Friday, April 25, 2014

Beware the Next Big Thing; Harvard Business Review Magazine, May 2014

Julian Birkinshaw, Harvard Business Review Magazine; Beware the Next Big Thing:
"Where do new management practices come from? A few emerge fully formed from the minds of academics and consultants, but the vast majority come from corporate executives experimenting with new ideas in their own organizations. A case in point is the online retailer Zappos, which is replacing its traditional hierarchy with a self-organizing “operating system” known as holacracy.
Zappos’s experiment is getting a lot of attention. Like many management innovations before it, holacracy has an exciting zeitgeist appeal. At least a few executives in other firms are no doubt asking themselves, given today’s pressure to innovate and the changing nature of the workforce, is this the management idea of the moment? Could it give my company a competitive edge? What are the risks of trying to import it?
For decades, executives have been asking similar questions whenever management innovations burst onto the scene...
But importing ideas is risky. Even the most obviously useful theory or practice can go wrong if a company is unprepared to act on the insights it offers. And the value of most management ideas—and where they might take you—is far from obvious...
Publicity also has a downside: It raises the risk of hype, disappointment, and, sometimes, a repudiation of the idea. (See the sidebar “The Inevitable Hype Cycle.”) This magazine, for example, has debuted ideas that are now part of the management canon—and ideas that have been relegated to the dusty archive shelves. Your goal as a manager couldn’t be more different from those of the media and academia. You’re not trying to ride the next wave; you’re looking for the perfect wave."

Seeing Your Future Self: Do You See a Library Director? | Leading From the Library; Library Journal, 4/23/14

Steven Bell, Library Journal; Seeing Your Future Self: Do You See a Library Director? | Leading From the Library:
"At some career stage librarians may contemplate moving to an administrative leadership position with the goal of becoming a director or dean. Here are some things to consider as you dwell on your administrative leadership potential.
Deans and directors aren’t the only ones who lead in the library. If leadership is about the ability to influence others and get them engaged with an idea or vision, then leaders can emerge all around the library. However, the scope of your influence, particularly as the architect of a much broader vision for a library organization, will amplify in magnitude as a director. It is regarded as the optimal way to influence thinking at a larger scale, particularly if it requires support from stakeholders beyond the library. More than that, moving into library administration offers the opportunity to implement a personal and unique vision for how a library organization should operate and how it can impact community members."

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Leadership Is Not Command; Library Journal, 4/9/14

John N. Berry III, Library Journal; Leadership Is Not Command:
"It took me decades TRULY to understand the qualities that make for great leadership. I finally learned what they are but only after observing more models, mentors, and lessons than I can count. I am still surprised at how slowly I realized that the key strengths of great leaders are not command, control, or management skills, as so many top administrators misleadingly “teach” us. Part of the problem is that while it is easy to state what makes a great leader, it is very difficult and even risky to practice great leadership.
A great leader must have the ability to spot and hire excellent people; build a passionate, committed team; liberate everyone on that team; and then trust them with the autonomy and authority to make decisions, innovate, and test their inspirations and ideas in practice.
The leader brings a vision and broad outline of services and programs to a library and supplies the environment, the culture, and the attitudes through which the services are offered. But members of the team will come up with most of the ideas and often make the decisions and strategies to execute them. It takes a carefully supportive and wide-open mentality on the part of the administration to stimulate staff to enlist and participate in the process. Too few library leaders possess the willingness to trade command and control for participation, creativity, and innovation."

Monday, April 14, 2014

Without more tax dollars, Miami-Dade library system would fire more than half its full-time staff; Miami Herald, 4/10/14

Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald; Without more tax dollars, Miami-Dade library system would fire more than half its full-time staff:
"Without more tax dollars, Miami-Dade County’s library system would fire 56 percent of its full-time staff and bring on part-time workers to operate branches that will see hours cut by an average of 35 percent, according to a document released Thursday.
The draft budget assumes no increase in the coming fiscal year in the special property tax that funds the library system, which has been relying on cash reserves since 2010. The tax currently generates $30 million, but the library’s current budget is $50 million and cash reserves are forecast to be gone by the fall. Mayor Carlos Gimenez says he will not endorse higher taxes without a referendum, leaving library administrators to map out how they would manage a 40 percent drop in funding.
The plan assumes no branch closings. Gimenez instructed library director Raymond Santiago to fashion a $30 million budget with all 49 branches, after facing a firestorm last year when the mayor proposed saving money by closing some of the less-popular branches."

