Leading Change as a Library Administrator

Being part of the Frye Leadership Institute (now Leading Change Institute) was one of the best opportunities of my career so far, and it keeps reverberating. The most recent impact is the article I just wrote for EDUCAUSE Review Online: "Leading Change as a Library Administrator."

Librarians, Tenure, and Research, by Kirstin Dougan

The question of whether academic librarians should be part of a tenure system on par with teaching faculty is not a new one, and this post will not debate the pros and cons of the issue. However, I offer the thoughts of a librarian who went from an academic position in which librarians did not have faculty status or tenure (but instead had something called continuing appointment), to one in which librarians have faculty status and are held to standards as rigorous as those for other faculty.

For some background, the AAUP/ACRL recently put out a revised statement on college and university librarians and tenure. All in all I agree with this statement. However, I do so with some lingering ambivalence. You see, this is my third professional position (three different institutions), and the only one at which librarians have tenure. Over five years ago I came to this aspect of the job reluctantly, but willing to tackle the challenge of research and tenure in order to have the job I want, at an institution I admire, and to be back in a part of the country I adore. Now, more than five years later, my tenure papers will start their long process forward. I am excited about the research I am doing and questions I am examining, and I can truly say that the research part of my job keeps it interesting and thought-provoking.

The biggest challenges I faced were the need to develop a research agenda and learn how to implement it in a relatively short amount of time. If you look, you’ll find that there are many articles in the library science literature that address this topic, but here are a few guiding principles. How does one decide what to research? First, think about questions that intrigue you. What issues do you face in your job on a regular basis that would benefit from exploration and data collection? My research questions all come directly from my daily work as a public services librarian in a large academic music library. Whatever you choose, make it something that interests you and that you want to spend some serious time with.  Ideally, it will be something that you can analyze in pieces and get more than one project/publication out of. Next, think about how you can gather data on your question. You must match the methodology to the question at hand or your work won’t produce meaningful results. There are several good resources on research question development and research methodology, and the one that really got me thinking was Practical Research Methods for Library and Information Professionals by Susan Beck and Kate Manuel. Also, it’s likely that your campus will require institutional review board training/applications for research projects involving people (surveys, focus groups, observational, etc.) so plan ahead for this.  Many campuses offer faculty and staff funding opportunities as well as survey and statistical support for their research, at a minimum.

Make research and writing a priority. Many productivity advocates say to write every day to keep the ideas and words flowing. Set weekly writing “dates” with a colleague, either a librarian or another faculty member. Share your goals with each other at the beginning of the session and check in when you’re done. Get advice from colleagues about projects and ask them to read your work throughout the process. Not all library tenure systems are the same. Some, like ours, include elements of librarianship, research, and service to the school and/or the profession, and have expectations equal to that of teaching faculty. Keep those expectations in mind and prioritize your efforts. If publication is a primary requirement for your tenure case, don’t do conference presentations unless the proceedings will be published or you can turn that work into a peer-reviewed article.

Of course, research and publication isn’t limited to those librarians who need it for tenure. I’d encourage anyone to consider taking on a research project that is important to them. The opportunity and support to do research has informed and transformed my librarianship, and I would like to think that the publications I have produced have increased the profession’s knowledge base.


Kristin Dougan is the Music and Performing Arts Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She tweets both @kmdougan and @mpalillinois. This is her second post for this blog. The first was “How to Prepare to be a Subject Specialist Librarian.”

[Editor's note: Kristin recently gave a presentation on this topic. A Google doc of the slides is available.]

Initiation Pain Level: Zero, by Anthony Helm

About 17 months ago I joined a new community, one that I had only ever imagined myself joining about a dozen times before. But the entrance was barred, I believed, by the lack of a degree. Specifically, I became a part of the library community, and I did it without an MLIS degree. Much to my surprise, I was not alone, though I still refrain from calling myself a “librarian.” Librarians, after all, have earned the title through years of study, practice and/or a combination of both. Nevertheless, I was welcomed to the community and am quite happy to be here. Of course, it helped that the library staff and administration here at Dartmouth College Library made my transition a smooth one.

Before I go into how they managed that, allow me to provide a little background. I have been bouncing, albeit slowly, between technology positions (computers, multimedia) and teaching positions (Japanese, English, technology) for a number of years, ultimately bringing the two together as an academic technologist. I came to Dartmouth four years ago to head up the Arts & Humanities Resource Center (AHRC), which provided technology and teaching support to A&H faculty. During the economic crisis of the past few years, Dartmouth saw a lot of reorganization and the AHRC as it existed was no more. I applied for and was hired as the Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies in the spring of 2011.  That’s how I joined one of the biggest organizations on campus, with close to 150 staff members and probably the largest population of student employees, too. Despite having heard some rumors about the library community here from friends who work there, I still didn’t know what to expect. I have since learned that our library takes “community” very seriously. Here are some of the things we do to promote that:

Orientation

Two or three times a year we run new employees through a library orientation process. Over the course of six weeks, the group spends up to an hour in each of the library’s departments (e.g. cataloging/metadata, acquisitions, interlibrary loan) and affiliate locations (e.g. special collections library, biomedical library, storage library), getting to know the staff in each location as well as gaining an understanding of the work done there and the role that department plays in the overall library organization. The orientation begins and ends with sessions with library administration. While the immediate benefits seem obvious, there is an additional benefit, too. The group of new hires is itself comprised of staff from around the library, which helps you make personal connections beyond your own department.

