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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the authors
- Reviews
Quality leadership is integral to the very future of our profession. And it doesn't only come from the top down. Effective leadership is customer-focused and collaborative, fostering a service culture that invites the involvement of individuals in every part and at every level of the organization, as the authors persuasively demonstrate in this practical new book. Drawing from case studies as well as the literature of business and social sciences, the authors provide guidance on how to apply the values of service leadership to both public and academic libraries. Through the use of examples, exercises, and tools for development, this book walks readers through the steps needed to create a sustainable, service-oriented model by
- Explaining how a service culture reaches beyond the individual leader with positional authority and extends to all individuals
- Showing ways to build rapport and trust within an organization, and how to balance encouragement with accountability
- Detailing strategic thinking and planning methods that will lead to improvements in customer service, human resources, organizational development, and training
- Helping library leaders create a sustainable service culture through codifying their organization's values, with advice on policies and procedures such as recruitment, performance evaluation, compensation, and succession planning
- Discussing the environment of change in libraries, showing how a library's organizational culture is at the center of being responsive and staying relevant
This valuable resource gathers the principles and best practices of leadership, and points the way towards creating a service culture that makes every staff member a library leader.
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Leadership Theories: Traditional and TransformationalChapter 2: Service Leadership and Its Paradigm in LibrariesChapter 3: Conscientiousness as the FoundationChapter 4: Building RapportChapter 5: Balancing Encouragement and AccountabilityChapter 6: Innovation and Evolving ServiceChapter 7: Strategic Planning: The Practice of Innovation and Strategic ThinkingChapter 8: Sustaining Service as a ValueChapter 9: Formalizing Service Leadership in Libraries: Embedding Processes and PoliciesChapter 10: Service Leadership in Libraries BibliographyIndex
"Thoughtful and thought provoking, the book's extensive bibliography serves as witness to the thoroughness of the authors. For each topic, vanDuinkerken and Kaspar chose excellent sources, relying on experts within each domain."
— SLA Leadership and Management Division
"This is probably one of the best books on leadership in libraries that has come out so far. It is a great resource not only for librarians who are already in leadership positions but for those who wish to lead who may not be quite ready to do so."
— Against the Grain
"They create an attractive vision of a modern library where fruitful leadership emerges from all participants, and those in positions of authority have the skills and insights to nurture this. Examples and exercises tie the theoretical foundation to library practices. Useful chapters deal with building rapport, balancing encouragement and accountability, innovation, strategic planning, and sustainability … This book should inspire professionals entrusted with leading library stakeholders into a more collaborative future."
— VOYA
"This book is almost dangerous, because no library I know of can implement all the good ideas these authors have carefully presented and documented … a well-written book with case studies, discussions, and copious endnotes."
— Catholic Library World
"The timely writing addresses some current problems surrounding customer-driven and customer-focused organization and culture in libraries and outlines useful models for both leaders and institutions alike. The changing nature of modern libraries would make this title extremely relevant to many institutions by redefining library services and core values."
— Reference Reviews