21 Library Managers and their Roles

Dr Kshema Prakash

 

I. Objectives

 

The objectives of the unit/ module are to:

 

  • Clarify the concept and definition of a manager;
  • Describe the role and responsibilities of a library manager;
  • List out the required skills of library managers; and
  • Analyse the role of a library manager is changing continuously with changing environment.

 

II. Learning Outcomes

 

After going through this unit/module, you would be able to learn the concept and definition of a manager; role and responsibilities of a library manager; skills required for library managers; and how the role of a library manager is changing with changing environment.

 

III. Structure

 

1. Introduction

 

2. Manager – definition and meaning

 

3. Role of a manager and managerial responsibilities

 

4. Changing role of library professionals

 

4.1. Traditional roles and responsibilities

 

4.2. New roles and responsibilities

 

5. Library managers and their roles

 

5.1. Technical skills

 

5.2. Human skills

 

5.3. Conceptual skills

 

5.4. Presentation skills

 

5.5. Communication skills

 

5.6. Time management skills

 

5.7. Leading skills

 

5.8. Planning skills

 

5.9. Controlling skills

 

5.10. Decision-making skills

 

5.11. Other skills

 

6. Knowledge management and role of library managers

 

7.  Summary

    8. References

 

1. Introduction

 

The library and information professionals (LIS) have been creatively managing the information and research resources of various types of information organizations. There are numerous skills that are practiced by all managers. These include the technical, the human and the conceptual skills. The use of these skills differs for various levels of managers. A manager’s aim, in a profit-oriented organization, is marketing and promotion of the organizational products but the LIS professionals aim towards marketing and promotion of library products and services. Thus we can say that the LIS professional is playing the role just as the manager.

 

In view of the above, changing role of library and information professionals has to be examined. In this module, the skills of LIS professionals will be first understood and then seen how much of each skill is used at various levels of managerial hierarchy and what importance each one has in the career growth of a manager.

 

2. Manager – Definition And Meaning

 

We can define a ‘manager’ as a person who is responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective measures wherever necessary.

 

The shortest definition of management is one attributed to Mary Parker Follett (1941): “management is the art of getting things done through people”. There are literally hundreds of other definitions of this term. Almost every one contains two elements, i.e., a mention of people and activities, and a reference to formal organizations.

 

Organizations are collections of people who work together and coordinate their actions to achieve a wide variety of goals, or desired future outcomes. Managers are the people responsible for supervising and making the most of an organisation’s human and other resources to achieve its goals. One of the most important goals that organizations and their members try to achieve are to provide some kind of goods or services that customers  value or desire.

 

So, what do manager do? Managers direct and facilitate the work of others. There is generally something of a pyramid shape to any organization, with three generic levels viz., the top, the middle and the bottom. In recent years, organizations have flattened their structures, and so the ratios at different levels have changed and will continue to do so; however, almost all organizations still have some form of these three levels, which may appear to be much of a hierarchy. The question “what do managers do” has many answers but it actually contains two issues; management function and behaviour. Some managerial functions are planning, directing, or budgeting, while behavioural aspects involve around the roles filled such as negotiator or group spokesperson.

 

Managers may direct workers directly or they may direct several supervisors who direct the workers. The manager must be conversant with the work of all the groups he/she supervises, but does not necessarily be the best in any or all of the areas. It is essential for the manager to know how to manage the employees than to know how to do their work well.

 

3. Role of A Manager and Managerial Responsibilities

 

Any managerial role and activity typically starts with the good old POSDCoRB acronym coined by Gullick and Urwick (1937): Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Direction, Coordination, Reporting & Budgeting. These functions underlie in one form or another, all management behaviour, however, they do not describe the work of a manager completely. They merely identify the objectives of a manager’s work. The author who had the greatest general influence in the area of managerial behaviour/work was Henry Mintzberg (1971, 1973, 1975). He criticizes the “functions” approach to management as not being reflective of what managers do on a day-to-day basis. Rather he suggests looking at the roles played. His concept employs ten roles divided among three categories as:

 

i. Interpersonal roles: figurehead, leader, and liaison;

 

ii. Informational roles: nerve centre, disseminator, and spokesperson; and

 

iii. Decisional roles: entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, and negotiator.

