Presenters: Steven Potter, Laura Rein, and Shirley Baker
Steve Potter, Director of Libraries, Mid-Continent Public Library
Topic: Pulling Together So You Don't Pull Apart
Need to make sure that everyone has the same perception of what "real" work is. This includes desk work, helping patrons in the stacks, and doing outreach. It takes all of this to make the library work. This led to writing a vision for the library. If everyone knows the vision of the library and if everyone can articulate it, everyone can be on the same page. Everything that was done needed to be attached to the goals and vision of the library. Strategic environment matters. There are a couple of keys to this. There needs to be buy-in from the highest level. The plan also needs to be presented to the employees. Communication and connecting everything back is key. There is a distinct difference between managing and leading. Take time to plan and make sure that you are moving in the right direction. Need to think of things as one of four criteria: Urgent and Important, Urgent and not important, Not Urgent and important, and Not urgent and not important.
Laura Rein, Dean of University Library, Webster University
Topic: Bottom-up Strategic Planning and Finding ways to say Yes!
2/3 of the students and faculty do not reside on campus. They are either online or at a different campus across the world. Bottom-up strategic planning is writing the goals and objectives from the staff and then up. One of their library goals is take the library to where users are. Another goal is to integrate the library into university life, by saying yes to the groups that want to use the library outside the normal use of the library. Also do continual assessment, which get a high response by allowing the students to entire a drawing for an iTouch. By doing this they get 1000 responses. Basically this director not only listens to the users, but also responds to the user needs by acting on the requests and doing something about what is being asked for. It is not always possible to say yes. Also there are times where some staff are upset, and also some students are upset by decisions, but in the end there is a reward in seeing the users happy with the library overall.
Shirley Baker, Dean of University Libraries & Vice Chancellor for Scholarly Resources, Washington University.
Topic: Fearless and Fair
It is important to look for the potential in your staff and nurture each one. Even if they do not want to be challenged, or to do more than the basic necessities, but it is important to push them to their full potential.
In a new job, 20% will accept you no matter what, 20% will oppose you no matter what, and the rest will sit on the fence and see who wins. A leaders job is to fix those that aren't doing anything. Hold up pay check and say to get this you have to do what I want, If you don't want it, then you can do anything you want. You won't always succeed when doing something brave and firm, but you will succeed more times than not.
Remember: It is either you or your replacement that will do what it takes to get the job done.
This presentation was good. With three presenters each having only 10 minutes there was more that I would have wanted to hear from each one of them. However what they did say was good food for thought which I can take back to my job and incorporate.
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