Candidate Presentations and Hiring

As you may expect, we do a fair amount of hiring throughout the library. For all professional positions, the candidates are expected to do a presentation. What is unusual is that the presentations are open to the entire library staff. Having gone through the experience myself, you can imagine the surprise on candidate’s faces when they have an audience of 50 people. What’s more, all staff members are invited to weigh in on the candidates through an open online feedback form. You may be a library programmer, but your opinion of the biomedical librarian candidate is just as valued. We’ve talked to candidates who have commented that the audience for the presentation was not only memorable in comparison to other interviews, but also that the diverse audience sent a strong message of library community. Oh, and once hired, there is almost always a welcoming event that is open to all staff.

All-Staff Meetings

Twice a year we have all-staff meetings. But if everyone’s in a meeting, who’s taking care of the Library? On all-staff meeting days, the program is run twice, with a morning session and an afternoon session. This allows staff to come at a time that is most convenient, while still keeping our service desks open. The meetings usually begin with introduction of new staff (sensing a theme here?) before launching into programs that are designed to inform the community of projects or changes, and may also include invited guests from other parts of campus. One all-staff meeting also becomes our annual “Inspiring Ideas Conference.” After opening comments and introductions, a keynote session is followed by break-out sessions where staff present to other staff on activities, tools, and services provided throughout the library. Past sessions have included coping with collection disasters (work, home, community), personal finance tools available through library resources, an insider’s look at the University Press of New England (UPNE), and hardware and software available for personal use through the media center.

DCLSA

Our organization also maintains a social support group known as the Dartmouth College Library Staff Association. You can see on the DCLSA home page  that the purpose of the group is three-fold:

• Promote communication and cooperation among staff in the library through membership and participation in the DCLSA; 
• Provide a scholarship fund that offers members partial tuition reimbursement for continuing education courses or programs; 
• Promote staff morale and social relationships by welcoming new staff, administering staff welfare funds and sponsoring social or educational events

The events throughout the year are well-attended.

Taken altogether, I honestly can say that there is not another department or organization on campus that I’d rather be a part of. I’m glad to be a staff member of the library, and I do feel the initiation pain level was just about zero, without even a spoonful of sugar.

Anthony Helm is the Head of Digital Media and Library Technologies at Dartmouth College. Once in a great while, he tweets @kajiai, but you can contact him more easily by emailing him at anthony.helm@dartmouth.edu. 

Frye Leadership Institute, Class of 2012, Or, Finding My Tribe

I can admit it now, especially since it’s in the past, but I was a bit intimidated when I saw a list of the company I’d be keeping as a member of the Frye Leadership Institute, Class of 2012. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’m not confident in my skills. I received my Master’s in Library and Information Sciences in 2003 and I’ve been a librarian long enough to feel I usually know what I’m talking about. Heck, people seem to listen when I speak. I love what I do and I’m pretty good at it. It’s just that there’s something about the prestige of big name schools and impressive sounding titles that gave me pause.

Pause or no, I reminded myself that I was selected to participate for a reason. Perhaps it was to balance administrators and managers with a few people lower on the organization chart. Perhaps it had something to do with how outspoken I can be. Perhaps it was to balance the prestigious, research institutions with a locally-respected-but-not-nationally-known, small, liberal arts college. Regardless of the reason, I wasn’t going to let my momentary trepidation stop me. I packed my bags and off I went to DC.

My fellow Fryers are probably going to be surprised to read my admission of nervousness because by the second day, I was over it. That’s also when I noticed that we were becoming a cohesive group. Despite our varied backgrounds, institutions, career stages, it quickly became apparent that we all cared about the same things: thoughtful innovation and collaboration, the success of our institutions, and the success of our communities. That age-old cliché of saying the same things but talking about them with different vocabularies? We were living examples of that, but instead of being divided by those differences, we found ways to communicate and to balance and encourage each other.

If that had been it, just spending time with the other Frye Fellows would have been an amazing experience. But there was much more. We also got to listen to and speak with a cross-section of thought leaders and influential figures in higher education. Our deans were Joanne Kossuth, Vice President for Operations and CIO at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and Elliot Shore, CIO and Director of Libraries at Bryn Mawr College. In addition to spending time with our deans, they arranged for us to hear from and speak with:

• Diana Oblinger, President and CEO of EDUCAUSE;
• Chuck Henry, President of the Council on Library and Information Resources;
• Eduardo Ochoa, outgoing Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education;
• Kathleen Santora, CEO of the National Association of College and University Attorneys;
• Craig Parker, General Counsel at the University of the District of Columbia;
• Richard Culatta, Deputy Director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education;
• John Walda, President and CEO of the National Association of College and University Business Officers;
• Jenny Rickard, Chief Enrollment and Communications Officer, Bryn Mawr College;
• Jane Brown, Vice President of Enrollment Management, Northeastern University; and
• Rick Legon, President of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.