 

Evans and Ward (2007) suggest addition of the role of a politician to the informational role.

 

Usually, the four managerial tasks—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling— are essential parts of a manager’s job. At all levels in the managerial hierarchy and across all jobs and departments in an organization, effective management means performing these four activities successfully—in ways that increase efficiency and effectiveness. To perform the four managerial tasks efficiently and effectively, organizations group or differentiate their managers in two main ways—by level in hierarchy and by type of skill. Firstly, they differentiate managers according to their level or rank in the organization’s hierarchy of authority. The three levels of managers are first-line managers, middle managers, and top managers—arranged in a hierarchy. Typically, first-line managers report to middle level managers, and middle level managers report to top managers.

 

Secondly, organizations group managers into different departments according to their specific job-related skills, expertise, and experiences, such as a manager’s engineering skills, marketing expertise, or sales experience. A department, such as the manufacturing, accounting, engineering, or sales department, is a group of managers and employees who work together because they possess similar skills and experience or use the same kind of knowledge, tools, or techniques to perform their jobs. Within each department are all three levels of management.

 

Managers at each level have different but related responsibilities for using organizational resources to increase efficiency and effectiveness. To perform the planning task, managers identify and select appropriate organizational goals and courses of action; they develop strategies for achieving high performance. The three steps involved in planning are: (1) deciding which goals the organization will pursue, (2) deciding what strategies to adopt to attain those goals, and (3) deciding how to allocate organizational resources to pursue the strategies that attain those goals. How well managers plan and develop strategies determines how effective and efficient the organization is—its performance level.

 

Organizing is structuring working relationships so organizational members interact and cooperate to achieve organizational goals. Organizing people into departments according to the kind of job-specific tasks they perform, lay the lines of authority and responsibility between different individuals and groups. Managers must decide how best to organize resources, particularly human resources.

 

In leading, managers articulate a clear organizational vision for the organization’s members to accomplish, and they energize and enable employees so that everyone understands the part he or she plays in achieving organizational goals. Leadership involves managers using their power, personality, influence, persuasion, and communication skills to coordinate people and groups so their activities and efforts are in harmony.

 

In controlling, the task of managers is to evaluate how well an organization has achieved its goals and to take any corrective actions needed to maintain or improve performance. To exercise control, managers must decide which goals to measure— perhaps goals pertaining to productivity, quality, or responsiveness to customers— and then they must design control systems that will provide the information necessary to assess performance—that is, determine to what degree the goals have been met. The controlling task also helps managers evaluate how well they themselves are performing the other three tasks of management—planning, organizing, and leading—and take corrective action.

 

Effective managers need to have three kinds of skills—conceptual, human, and technical— to help their organizations perform more efficiently and effectively. The absence of even one type of managerial skill can lead to failure. Developing new and improved skills through education and training has become a priority for both aspiring managers and the organizations they work for. The tasks and responsibilities of managers have been changing dramatically in recent years. Two major factors that have led to these changes are global competition and advances in information technology (IT). Stiff competition for resources from organizations both at home and abroad has put increased pressure on all managers to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Increasingly, top managers are encouraging lower-level managers to look beyond the goals of their own departments and take a cross-departmental view to find new opportunities to improve organizational performance.

 

Today the managers who make no attempt to learn from and adapt to changes in the global environment find themselves reacting rather than innovating, and their organizations often become uncompetitive and fail. Five major challenges stand out for managers in today’s world: building a competitive advantage, maintaining ethical standards, managing a diverse workforce, utilizing new information systems and technologies, and practicing global crisis management. Achieving a competitive advantage requires that managers use all their skills and expertise, as well as their organisation’s other resources, to find new and improved ways to improve efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to users.

 

4. Changing Role of Library Professionals

 

Libraries are facing the major transformational changes due to the advancements of information and communication technologies. The technological changes have challenged and rendered many current practices of providing library services obsolete. The role of the library has always been to provide the best of possible services to all patrons possibly at all times. With competition from the World Wide Web, there is a

 

sheer need for the librarians to provide a facelift to their current outlook and services. The changing role of library professionals can be viewed by examining their responsibilities in their traditional role and new role as explained below.

