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The purpose of this paper is to study the attitudes of UK head teachers and of librarians to the view that secondary school librarians should have the status of a head of department (HOD).

Questionnaires sent to 77 secondary schools in Cheshire, UK had response rates of 58 per cent from the librarians and of 49 per cent from the head teachers, with follow‐up interviews being conducted with 15 of the librarians.

Most librarians were employed as support staff, although many of them were doing a HOD's job; even when a librarian had this title, they did not often receive the recognition appropriate to such a role. Librarians were more likely to have HOD status in the independent schools sector than in the state‐maintained sector, and there was some evidence that head teachers and librarians have different views as to what a librarian's responsibilities should be.

There has been no previous study of this topic in the UK.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The institution of tenure has elicited debate and controversy since its introduction in higher education. Proponents argue the need for tenure based on academic freedom and efficient university governance. Critics argue that it represents inefficiency in the higher education labor market and protects less productive faculty members. The use of tenure in academic libraries has been no less controversial, with only 40−60% of academic libraries supporting tenure track positions for academic librarians. This dichotomy in the labor market for academic librarians represents a natural experiment and allows for the testing of the presence of a compensating wage differential for tenure.

This study examines 10 years’ worth of cross-sectional data drawn from member libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Models examine both the institutional characteristics of tenure-granting ARL academic libraries and the impact of tenure on starting salaries. Issues related to both a union wage premium and a compensating wage differential due to tenure are explored. The results of this research suggest that tenure, while serving other functions within an academic library setting, does not have the predicted impact on starting salaries.

While the important role of information literacy instruction as a central service in academic libraries is well observed in scholarly literature, there has been little examination of the impact of the rapid increase of instructional duties on practicing librarians, whose traditional instruction duties have expanded or whose positions have not traditionally required leading a classroom. The study in this chapter explores librarians’ perceptions of the impact that increased instruction tasks have had on their day-to-day and long-term goals, perceptions of the support they receive in performing their instructional duties, and what types of instruction training they have received throughout their career. The ways in which the addition of instruction duties for librarians have been perceived by the librarians themselves as they strive to increase support for instructional services without impacting the library’s ability to continue to perform traditional public and technical services functions is discussed as a marker of the future needs of the field and the necessity of recognizing professional strain.

The aim of the research was to find out if the work environment of professional librarians in the five state‐owned university libraries in Ghana encouraged continuing professional development (CPD) and to discover who the librarians felt should be responsible for this.

The research was carried out among professional librarians in the five state‐owned university libraries in Ghana. The study was to find out if their work environment encouraged CPD. The study further investigated who the employees felt should be responsible for their CPD. The importance of a plan for effective CPD was also discussed. Finally, benefits of CPD to the individual professional were looked at. The survey method was used. The instruments for data collection were the questionnaire and interviews.

The study found that the library environment in the state‐owned universities was supportive to a large extent of CPD. The study revealed that the professional librarian's involvement in CPD was a shared responsibility of the library and the individual. Some benefits derived from CPD by the professional librarians were job advancement and updated skills leading to competence.

It is hoped that the study will encourage library management especially in universities to consider formulating and writing down CPD policies and also to adopt management styles that will make them “learning organisations.”

This study investigates the level of artificial intelligence (AI) awareness among library leaders, practitioners and scientists of Indonesian academic libraries to elucidate the benefits of AI implementation and its necessary infrastructure and challenges.

The study adopted a purposive sampling technique to select the 38 participants and thematic analysis to analyze the data, identifying eight themes: understanding of AI, AI adoption, benefits of AI, competencies needed to support AI, facilities to support AI, factors supporting AI adoption, AI-inhibiting factors and expectations of AI.

Different viewpoints provided full awareness among library stakeholders and sufficient information to begin AI initiatives in Indonesian libraries as leaders, practitioners and scientists had a favorable, open and encouraging outlook on AI.

The study does not investigate variations in perspectives between the participants, but it examines their understanding of AI and elaborates the results into the concept of an intelligent library. Moreover, this study only uses samples from academic libraries.

Libraries can take these results into consideration before implementing AI, especially in technology and facilities, librarian competency with regard to AI and leadership roles in AI projects.

Library boards and library associations can use this research as a source to create guidelines about AI implementation in academic libraries.

The study addresses the gap in the research on university libraries' readiness and awareness to implement AI, especially in developing countries.

This case study evaluates the success of a change management process in a very small academic library at a public, rural college. It considers the existing literature on the subject and how it applies to this setting and details the change process.

The authors developed a new tool for assessment of work and its relationship to the organization design, dubbed a “Penny Chart.” The relationship between work areas uncovered by this charting led the change efforts and determined how jobs would be described and marketed.

Conducting a work reorganization within the confines of a very small library staff has extensive benefits, but does not come without the existing drawbacks of working with limited and shrinking resources in the current climate of higher education. However, intentionally charting the relationship between areas of work and determining natural areas of overlap and authority had significant benefits to the organization as a whole.

There is little to no existing literature on conducting a significant reorganization of this size of academic library. This paper contributes significantly to the literature by proposing a new method for reorganization when there is no change to the official reporting structure due to the size of the institution. In addition, this method will be valuable to institutions of all sizes conducting any significant reorganization.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of leadership style (LS) on employee commitment (EC) in university libraries in South-West, Nigeria.

The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study consisted of 684 librarians from 43 universities in the six states of South-West, Nigeria. A validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Findings showed that the level of EC in university libraries in South-West, Nigeria was fairly high (M=2.64 on a four-point scale). LS had a significant influence on EC in university libraries in South-West, Nigeria (β=0.245, R²=0.276, p<0.05). However, transformational LS (β=0.383, p<0.05) relatively contributed more to EC than transactional LS (β=0.183, p<0.05).

A limitation of the study was that the study was done in all the university libraries in South-Western region of Nigeria which may affect the inference of the study results to other university libraries outside this region.

The findings of the study will be of benefit to academic institutions, library management and librarians on planning and decision making regarding personnel management.

The study therefore recommends that administrators, library managers should adopt transformational LS.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the impact of performance appraisal on the productivity levels of professional and para-professional librarians in selected academic and research libraries in Ghana, namely, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Building and Road Research Institute, Crop Research Institute and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the Kumasi Polytechnic.

Both primary and secondary sources of data were used for the study. The primary data involved the use of a structured questionnaire to 60 respondents, but 50 of them, representing 83.3 per cent, responded. This was supplemented by secondary sources such as records on file, journals, books and Internet sources.

The survey revealed that these institutions practice performance appraisal on an annual basis as a way of promoting team work, reducing grievances, identifying employees’ strengths and weaknesses and their training needs. It was observed that these institutions do not have a common appraisal format for appraising their staff. Furthermore, only the Head Librarians carry out the appraisals instead of the Line Mangers who are always in touch with these employees on a daily basis.

The paper will be of significant value to policymakers and administrators in academic and research institutions in the planning and implementation of performance appraisal systems. Challenges facing these institutions in implementing effective performance appraisal have been highlighted and appropriate recommendations have been made to ensure quality service delivery.

NANCY ALLEN is Communications Librarian at the University of Illinois, Urbana, where she has previously held the positions of Assistant Undergraduate Librarian and Reserve Book Librarian. She earned her M.S. in Library Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana. Ms. Allen's writings have appeared in American Libraries, Film Library Quarterly, and Journalism Quarterly. She is author of Film Study Collections: A Guide to Their Development and Use.