Even more impressive than the fact that we had the opportunity to speak with these people was the way that every single visitor was open, frank, and honest in their discussion. Even when we asked them tough questions (and we did ask them tough questions), these people answered. Best of all, spending time talking about the issues facing higher education, in roleplaying exercises and small group discussions and even out at dinner, completely shattered our stereotypes and preconceived ideas about people in these roles.

That’s the point of Frye. These experiences taught us to let go of the prejudices and stereotypes we had about the people who don’t inhabit our particular silos in higher education. That was one of my biggest take-away from the week I spent at the Frye Leadership Institute. I wasn’t alone in these impressions. Whenever I looked at the Twitter backchannel, I saw these ideas popping up again and again. (And don’t worry if you missed all our Twitter chatter. It’s been captured and I’m working on making it accessible.)

Even though we’ve all returned to our institutions, our work is only beginning. We’ve already done preliminary work on some amazing, collaborative, and innovative projects. I’m sure you’ll hear more from the Frye Leadership Institute, Class of 2012, in the future. In the meantime, if you want to keep tabs on us, you can always follow us on Twitter (a list which represents 34 of the 41 fellows).

I have to laugh now about that initial sense of intimidation, but I can still understand it. If you’re considering applying to a future iteration of the Frye Leadership Institute, but are hesitating for whatever reason, let me reassure you: please just apply. If you don’t think your small institution can afford it, there are scholarships. If it’s a feeling of confusion about whether or not you’ll belong, don’t worry. You will. Innovation is why the Frye Fellows came together, and innovation is something that cuts across school type and size and the roll you play in your institution, and even across the academy writ large. I went to Frye a little unsure. I came away not only knowing that I belonged, but also with the feeling that I had found my peer group. As I said to my fellow Fryers on our final night together, I feel as though I’ve found my tribe.

How to Prepare to be a Subject Specialist Librarian, by Kirstin Dougan

Dear library school student,

Some people enter library school knowing exactly what they want to specialize in—academic or public, metadata or reference, archives or schools. Others need to take several classes or an independent study or practicum in an area before they know what path they want to follow. There are several things you should do to prepare yourself for the profession if you come to library school knowing you want to be a subject specialist. These same steps can help you decide if that is the path for you if you are undecided.

Before I get into my suggestions, I want to warn you that you shouldn’t put all of your hopes into getting a graduate assistantship or hourly position in the library specialty of your choice. There will be a lucky handful of people who get to do this, but economics mean that these opportunities are available for fewer and fewer students. Don’t use that as an excuse to not get as much exposure as possible to your desired specialty.

Back to my main theme, though, you should acquaint yourself with what it means to be a subject librarian in the area that interests you. To do this you should seek out the relevant specialist on your campus and talk to him or her—preferably before your last semester in the program! Take time to cultivate this relationship. The subject specialist can be a mentor for you throughout your library school career. Most are happy to give advice about coursework, projects, job applications, etc.

Find the library association for that subject and see what kind of information they offer. Many have information online about becoming a librarian in their specialty. Attending a conference may be out of your means, but many library associations offer assistance or scholarships to students wanting to attend a conference, so it’s worth pursuing. Some associations even have smaller regional meetings that are more affordable. You might be able to carpool with other library school students from your area.

Look at job ads in that specialty.  See what sorts of skills and experience are being required. In some specialties, like music, if you are the only librarian for that subject on campus, you may be required to do public service, instruction, and cataloging. However, there are also institutions that need people solely to catalog music materials or to provide music reference service. Looking at job ads will give you an idea of the types of classes you should take and experiences you should seek out while you are still in school.

Once you’ve confirmed that you want to be a subject specialist you should take all of the relevant classes in that area offered by your school. Make sure to round out with classes in areas like cataloging, collection development, copyright, digital libraries, instruction, and special collections, as these are all areas that the average subject specialist should have some knowledge of, even if they don’t have direct responsibilities for them.

Do at least one independent study or practicum. These are especially useful if, for example, you know you want to be a music cataloger but your school only offers a general cataloging course. Don’t wait until your last semester to approach the relevant subject librarian on campus to ask for advice, or to ask for a practicum or independent study. The reason for this is two-fold. First, if you say you are serious about being a subject specialist in this area and we haven’t ever seen you (in our class or in our library) until now, we will wonder why. Second, we often have limited time to offer independent studies or practicums. If you wait too long, we may not have a spot for you that semester.

But, you say, I’ve got an undergraduate degree in this field or a masters (or PhD!) in the subject; of course I’m qualified to be a librarian on this subject! Just as liking books does not make you qualified to be a librarian, knowing something about a particular subject does not make you qualified to be its librarian. Every subject specialty has attendant issues that aren’t necessarily obvious to students in that discipline. Take time to educate yourself about the field so that you can get the education and experiences you need while in library school. This will make you a much stronger job candidate in the long run.

Kirstin Dougan is the Music and Performing Arts Librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She tweets both @kmdougan and @mpalillinois.