 

4.1 Traditional roles and responsibilities

The library and information professionals assist people in finding information and using it effectively for personal and professional purposes with their knowledge of a wide variety of scholarly and public information sources and follow trends related to publishing, computers, and the media in order to oversee the selection and organization of the library materials. They also manage staff, develop and direct information programs and systems for the public, to ensure that the information is organized in a manner that meet users’ needs.

 

Most positions of library and information professionals incorporate three aspects of library work viz., user services, technical services, and administrative services. Librarians specializing in one of these areas usually share responsibilities of the other two areas also.

 

Professionals engaged in user services, such as reference and referral sections work with patrons to help them find the information they need. The job involves analyzing users’ needs to determine what information is appropriate, as well as searching for, acquiring, and providing the information. The job also includes instructional role such as showing users how to access information like navigating through the Internet and searching in e-journals, etc. The professionals engaged in technical services such as acquisitions and cataloguing acquire and prepare materials for use and do not deal directly with the public. Those professionals that are engaged in administrative services oversee the management and planning of libraries, negotiate contracts for services, materials, and equipment; supervise library employees; perform public-relations and fundraising duties; prepare budgets; and direct activities to ensure that everything functions properly.

 

Some of the traditional roles of library and information professionals can be enumerated as:

 

  • Custodian, who selects, organizes, and services print and other media.
  • Guide, who assists users in searching and critically evaluating relevant information sources.
  • Public relations officer, who maintains good relationships with management, clients, other libraries, and outside organizations.

 

Other typical duties include working on bibliographies, coordinating library and bibliographic instruction, working on inter-library loans, maintaining vertical files, etc.

 

The information that users require may be accessed differently but the skills information professionals need to manage this information can be adopted from the above stated established practices. The core skills traditionally associated with information professionals include information handling skills, training and facilitating skills, evaluation skills and concern for the users are all still relevant. These skills cover cataloguing, classification, indexing, enquiry work and user education, all functions which if managed by librarians will help to make the Internet an easier place to navigate. Librarians in all sectors have built up roles and library services based on collection, users’ needs and values that are the foundation of the library profession, mainly values of service, quality, universal access and cooperation.

 

The library must continue to perform one of the most important traditional functions is to organize the universe of resources in such a way that those most likely to be of value to the user community are made most accessible to this community, physically and intellectually. The traditional library skills mentioned above should be reassessed and their value to information services in the electronic environment applied. For example, the creation of meaningful metadata files based on cataloguing principles can help users find needles in the Internet haystack. The creation of catalogues including electronic resources can ensure access, authenticity, reliability and validity of network resources. The foundations of librarianship, which include skills such as cataloguing and user education, as explained above, are as relevant in an electronic age as they are in a print based one and will continue to provide a solid base of skills.

 

4.2 New roles and responsibilities

 

Librarians, like other modern professionals, are forced to adapt to changes with the fast growing technology. We have witnessed the tremendous changes that have taken place in the library services such as infrastructure, content creation, collection development, user interface, information and knowledge management strategies, etc. Digital libraries are the libraries without physical boundaries. Patrons can access information from any place, anytime, anywhere and in any format. The expectations from the users have gone up to a high level that the librarians are trying to meet with continuous learning.

 

 

The librarian of the future must be equipped with a wide range of personal and transferable skills in order to manage the changing environment. Management and interpersonal skills will make librarians more effective managers of networked resources and services. The information professional must change and adapt to the new electronic information environment, he/she must learn about the new technologies and be aware of the strengths and weaknesses of them. Information professionals within libraries are playing an increasing role in dealing with information in electronic formats by creating web pages to promote their services to their external customers and choosing automated library management systems. Skills in handling information in organizations are more necessary in this age of information explosion. Library and information professionals have a key role to play in this era. The role of the librarian in this context is to help users find the information they require, provide them with the tools to assess and use the resources of their individual needs. (Sharp, K., 2000).

