Sources: The Academic Library Administrator’s Field Guide
The Academic Library Administrator’s Field Guide. By Bryce Nelson. Chicago: ALA, 2014. 224 p. $70 (ISBN: 978-0-8389-1223-2).
Library administration is a learned skill. Aspiring library leaders can certainly read about management theory in library school, but it’s impossible for them to effectively navigate the terrain until they land that first job as an administrator and begin getting on-the-job training. That being said, some guides can help chart the way. The Academic Library Administrator’s Field Guide, a new addition to the corpus, is an excellent resource for newbies and more experienced hands.
Author Bryce Nelson, an experienced library administrator in academic and K–12 library settings, has packed quite a bit of useful and thought-provoking information and advice into a small package. The Field Guide is organized under three general areas of administrative responsibility: political effectiveness, staff management, and supervision of basic operations. Each area contains brief chapters (generally 4–5 pages) focused on key topics, including organizational charts, hiring, communication, websites and social media, and assessment. Each topic is presented in a standard format: assertion (a conceptual statement about the topic), commentary (observations and context), application (examples of good practices), and reading (suggestions for further research). Although this structure is perhaps a bit formal, it does serve the purpose of helping the reader easily and quickly navigate to needed information within each section.
The author’s own professional experience is apparent in his inclusion of some topics rarely featured in these types of guides, especially in the section dealing with staff management. For example, the chapter on tone discusses the need to encourage library staff for work well done and to be aware of prevailing staff morale. Far from being a “touchy-feely” subject, setting a positive institutional tone is an important part of an administrator’s job and can improve overall effectiveness. Another is the chapter titled “Ending,” which presents issues to consider as an administrator plans the potentially emotional and disruptive process of leaving his or her position.
As Nelson states in his introduction, the book is meant to be “an overview for busy leaders ‘in the field’ who realistically don’t have much time to read, think, and talk about their work” (xi). For those times when administrators do have extra time to read and reflect, the “Reading” feature in each chapter offers quite useful lists of relevant and more comprehensive books, standards, guidelines, reports, websites, and journal articles.
As with most field guides, this book amply repays a thorough reading from cover to cover, but will also be profitably consulted for quick refreshers from time to time. Although some of Nelson’s advice and observations will certainly be up for debate, especially among experienced administrators, they are good conversation starters. Primarily geared toward academic librarians, the Field Guide offers more general management information useful for library professionals in other institutional settings as well.—Jennifer A. Bartlett, Head of Reference Services, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky