An old one from the inbox about starting as a new, youngish library director in an established library.
Here are some quick links and things to think about:
1. How to manage smart people.
http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/28-how-to-manage-smart-people/
If your staff is smart, they mostly need you just to help them with resources and support to help THEM be awesome and don’t need a lot of top-down guidance. If they’re not as smart, you have a different set of issues.
2. Know the work.
A friend make this list. You’ll have to view this large but it points out all the different parts that go into library directorship in a smaller place and even though all those jobs aren’t going to be yours, many of them will be SOMEONE’s
3. Outreach.
I think the biggest thing that libraries do is they sort of hang their OPEN sign out and wait for people to come in. That doesn’t help or affect the people who aren’t coming in. Reaching everyone or as many people as possible in your service area is mission critical, to me, they spend money on the library so how do you help them. Populations that often get ignored are
- the elderly who may have mobility/cognitive impairment
- prisoners
- teenagers (people think they’re annoying, want them to come back
when they’re less annoying)
- the disabled who may need accommodation
- the computer illiterate
Basic improvements in signage, accessibility, staff training (for friendliness, usefulness, etc) can go a long way towards helping ALL these sorts of people without sort of unhelping other people at the same time. I really think every library needs to take a good look at their website, OPAC and other tech services to see if what they do is working for the patron, not just the staff. I mean you have to make the staff happy too, but reworking so that you’re visibly helping the patron is also good for funding and general satisfaction levels.
4. Eating your own dog food.
Make sure you’ve done a Work Like a Patron Day yourself and,at some appropriate point, for your staff.