 

In addition to the previously discussed traditional roles, the following new roles can be identified for the twenty-first century library and information professionals as below:

 

– Information Broker – for both print and electronic media, who identifies, retrieves, organizes, repackages and provides electronic access to digital information sources.

 

– Change Agent or Technology application leader – one who collaborates with IT services to design and evaluate systems that would facilitate e-access.

 

– Facilitator – who makes access easier by providing access, purchasing software and e-journal licenses.

 

– Educator – who trains on Internet use, tools, search engines, online databases and catalogues, electronic journals; use of web-based instruction and online tutorials etc.

 

– Innovator/Web Site Designer/Builder/Manager – who designs the library’s web pages and searches and evaluates information resources to be linked to the site; creates an awareness of library services on the web; and in some instances manages the organizational website.

 

– Database Manager –As print bibliographies are no longer in use, searching via online databases is faster and more efficient.

 

– Collaborator – Expanded area of collaboration, not just with fellow librarians but also with IT people, the community, etc.

 

– Policy Maker – who develops or participates in the development of an information policy for an organization, ensuring total or selective access to all information resources.

 

– Business Manager – one who negotiates with publishers and aggregators for the most advantageous license  agreements for e-journals and databases.

 

– Image Maker – One who adds value to the library to gain management support and project a positive image  to the outside world.

 

Apart from the ones mentioned above, a plethora of new roles can be added to the profile of library and information professionals today like the knowledge manager, navigator, knowledge worker, network educator, trainer, and facilitator so on and so forth.

 

The issue of the changing role of the traditional library as well as its impact on the role of professionals has been a major concern to the library and cultural world. An extensive amount of literature has been reviewed with respect to how the role of professionals should change to meet the changing demands. Most studies were concerned with the introduction of the internet and its influence on professionals. Therefore, most of the literature has been steered towards the force of the Internet in the information era as well as its impact on traditional library.

 

Firstly, the changing role of a library manager to an Internet literate user or IT expert is eminent. For most libraries in the world, this has already been happening, with librarians eagerly moving forward to run information literacy programmes and impart their Internet search skills to the general public. As communication and the transfer of information in the twenty first century will be via cyber space, modern information professionals will be future cybrarians or digital librarians. Network literacy and web-weaving have been identified as a supplement to the competencies required by the modern information professionals. Possessing a combination of skills other than those traditionally associated with libraries, including integrated IT infrastructure knowledge is important in these changing times.

 

Secondly, the library manager will have to play the role of an information manager in managing information content, an information consultant as well as a knowledge analyst in evaluating and analyzing information. A more likely trend is a gradual transformation of the information professional form a searcher to coach/trainer/counsellor/mentor. The specialist skills such as information management, organization and dissemination will be vital to the future success. The future role of information professionals is evolving into two groups: one group would act as the organization’s consultants, advising on knowledge structures and other technical aspects of information management; and the another group would be integrated members of teams of the new ‘knowledge professionals’. Finally, the future information professional has to assume heavy responsibilities in overseeing the overall functionality and effective management of the library.

 

5. Library Managers and Their Roles

 

Considering managerial aspect of a library manager, the role provides a career track for managers responsible for leadership and creativity in two or more primary programs including archival, historical, library, records analyst, support services, functions and library services. Considerably difficult duties may include establishing and monitoring guidelines, policies and procedures, production schedules, and overseeing specific technical and administrative program functions.

 

The occupation of library manager has artistic, conventional and investigative characteristics as explained below:

 

Artistic — Artistic occupations frequently involve working with forms, designs and patterns. They often require self-expression and the work can be done without following a clear set of rules.

 

Conventional — Conventional occupations involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. In this case, there is usually a clear line of authority to follow.

