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

Some concluding trends and themes

The composite picture painted by the contributors to this book has sought to harmonize individual interpretations with recurring trends and themes. The foreground of our ‘scope of practice’ is becoming ever more complex and continues to be offset against the backdrop of an operating environment that is subject to constant change and revision. Information scientists may be equipped to scan the horizon, but they possess silicon chips, not crystal balls, and should heed the cautionary lessons afforded by eminent commentators who have gone before: There is not the slightest indication that [nuclear energy] will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will. (Albert Einstein, 1932). [Television] won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night. (Darryl F. Zanuck, head of Twentieth Century Fox, 1946). The purpose of this epilogue is to accentuate some of the trends already highlighted by contributors that will impact on health library and information service providers

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