A Better Ladder: Fostering the Leaders Libraries Need
"The talent at work in libraries should make anyone optimistic for the future—not only of libraries but of the varied communities they serve. As the latest class of LJ Movers & Shakers demonstrates, the field is rippling with energetic, committed, innovative people addressing issues to create ever better service. It’s important that today’s leaders guarantee an institutional dynamic that will keep up-and-coming visionaries like these happy in libraries, allow them to flourish, and enable the best to step forward into larger roles.
We also need to continue to develop institutional cultures that these high achievers want to be in as they choose where to contribute their time and skills. Look within: Is your library attracting innovators, spurring their success, and offering paths to advancement and new challenges? Building out a setting that attracts and retains innovative thinkers is critical to the future of our libraries...
Taking the next step, from frontline librarian to management or from management to top leadership, can be challenging and rewarding, and it helps to have guidance along the way (see some perspectives in “The Next Step: Manager,” “The Next Step: Director,” and “Exit Strategies“). We also need to make sure that those challenges are worth taking on—that prospective managers see firsthand that their work will be valued, both financially and emotionally, and that they will be given the chance to take initiative and make a real difference.
If we want to prevent a “pipeline out” of libraries, as Dorothea Salo puts it, we must support our “tall poppies”—speak up for innovators who can feel isolated in their lone roles or see backlash as perceived self-promoters and fight a narrative that pits their efforts in competition with traditional core services. We must also battle microaggressions and institutional bias, which, however unconscious, spawn an unwelcoming environment for librarians of color."
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