Allen, Bryce L.

Weech, Terry L.

English

IDEALS @ Illinois

Introduction to Occasional Paper no. 198/199

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INTRODUCTIONThe title of this Occasional Paper, "Critical Issues in Library Manage-ment: Organizing for Leadership and Decision-Making," implies thatsomewhere in any library's organization there must be someone or somegroup to provide leadership, and someone or some group to make deci-sions. The library that lacks leadership lacks the vision necessary to trans-form itself. Without leadership, it is likely to subside into "business asusual" that becomes increasing irrelevant as the world changes aroundit. The library that lacks decision-making cannot deal with any of theimportant day-to-day decisions that define the character of the library.So both are needed. Yet, somehow, leadership and decision-making seemto require different approaches. Many librarians have been convincedof the value of participative decision-making, but are they equally con-vinced of the value of participative leadership? Does that idea even makesense? On the other hand, a strong leader with a vision for the future ofthe library may be reluctant to have the implementation of that visionbogged down in the endless committee meetings that seem the hall-mark of participative decision-making.This, then, is the conundrum addressed by the papers* which were pre-sented at the Thirty-Fifth Allerton Park Conference (October 24-26, 1993)sponsored by the Graduate School of Library and Information Scienceof the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: how can libraries suc-cessfully combine leadership and decision-making in their organizations?This discussion has a number of components. Barbara Moran's keynoteaddress provides a pathway through the voluminous literature on lead-ership and discusses current concepts relevant to those seeking to pro-vide leadership in libraries. The papers by Herb White and MikeMarchant present different viewpoints on decision-making, and so setthe stage for a wide-ranging discussion of how leadership and decision-making can co-exist within an organization.This discussion then branches out into a number of specific areas ofdecision-making. Rick Rubin, and Nancy Bolt, discuss different focusesfor leadership and decision-making in libraries. How canlibrarians provide leadership, and engage in appropriate decision-making, in personnel matters, and in long-range planning?Finally, the paper by Tom Eadie addresses the environment in whichleadership and decision-making occur. Labor management relationsINTRODUCTIONand collegiality both constrain the choices we can make in organizingfor leadership and decision-making. Similarly, leadership and decision-making frequently occur in a collaborative environment, in which thepreferences of one organization must be weighed against those ofanother.There are no simple answers to the issues raised here. If there were, wecould have published the answers in a how-to-do-it manual rather thanbringing together the participants to debate the issues. It is our hopethat the discussion will lead the reader to think deeply and creativelyabout how their libraries are organized, and that this process will lead tomore effective types of library organization that will facilitate the leader-ship and decision-making so desperately needed by libraries.BryceL. AllenTernyL. WeechEditors*In addition to the papers presented in this volume, the conference included asession byJ. Brett Sutton, Assistant Professor, GSLIS, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, andJoseph F. Porac, Associate Professor, College of Commerce andBusiness Administration, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign on "NewTechnology and Change in Organizations." Robert Wedgeworth, UniversityLibrarian, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, also presented a session on"Collaborative Decision-Making on National Library and Information Issues."The contributions of these individuals to the conference is gratefullyacknowledged by the editors.2

Introduction to Occasional Paper no. 198/199

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