 

Investigative — Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

 

The following are some of the duties/skills of a Library Manager:

 

  • Administer, direct, and review library programs.
  • Provide guidance and advice to management on developing, implementing and revising library programs and policies and resolving issues regarding library operations and staff.
  • Develop and implement strategies for collecting information from customers and employees (surveys and audits) to identify library issues and needs.
  • Supervise staff responsible for carrying out the functions of a library.
  • Plans for responding to needs of a library by participating in the strategic planning process.
  • Develop library policies and procedures.
  • Direct preparation and distribution of written and verbal information to inform managers and employees of library policies, procedures and practices.
  • Direct and supervise the training of library staff in duties such as receiving, shelving, researching, cataloguing, preservation, and equipment.
  • Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
  • Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
  • Talking to others to convey information effectively.
  • Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
  • Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
  • Being aware of others’ reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
  • Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
  • Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
  • Adjusting actions in relation to others’ actions.
  • Technical skills required to perform the job.
  • Desire to meet and serve the library’s user community.
  • Ability to think analytically and to develop new or revised systems, procedures, and work flow.
  • Ability to exercise initiative and independent judgment.
  • Knowledge of computers, the internet, and commercially available library software.
  • Ability to prepare comprehensive reports and present ideas clearly and concisely in written and oral  form.
  • Ability to make administrative decisions, interpret policies, and supervise staff.
  • Ability to motivate, establish and maintain effective working relationships with associates,supervisors, volunteers, other community agencies and the public.
  • Knowledge of the philosophy and techniques of library service.
  • Ability to organize job duties and work independently.
  • Demonstrated knowledge of library materials and resources.
  • Creativity to develop and implement library programs and services.
  • Employs management techniques effectively in directing, planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, budgeting, and evaluating the library’s operation.

 

A library manager must exercise a unique set of skills. Similarly at various levels he/she requires different types of skills. For example, a library manager needs to have the technical skills, human skills, conceptual skills, leading skills, planning skills, organizing skills, controlling skills and decision-making skills. These skills refer to the personal ability put to use by the library manager in specific position that he or she holds in the organizational hierarchy.

 

As one moves up in the hierarchy of the managerial positions, the responsibility increases. The fundamental duties of library manager such as planning, organizing, leading, controlling and decision-making are the skills required to be mastered. In order to exercise these functions, one has also to keep in mind, the type of job, the size of organization, the skills and experiences of the people one works with and the time available at his or her disposal to do these management functions. Let us look at these essential skills in detail:

 

5.1 Technical skills

 

It is the ability to work with resources in a library. In an age of specialization, technical skill is perhaps the most familiar one required from most of the people. To become an efficient administrator, particularly at the first level, this skill becomes indispensable to efficient operation. As a supervisor of a set of employees, library manager has to ensure that employees have sound grounding in the principle, structure and processes of their individual specialty along with actual practice and experience. This appears to be the best way to develop the technical skills. As one moves up in the managerial hierarchy, perhaps this skill becomes relatively less important than the human and conceptual skills. In a relatively small organization, the library manager needs a lot of technical skill himself.

 

5.2 Human skills

 

Human skill is library manager’s ability to work effectively as group members and to build cooperative efforts within the team he or she leads. Every managerial level requires interaction with other people, whereas technical skill is primarily concerned with working with things. The first level manager is involved on a regular basis with the personal problems and life events of many non-managers. It is, therefore, natural that he or she must be able to work through these personal situations and effectively lead subordinate employees. He or she has to perceive and reorganize the perception of his or her superiors, equals and subordinates and his or her own behaviour subsequently.

 

If you have highly developed human skills and if you are aware of your own attitudes, assumptions, and beliefs about other individuals and groups, you are able to see their usefulness and limitations. Human skills can be developed without any formalized training. Many others are to be individually aided by their immediate superiors who themselves should possess the human skill in order to be able to impart that. An important part of the procedure is the self-examination of the individual’s own concepts and values which may enable him or her to develop more useful attitudes about self and about others. With this change in attitude, there may also develop some active skill in dealing with human problems. You as a library manager may like to observe your subordinate’s ability to work effectively with others. You may probably improve your own human skill of rating people for their effectiveness as you become more experienced in this art.

 

5.3 Conceptual skills

 

Conceptual skill means the ability to see the organization as a whole and it includes recognizing how the various activities of the organization depend on one another. It also makes the individual aware of changes in any one part of the organization that affect others. Thus the library manager gains insight into improving the overall welfare of the total organization.

