L527 DRAFT Syllabus, Spring 2001

MANAGEMENT OF LIBRARIES AND INFORMATION CENTERS

Instructors:  Robert Noel, Linda Kamoji

 

Course Description:  This class is an overview of library and information center management.  Case studies, discussions, and lectures on human relations, communications, and library organizational structures will provide students with insights into management strategies within various workplace models and designs.  Though technology and automation are relevant to this class, the main focus is on human interaction and human variables in these organizations.

 

Objectives:

 

Required Reading:

Robert D. Stueart, Barbara B. Moran, Library and Information Center Management, 5th edition, Libraries Unlimited, 1998.  Articles relating to the topics covered by this course will also be on reserve in the SLIS Library. 

Supplemental Reading:  though not required, we will draw on exercises and discussions from:

Peter M. Senge The Fifth Discipline: the Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, Doubleday, 1990, and its companion guide, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, 1994.

Robert C. Benfari,  Understanding and Changing Your Management Style, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999.

 

 

 

I           Introduction, Detailed course description

 

-Introductions, some definitions, background, and important management thinkers (e.g. Peter Drucker, Ken Blanchard, John Lubans, Rosabeth Kanter, Peter Senge)

-Who are you? (look at the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II at http://www.keirsey.com/scripts/newkts.cgi)

            -Personal Management Styles

            -Time Management

 

II           Intentions, Interpretations, Outcomes (Human relations / communications)

 

            -Varieties of communications (from body language to MS NetMeeting 3.01) 

 

            -Modes of communications

                        Assignment 1

Management Mess-ups  (from ITKnowledge, Career Press, ISBN: 1564142760, 1997.  A web book by Mark Eppler, Chapter 2, Communication)

            Powerful Communication Skills:  ITKnowledge, Career Press, by Colleen McKenna, 1998 

              Chapter 2—What Did You Say? Gender Speak in the Workplace

 Chapter 10- Effective Conflict Communication

 

-Overview of Human Resources (corrective actions, sexual harassment, firing, grievances, compliance, and other legal issues), Yolanda Cooper-Birdine, Indiana University Human Resources Librarian, guest speaker.

 

            -Delegating, leading, listening  (Chapter 4, Stueart Moran, Staffing)

            Hiring, evaluating, interviewing, motivation, rewards, and performance appraisals[i]

           

-Managing your Boss / Communicating Upward

           

-Managing Cultural Differences[ii]  

           

            -Manager as Leader (Mintzberg, Zaleznik articles)

 

III          Coping with and managing Change[iii] [iv]  (Mental Models chapter, Senge)

            Assignment 2

 

-Collaboration, Teaming, Alliances, Committees

(Shared Vision and Team Learning chapters, Senge)  Guest speaker:  Joe Harmon, IUPUI Libraries.

 

IV         Structure and Types of Organizations (flat, hierarchical, other)[v]

 

-What's the mission? 

            Understanding the library's role in the larger scheme (school, public, academic, special)

 

            -Information Services and marketing

            Centralized / Decentralized library organizations

            Providing quality service without being “servile”

                                   

            -Understanding the mission(s) of your users/ being responsive to user needs

 

-Outsourcing[vi]

           

            -Ideology and Values as governing forces in Organizations

 

V          Library organization skills

 

            -Current Issues

            -Planning           Assignment 3

 

            -Budgets, expenditures, taking risks, and playing it safe

 

            -Principles of Control, the Illusion of Control (Chapter 6, Stueart, Moran)

 

            -Getting money

 

 

VI         -A review of Management trends and approaches: Systems approach, Transactional/ Transformational, Just-in-time, TQM, Reengineering/ reinventing, Responsibility Centered Mgmt[vii]    (Pat Steele on RCM, guest speaker)

 

 

Assignment 3 – Take Home Final Exam

 

Grading

1.  Class participation and in class exercises                   30%

2.  Management Science in-depth article review                20%

3.  Book Report                                                             20%

4.  Final Exam                                                                           30%

 

Assignments

 

1.  Six short summary papers (1-2 pages) of journal articles relating to each of the six sections of the class:  1) personalities and relationships at work; 2) human relations / communications; 3) change and adaptation at work; 4) organizational structures; 5) planning and control; 6) management styles and approaches.

 

2.  Critically review / deconstruct a management science article that deals specifically with library management themes.  What’s the viewpoint of the author?  What does the article prescribe?  Are there flaws, breakdowns, or counterarguments to his/ her conclusions?  What would have improved the paper, made it more convincing, practical (comprehensible)? 

 

3.  1000 word book report on a management book.  The field is fairly wide open; it does not have to be a book on library management, but should relate to the course in that it addresses some of the themes presented in the class.  For example, the subject may be organizational effectiveness, work environment, library administration, managing your boss, etc., and should have been published in the last 35 years.

 

4.  Final Exam (take home, short essays)

 


[i] Herzberg, Frederick, How do you Motivate Employees? Harvard Business Review Classic, 65(5): 109-120, 1987 (1968 original).

 Baker, Betsy; Sandore, Beth; “Motivation in Turbulent Times: In Search of the Epicurean Work Ethic”, Journal of Library Administration, 14(4): 37-50, 1991.

Gupta, Uma G.; Braunstein, Dan, “Technical Wizards, Lousy Managers…”, Information Strategy: The Executive’s Journal, Vol. 17, #2, pp. 16-22, Winter, 2001.  (EBSCO full text)

 

[ii]  Class exercise, measuring your cultural IQ.

 

[iii]  Dess, G. and J. Picken.  "Changing roles: leadership in the 21st century."  Organizational Dynamics, Winter 2000, pp. 18-34.

 

[iv] Kanter, Rosabeth M.,  “Collaborative Advantage”, Harvard Business Review, July/August, 1994.

(Also explore criticisms of teaming; can there be an overemphasis of group work and teaming?  How does this relate to personality types?)

 

McKinzie, Steve.  "Twenty-five years of collegial management: the Dickinson College model of revolving leadership and holistic librarianship."  Library philosophy and practice, vol. 2, no. 2 (spring 2000)  (url: http://www. uidaho.edu/~mbolin/mckinzie.htm)

 

Johnson, Steven,  Who moved my Cheese?:  An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in your Work and in your Life, Putnam, 1998.

Baker, Sharon L., “Managing Resistance to Change.” Library Trends 38(1): 53-61, 1989.

 

[v] Lubans, John.  "While I was busy holding on, you were busy letting go: reflections on e-mail networks and the demise of hierarchical communication".  Library Administration & Management, vol. 14, no. 1 (Winter 2000), p. 18-21.

 

[vi] Marcum, James W., “Outsourcing in Libraries: Tactic, Strategy, or “Meta-Strategy”?”, Library Administration and Management, 12(1): 15-25, 1998.

 

[vii] Benfari, Robert. Understanding and changing your management style, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999. 

 

Lubans, John, Jr.  "I borrowed the shoes, but the holes are mine: management fads, trends, and what's next."  Library Administration & Management, vol. 14, no. 3 (summer 2000), pp. 131-145