definition of the good manager depends, among other things, on the historical and cultural context, the type or style of management one practices, and also culture of the company.

It is almost impossible to run a company completely independent from the outside environment, regardless of one's preferred management style. The cultural environment in which the company exists, the attitude of the employees, and the tax incentives and legal requirements, shape decisions inside a company. However, it is wasteful, in economic and social sense, to disregard the fact that the workplace is where all employed people spend a great deal of their time. And if properly motivated, these employees can contribute considerable expertise, insight and creativity to the overall mission of company.

The position of publicly funded, non-profit organizations brings libraries almost to the realm of a social service. They often answer to boards which do not necessarily know much about the nature and paradigm of librarianship. It is important to note that this kind of organization is the natural aggregation point of the people who care more about community than about making money. The simple market-based rationale and pay-for-performance would not necessarily resonate with the intrinsic motivations that brought these people to librarianship. Breaking through the layers of social concern to reach the core of the organizational problems and implement changes could also present serious difficulties. However, as I am arguing in my EVIDENCE 2 to this competency, accepting management for the results and performance do not necessarily mean to abandon the basic library mission of providing an open, unbiased environment and upholding the public's right of access to information.

Nevertheless, trying to implement any changes, technological as well as organizational, in the tightly structured hierarchical environment could create enormous resistance, and not only by the regular employees. Implementing isolated changes would require a lot of tact and politicking inside the company. Unless the organization sees changes as a continuous process of learning, any implementation of changes would be an uphill battle. Regardless of the proffered manager style, a manager should listen carefully to the people he works with. Subtle signals of distress or discord in the team could be a warning of the storm. It is important to pay attention to social rituals, small little things that make people happy as birthday, farewell, and New Year parties. They are important for sense of community as well as community recognition of each individual. The manager should nurture these interactions and actively participate in them.

It is also important to give people space and trust to fully develop their ability and prove themselves. They should be encouraged toward the continuous education and development of their skills. When executing a project, the goals should be clear, time tables humanly possible, and individual temperaments considered. This is true in any relationship where people treat each other as equals. The relationship inside the organization and with the customers should be of the partnership and not of a paternalistic authority. It is very bad judgment to rush, boss or unnecessarily challenge people. We all need to work another day.

However, the management of a library, no matter how good, is not the only thing that will ensure the good will and support from the community. The library needs to finds the way to reach into the community and disseminate the information about its mission and activities.

The most cost effective way to do this is by use of various Internet tools. The Internet access to the library catalogs (OPACs) is now considered a basic library service, but professionally designed and organized web sites are still challenge for a number of library systems. In the statement of competency H, I discuses in more details how current information and communication technologies could be used to enhance existing library services. For example, EVIDENCE 2 to that competency shows how the traditional newsletter format could be translated and developed in the Internet environment.

However, with EVIDENCE 3 to this competency, I try to show that a professional looking web site does not necessarily require intricate knowledge of programming, but some basic knowledge of information organization and marketing. The presented web site is developed as the model for a private company, but the underlying marketing tools are the same. Companies take orders; libraries accept on-line inquiries using the same information gathering forms that are used for product orders. The photo gallery created on one of the pages, use the software that is available on the Internet and that requires only simple “cut and paste” of the code into your web site in order to work. The Internet community offers a number of sites where one can find free software – a public libraries of software – that could be incorporated into web sites. What is really required is the awareness of the library management and stuff that the library web site and the services and information thus offered are an integral part of the library mission.

References:

Griffith, S. B. (1963). Sun Tzu: The art of war. Oxford: Oxford University Press.