 

As a manager you should have the ability to coordinate and integrate a variety of factors. You need to view situations and determine the inter-relatedness of various factors. The success of any decision depends on the conceptual skill of the people who take decisions and those who put them into action. At every level of the management, no matter which level you belong to, you have to recognize the overall relationships and importance of the change in order to be an effective library manager. With this, the chances of your success as a manager are greatly increased.

 

5.4 Presentation skills

 

Management is the art of getting things done. A presentation is a potentially effective method of getting things done through other people. Presentations are used as a formal method for bringing people together to plan, monitor and review progress of an organisation. Firstly, it puts you on display. Your employees need to see evidence of decisive planning and leadership so that they are confident in your position as their library manager. They need to be motivated and inspired to undertaking the tasks which you are presenting. Senior management shall be impressed by your skill and ability so that they provide the resources so that you and your team can achieve goals. Secondly, it allows one to introspect and retrospect. It may not be suitable within the presentation formats of the organization to hold a discussion during the presentation itself but it does allow you to raise the issues, present the problems and provide valuable input to decision making. Presentation provides a chance to speak your mind with the team members.

 

5.5 Communication skills

 

As a library manager, while putting forward your views in relation to the job, words should be pragmatic rather than philosophical. The greatest source of difficulty is that words often have different meanings depending upon context and/or culture. If you recognize that there is a potential misunderstanding, you must stop the conversation and ask for the valid interpretation. As with all effective communication, you should decide well in advance the purpose of the conversation and the plans for achieving it.

 

5.7 Time management skills

 

Time management is one of the skills not taught by anyone but one has to learn by oneself. It does not matter how smart you are if you cannot organize information well enough to take it in. And it does not matter how skilled you are if procrastination keeps you from getting your work done. The time management is very effective for supervisory positions. Supervisory positions can be very stressful and overwhelming when specific deadlines need to be met. Library managers need to handle tasks and assignments in a timely manner. Time is similar to finances and both need to be budgeted wisely.

 

5.8 Leading skills

Leading people requires that the leader must understand the values, personality, perception and attitudes of the people. As a library manager you have to act differently from another individuals because of your values, personality, perception and attitude. This is a very important factor to be understood in relation to the other person(s) who may be your superior or subordinate. Value is a conviction that a person holds about a specific mode of conduct and the importance of that conviction to the person. The effective aspect of the attitude refers to the feelings and emotions about your attitude towards a person, object or situation.

 

5.9 Planning skills

 

As part of the management process, attempt should be made to define the future state of your organization. Hence, planning skills will include:

 

–          Being able to think ahead,

–          Ability to forecast future environmental trends affecting the organization,

–          Ability to state organizational objectives, and

–        Ability to choose strategies that will help in attaining these objectives with respect to future trends, and library managers are expected to acquire skills to interact with intermediate planning systems such as using a computer.

 

5.10 Controlling skills

 

The skill of controlling consists of actions and decisions which managers undertake to ensure that the actual results are consistent with desired results. In planning for the organization, the management sets the objectives, which are the desired results for the organization to attain. Any deviation between the actual and the planned results must be corrected by the management by taking appropriate actions and decisions. In this skill, therefore, management has a predetermined standard, the information about the performance of the organization and a corrective action in case the standard set by the organization is not fulfilled.

 

5.11 Decision-making skills

 

Decision-making skills are present in the planning process. Management skill of decision-making for routine or non-routine problems is a time consuming activity and certainly poses a challenge to the manager for making a number of important decisions, good in quality and satisfactory in producing solutions to a problem. A library manager’s effectiveness lies in making good and timely decision. Again, remember that, in the decision-making process, you may like to decide on repetitive or routine problems. Processing library applications in a college or a university are examples of routine problems. Such routine problems are different from complex and novel problems.

 

5.12 Other skills

 

Apart from the ones discussed above, a library manager must also possess customer orientation and services skills; evaluation and assessment skills; managerial skills; knowledge of policies, procedures, issues and standards, and knowledge of legal issues pertaining to information resources and access; knowledge of various information sources and services; commitment to life-long learning; marketing, promotional and branding skills; project management skills; and knowledge management skills.