ALA Releases 2014 State of America’s Libraries Report Including List of Most Challenged Books of 2013; Library Journal, 4/14/14

Gary Price, Library Journal; ALA Releases 2014 State of America’s Libraries Report Including List of Most Challenged Books of 2013:
"The full text report (HTML) is available here."

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Consortium of foundations bids to buy August Wilson Center; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 4/8/14

Mark Belko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Consortium of foundations bids to buy August Wilson Center:
"A consortium of local foundations has stepped forward with a bid to buy the beleaguered Downtown property with the goal of preserving its mission as a center of African-American arts programming.
Led by the Pittsburgh Foundation, the local group submitted a joint bid last week to conservator Judith Fitzgerald, the former bankruptcy judge charged with selling the building to pay off a $7 million delinquent mortgage and other debts.
"The Pittsburgh Foundation is among a small group of local foundations that is developing a joint initiative in efforts to preserve the August Wilson Center and to safeguard its purpose as the pre-eminent community resource for African-American arts programming," John Ellis, a Pittsburgh Foundation spokesman, said in a statement...
"The foundation consortium's primary objective is to explore opportunities to save the August Wilson Center in hope that it may reopen and remain operating for the long term fulfilling its essential role as a community hub for African-American arts and culture.""

Monday, April 7, 2014

The Found Art of Thank-You Notes; New York Times, 4/4/14

Guy Trebay, New York Times; The Found Art of Thank-You Notes:
"While researchers leave open the matter of which format is best for rendering thanks for small favors, courtesies, presents or a tuna casserole supper, there is a growing sense that the old, reliable handwritten note is making a comeback — and not just as a prop on “Tonight.”
For Martin Nowak, director of Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics, thanking is a form of cooperative reciprocity with roots in primate behavior. For Paula Madden, a real estate developer in Portland, Ore., “Good manners are the basis of civilization.”
This truth is not, alas, universally acknowledged, added Ms. Madden, who manages a portfolio of family-owned properties and also oversees Portland’s Friday Evening Dancing Class for children, a social institution now in its 92nd year. “As you grow older, it becomes more important when someone recognizes the effort you have made on their behalf and reciprocates in the form of a written acknowledgment,” she said.
A text message just doesn’t cut it, Ms. Madden said, for the simple reason that conveying emotion in digital formats is a lost cause."

Saturday, April 5, 2014

Queens Library Board votes not to suspend big-spending director Thomas Galante; New York Daily News, 4/3/14

Caitlin Nolan, Chelsia Rose Marcius, Tim O'Connor, New York Daily News; Queens Library Board votes not to suspend big-spending director Thomas Galante:
"Elected officials called for the library board to shelve Thomas Galante while city and federal investigations probe his eye-popping salary, luxury office renovations and undisclosed side job. Following a five-hour meeting, much of it behind closed doors, the library’s board voted 9-9 not to force him to take a leave of absence. The tie meant the motion to suspend did not carry...
One board member, Terri Mangino, arrived from Florida at the last minute to cast her vote, said a source with knowledge of the proceedings.
“They waited for her to fly in because they knew she would vote to keep Tom,” the source said. “They knew she would tie it up.”
Galante smiled as he left the library late Thursday, his eye-popping $392,000-a-year job intact."

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Carnegie Library back on solid financial footing; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 3/26/14

Mackenzie Carpenter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Carnegie Library back on solid financial footing:
"In 2009, the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh was teetering on a precipice, faced with a dramatic drop in state revenues and the prospect of shuttered branches, shorter hours and fewer users because of competition from the Internet.
Today, the library system is on solid ground again, thanks to revenues from two new funding sources -- a new property tax of 0.25 mill approved by voters in 2011 and money from a casino gambling tax.
"We feel we're in a position of strength and stability when it comes to finances," the library's president and director Mary Frances Cooper said Wednesday, hours before a "State of the Library" public meeting at the East Liberty branch...
For 2014, there are two big priorities: increased community engagement -- more teen and children's services, for example -- and expanded digital initiatives. The library has hired Toby Greenwalt as its new director of digital strategy and technology integration to help fully link the library's physical services with the virtual world."