1,037 research outputs found
Developing the concept of 'leadership for all' in library and information services : exploring the rationale and making it happen
The aim of the paper is to look at the concept of leadership for all within both the wider management and library management arenas. The main driver for leadership for all is the rate and level of change in the 21st century. Having leadership skills across all employees in the organisation is seen to help sustainability. Apart from change, other theoretical perspectives will be examined which inform leadership for all. These include developmental leadership, transformational management vs. transactional management, vision, motivation and innovation. The ideas around leadership for all in libraries will then be described within the context of the wider perspectives. In terms of achieving leadership for all in libraries, the following strategies will be considered: sharing the vision, trust, action learning and managing communication
Health services : a contemporary approach
Information services do not function within a vacuum. Indeed it is likely that the library
and information service (LIS) which does not take into account the external environment
will quickly cease to exist. The providers of services must look to the outside world and
create regular ‘snapshots’ of what is happening in the external environment. A key skill is
differentiating between those issues that will significantly impact on LIS, those that will
have limited relevance and those with minimal relevance. For those providers of
healthcare LIS the dangers in ignoring the health environment are two-fold. Services can
be developed that are not required which will result in the LIS becoming atrophied. The
other risk is that necessary services will not be developed and prospective users will go
elsewhere.
The purpose of this chapter is to identify the major drivers that are shaping the health
external environment at the beginning of the 21st century. This chapter is structured
around a Sociological, Technological, Economic and Political (STEP) analysis of the
health external environment. Johnson and Scholes (1999) have outlined the value of this
approach where the STEP analysis identifies key environmental influences that are likely
to drive change. This analysis should help LIS staff consider the differential impact of
key drivers on the strategic options available.
Providers of LIS could use the STEP analysis to consider strategic options but that is
not its primary purpose. It provides a structure to the many diverse and influential drivers
that are shaping healthcare. The intention is to provide an informed insight into the
challenges facing health service providers.
This STEP analysis has been developed through the contributions of various experts. Between
June 1999 and October 1999 a draft STEP analysis was produced. This was circulated to a range
of professionals involved in healthcare delivery including a consultant surgeon, a research
physiotherapist, an organizational performance development officer and a commissioning support
manager. They refined the analysis which resulted in the final establishment of the drivers that
provide the structure for this chapter. In Sociological factors the emphasis on self, health
inequalities and demography (especially the increase in the numbers of elderly) were identified.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT), biological and pharmaceutical developments
and the development of medical equipment made up the Technology drivers. In terms of
Economic factors, cost containment, evidence based practice and rationing were included. Finally
ideology, collaboration versus cooperation and globalization were established as key Political
issues.
The literature used to provide detail on the STEP factors has been identified using
three important criteria: currency, expertise of authors and the authors’ abilities to
present comprehensive overviews. Interested readers will be able to follow up specific
source material to expand on the level of detail given below
New structures and principles in health services
In almost four years, since the companion volume (Booth and Walton, 2000) to this title
was first published, the fast rate of change in health has continued apace. The approach
taken in Walton (2000) has again been applied in identifying broad sociological,
technological, economic and political trends. This chapter provides a perspective on what
is shaping the health sector in 2004, informed by a workshop (Herman, 2003) organised
by the United Kingdom’s Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
(CILIP) This workshop identified key issues facing health librarians
Developing innovative services and managing change
Health care library and information services (LIS) face continual change. Nationally,
geographical boundaries are altered and layers of management are introduced or
jettisoned to impact ultimately on individual LIS. Locally, mergers between hospitals
occur with previously unrelated library services being amalgamated. Within
individual organisations, the reporting lines for the library can be completely changed
resulting in new line management with different ideas and approaches. The librarian
can find themselves part of a new umbrella structure with new colleagues and
processes. Existing co-operative schemes can end with LIS being forced to locate new
collaborators and partners. Software companies can develop new interfaces to
databases necessitating wholesale changes to user education and documentation. As
health professionals embrace evidence based practice, a new portfolio of services is
required to support this trend. A larger organisation can decide that the library needs
to physically move to new accommodation. The range of external environmental
factors that can impact on libraries was documented in a complete issue of Health
Libraries Review (Day and Walton, 1995). Most of the changes that were identified
were unavoidable and required a response from the health LIS.
This chapter explores change within the health LIS context and demonstrates the
centrality of innovative practice. The drive to innovate has existed for many years.
Indeed Machiavelli was aware of the pressure in the Middle Ages:
"There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor
more dangerous to handle, than to initiate new order of things."
Machiavelli's vision was limited by his failure to acknowledge that innovation can be
managed as part of the change process. Innovation and change management are
complex and intertwined concepts. Many books, articles and research projects have
explored innovation and change. This chapter aims to provide a broad introduction to
key trends and concerns. The nature of change in the 21st century is described together
with the imperative this places for innovative service development. There then
follows an exploration of creativity within the context of innovation. Approaches to
the facilitation and management of innovative services are outlined. The chapter
concludes by discussing resistance to change, and ways in which such resistance can
be overcome
Contextual background to healthcare and health information services
Contextual background to healthcare and health information service
Providing direction and management for health library and information services
The rapidly changing technology, coupled with clinical users with current needs that bear
little resemblance to those of five years ago, means health LIS managers must develop
new services and incorporate new technology. At the same time the health LIS are
functioning within the turbulent health environment described in Chapter 1 where change
is occurring in all areas. Two key areas on which the health LIS manager must focus to
ensure that services ‘fit’ are strat egic direction and managing staff. This chapter is
therefore divided into two sections: strategic and human resource management. The
intention is not to convey that one is more important than the other, but that they involve
different approaches and skills. Strategic and people management are intertwined: an
effective health LIS strategy will be damaged by ineffective staff management and vice
versa.
The role of strategic management, informed by recent developments in the directions
taken by health information services in UK NHS trusts, is discussed. The strategic
process is outlined including strategic analysis, internal analysis, strategic options,
evaluation of options and strategic implementation. This section is completed by
discussions on the importance of different stakeholders to the strategy. Various business
models, already applied within the library sector (Walton and Edwards, 1997), are used
to develop the ideas within the health LIS context. The section looking at staff
management discusses managing change, staff skills, teamwork and staff development
Space in the university library – an introduction
The university library has been described as being ‘at the heart of the university’
(Urquhart 1977: 2). In recent years, however, the purpose and very existence
of the building itself has been questioned (Campbell 2006). A number of
trends have influenced this discussion, including technological changes such
as the growth in e-resources, the changing student population, developments
in learning and teaching, and diminishing budgets. At the same time, there has
been a great investment in university library space both before and since the
millennium, with major projects in England such as, for example, Lanchester
Library, the University of Coventry (Noon 2008), the Information Commons
at the University of Sheffield (Lewis 2010), the David Wilson Library, and the
University of Leicester (Fyfe 2010) attracting attention and awards. The same
is happening elsewhere in the world as can be seen from chapters elsewhere
in the book [...continues]
Space, use and university libraries – the future?
The chapters in this book have reflected various developments, trends, issues,
and opportunities relating to university academic libraries’ physical space up
until 2012. This chapter will attempt to give an insight into what will shape
university libraries and their physical space in the future. Whilst predicting the
future is difficult, the importance of having at least some idea of future trends
has been pointed out by several authors (Stahl 1987, Caldwell 2006): it allows
head librarians and managers to plan their buildings accordingly. There is also
a somewhat woolly idea of what ‘the future’ means in many predictions. Whilst
some of the literature predicting the future suggests a specific date or period of
time by which their suggestions could become reality (Line 1993, Raitt 1993),
many are unclear whether ‘the future’ means five years, 15 years, or 50 years
(Orne 1977, Kapp 1987). This has begun to change with projects such as the recent
JISC Libraries of the Future Project (JISC 2009), which looks at trends over the
next ten years, and the 2010 report from the Association of College and Research
Libraries (ACRL) which is interested in developments over the next fifteen years
(Staley and Malenfant 2010). Nevertheless, what is missing from the literature is
an in-depth look at how physical space may be used in the future
Providing effective continuing professional development to United Kingdom academic librarians in the further education sector : outcomes from a national survey by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP)
With more than 5 million adults engaged in learning, the further education
sector is by far the largest education sector in the United Kingdom.
Changes to educational delivery; the development of a socially cohesive
society engaged in lifelong learning; the need to build a competent workforce
to promote economic growth; and the importance of the development of the
UK within the global knowledge economy have had a significant impact on the
way post-compulsory education is delivered in the UK. These changes have
had a significant effect on the political landscape of the further education
sector and the information needs of students. As a consequence there has
been an effect on the skills and competencies required of librarians working in
further education colleges.
As part of a recent CILIP (The Chartered Institute of Library and Information
Professionals) survey, UK Survey of Library and Learning Resource Provision in Further Education Colleges, Kathy Ennis (CILIP) and Dr Graham Walton
(Northumbria University) have investigated the issue of access to continuing
professional development for librarians working in the sector.
The paper will identify why continuing professional development is currently
crucial for further education librarians and also why specific barriers prevent
easy progress. It will use the data from the survey to produce a model that
informs how different staff development stakeholders (library associations,
library schools, internal deliverers etc) need to work collaboratively. There are
major challenges currently being faced by United Kingdom further education
librarians and effective staff development needs to be in place for them to
cope effectively
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