 

In the next section, we will discuss knowledge management in some detail.

 

6. Knowledge Management and Role of Library Managers

 

The development of knowledge management in recent years has become the key concern for librarians and libraries. The library managers in the digital and knowledge age should be in charge of knowledge management in their respective organizations in order to leverage the intellectual assets and to facilitate knowledge creation.

 

The management of information has long been regarded as the domain of librarians and libraries. Librarians and information professionals are trained to be experts in information searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, repackaging and disseminating. However, professionals in information technology and systems have also regarded information management as their domain because of the recent advances in information technology and systems which drive and underpin information management. With the growing interest in knowledge management, many questions have been raised in the minds of librarians regarding: the difference between information and knowledge; between information management and knowledge management; who should be in charge of information and knowledge management; would librarians and information professionals with appropriate education and training in library and information science be most suitable for the position of “Chief Knowledge Officer” (CKO) in their organizations; and what libraries can do in implementing knowledge management.

 

In his latest book, Building Organizational Intelligence: a Knowledge Management

 

Primer, Jay Liebowitz stated: “In today’s movement towards knowledge management,

 

organizations are trying to best leverage their knowledge internally in the organization and externally to their customers and stakeholders. They are trying to capitalize on their organizational intelligence to maintain their competitive edge.”

 

“The thrust of knowledge management is to create a process of valuing the organization’s intangible assets in order to best leverage knowledge internally and externally. Knowledge management, therefore, deals with creating, securing, capturing, coordinating, combining, retrieving, and distributing knowledge. The idea is to create a knowledge sharing environment whereby sharing knowledge is power as opposed to the old adage that, simply, knowledge is power.”

 

Knowledge management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organization’s objectives. The knowledge to be managed includes both explicit, documented knowledge, and tacit, subjective knowledge. Management entails all of those processes associated with the identification, sharing and creation of knowledge. This requires systems for the creation and maintenance of knowledge repositories, and to cultivate and facilitate the sharing of knowledge and organizational learning. Organizations that succeed in knowledge management are likely to view knowledge as an asset and to develop organizational norms and values, which support the creation and sharing of knowledge.

 

As a learning organization, libraries should provide a strong leadership in knowledge management. Because of the exponential growth in human knowledge in a variety of formats, libraries need to develop their resources access and sharing strategies from printed to electronic and digital resources. Going beyond explicit knowledge, libraries should also develop means to capture all that tacit knowledge that is of importance to their users, their organizations, and to the internal operation of libraries. The web site of each library should serve as a portal for all sources of selective and relevant knowledge and information whether explicit or tacit, whether on site or remote, and in all formats.

 

Libraries have had a long tradition of resources sharing and networking. These have been greatly expanded by the rapid development of computer, telecommunication, networking, and digital technologies since the 1990s. To facilitate the implementation of knowledge management, a well-designed and operational knowledge management system should be in place. Latest information technology should be used. The librarian should consider him/her self as the chief knowledge officer of the entire organization and should work together with heads of the planning department, the computer and information technology centre, the human resources management department, the finance department, etc. to design and develop such a system. Such a knowledge management system should be built on existing computer and information technology infrastructures, including upgraded intranet, extranet, and Internet, and available software programs to facilitate the capture, analysis, organization, storage, and sharing of internal and external information resources for effective knowledge exchange among users, resource persons (faculty, researchers, and subjects specialists, etc.), publishers, government agencies, businesses and industries, and other organizations via multiple channels and layers.

 

The utmost goal of knowledge management is to provide users with a variety of quality services in order to improve the communication, use and creation of knowledge. As much as possible these services should be tailored to the interest and needs of each user. Information about each user can be obtained by analyzing the records of user registration, surveys, circulation and interlibrary loans, frequently asked reference questions, and the use of e-journal and digital resources, etc. User satisfaction and needs should be collected through periodic users’ surveys. The findings should be used for the planning and redesign of library services.

 

A great amount of expert knowledge is possessed by library staff and users, both in and outside the libraries. In university and research communities such expertise is abundant and should be inventoried, indexed, and updated regularly and be made searchable and accessible through electronic databases created and maintained by libraries. The knowledge and accumulated experiences of library staff members form the intellectual assets of any library and should be valued and shared. An organizational culture for sharing of knowledge and expertise should be established with appropriate rewards and incentives. Those staff members who share their tacit knowledge and experiences through writing, publishing, lecturing, tutoring, or mentoring should be appropriately recognized and rewarded. An organizational culture which emphasizes cooperation, sharing, and innovation can only be established by strong leadership and commitment from the library director and a shared vision by the library staff.

 

Libraries should also encourage the transfer of knowledge and experience from experienced staff to new staff members. A mentoring system should be in place to help newcomers to learn from experienced library staff. Informal seminars where staff can interact and exchange “lessons learned”, “best practices” and other specific experience and knowledge should be scheduled at regular intervals and at convenient times. Special interest groups and chat rooms can be created through intranet. Since many valuable experiences have been accumulated over time, libraries should pay attention to favourable working conditions and environment, which will contribute to better staff retention.

  1. Summary

 It is essential for the manager to know how to manage the employees responsible for planning and directing the work of a group of individuals, monitoring their work, and taking corrective measures wherever it is necessary. The four managerial tasks, i.e., planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are essential parts of a manager’s job. The library manager’s role provides a career track for managers responsible for leadership and creativity in two or more primary programs including archival, historical, library, records analyst, or support services functions and serves. Library manager has to provide guidance and advice to management on developing, implementing and revising library programs and policies and resolving issues regarding library operations and staff. He needs to have the technical skill, human skill, conceptual skill, leading skills, planning skills, organizing skills, controlling skills and decision-making skills.

 

Librarians and information professionals are trained to be experts in information searching, selecting, acquiring, organizing, preserving, repackaging and disseminating. Knowledge management is concerned with the exploitation and development of the knowledge assets of an organization with a view to furthering the organization’s objectives. The knowledge to be managed includes both explicit, documented knowledge, and tacit, subjective knowledge. To facilitate the implementation of knowledge management, a well-designed and operational knowledge management system should be in place. The utmost goal of knowledge management is to provide users with a variety of quality services in order to improve the communication, use and creation of knowledge.

 

8. References

 

  1. Evans, G.E. and Ward, P.L. (2007). Management Basics for Information Professionals, 2nd Ed. New York, Neal-Schuman Publishers.
  2. Harvard Business Review. www.hbr.org.
  3. Robbins, S. et al. (2009). Organizational Behavior, 13th Ed. New Delhi, Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Learn More:

 

Did you know?

  1. John Abbott, Director, 21st Learning Initiative said “The future belongs to those who know how to learn”;
  2. A librarian can develop independent learners and readers for life;
  3. 21st century technologies à blurring boundaries à innovative tools & techniques à traditional tools may be redundant; and therefore…
  4. Break the tradition; go for non-traditional roles. Some of them can be like these –
  • Creative Project Manager
  • Director of Community Service
  • Web Analytics Manager
  • GIS (Geographic Information System) Map Specialist
  • Curator, Media Resource Center
  • Director of Emerging Technologies and Community Services
  • Discovery Metadata Librarian
  • Acquisitions Team Lead
  • Assistant Visual Resource Manager at the Museum of Art
  • Site Manager for Library Software company
  • Digital Manuscripts Project Manager
  • Intelligence Associate
  • Research Coordinator
  • Librarian Relations Manager
  • Sound FX Librarian for a film production company
  • Clinical Informatics Librarian

Webliography:

 

http://southernlibrarianship.icaap.org/content/v10n03/ahmad_p01.html

 

https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub108/digital.html

 

https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub129/pub129.pdf

 

www.codesria.org/IMG/pdf/Obadare_S_O.pdf

 

https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/viewFile/3333/3594

 

http://eprints.uni-mysore.ac.in/13598/1/10.pdf

 

http://www.slideshare.net/plaistrlc/the-role-of-librarians-in-the-21st-century

prezi.com/o8y28z-digv3/changing-role-of-librarians