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The purpose of this study is to investigate the opinions and attributes about Nigerian women librarians breaking the glass ceiling that prevents them from reaching management positions in their respective libraries.

Descriptive survey research design was used for the study. Questionnaire was used as the instrument of data collection. The population of the study was 147 librarians at the university libraries of the six federal universities in South-west, Nigeria. Purposive and census sampling techniques were used for the study.

It was found that the opinions about women librarians occupying management positions in the libraries are negative. Women librarians do not have the required attributes and capability for management positions despite the fact that the extent of their preparedness for management positions is high. The study revealed that there is significant relationship between gender attributes and managerial capability.

It was recommended that there should be abandoning of organisational stereotype that characterises the opinions of librarians which make them think that women librarians are not fit for management positions. Women librarians should develop the attributes and capability that can qualify them for management positions in libraries.

The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.

This monograph presents an outline of traditional management functions: strategic planning, human resource management, financial management, marketing, operations management, technological innovation management and the management of change. In separate chapters, each of these functions is first set out in general terms with emphasis on tested key issues, techniques, and the different aspects of the managerial role. Each chapter then analyses the function specifically in terms of the changing nature of librarianship and information services. It is suggested that librarians should be adopting a higher management profile and, with experience of IT coupled with traditional skills in selecting and organising information, that they are well placed for initiating as well as responding to change.

Training improves workers’ competencies by eliminating or reducing mismatch between the levels of acquired and required skills. However, the question of who needs the training can be pertinently managed by training needs analysis (TNA). Thus, the purpose of this paper was to explore the training needs of Pakistani university librarians on collection management skills.

The study was conducted on a randomly selected sample of Pakistani university librarians. Using survey questionnaire method, a five-point Likert scale was utilized to measure the acquired and required levels of collection management skills (CMS). A paired sample t-test was used to ascertain the significance of difference between the acquired and required skills. Further, descriptive statistics were used to perform TNA.

Results of the paired sample t-test showed a significant difference among all indicators of CMS. Further, findings of TNA specified more than 50 per cent of deficit (over-utilization), less than 50 per cent of surplus (under-utilization) and 20 per cent of job best-fit in terms of CMS. Based on these results, training and top-down allocation of tasks are suggested to the higher authorities to manage over and under-utilization of CMS and to produce more job best-fits.

These findings are significant to design training programs on CMS, to revise courses on collection management, to evaluate performance of collection managers and understand the causes of under and over utilization of CMS. Moreover, findings inform librarians to eliminate mismatch in the levels of acquired and required CMS through training programs that may further enhance job best-fits.

Discusses the role of the librarian as manager of an academic library. Compares the nature of library management with that of business management and considers the specific factors of academic library management: personnel, facilities and finance. Discusses survival strategies and academic library management in times of economic recession.

“Corporate planning” is the term which, perhaps more than any other, epitomises the adoption of business management techniques by the public sector. In Britain, with massive local government reorganisation in 1974, many librarians were forced to come to terms with such techniques whether they liked it or not. Of course, in its purest sense corporate planning applies to the combined operation of an entire organisation be it local authority, university, government department or industrial firm. However, in this paper I do not intend discussing “the grand design” whereby the library is merely a component part of a greater body. Rather, it is my intention to view the library as the corporate body. It is a perfectly possible and very useful exercise to apply the principles of corporate planning, and the management techniques involved, to the running of a library or group of libraries. Indeed, many librarians have already done this either independently or as their part in the corporate plan of their parent organisation.

This qualitative study explores the issue of library management support in providing a self-directed learning environment for research-support librarians which is an under-explored feature of librarianship in Malaysian public university libraries.

A total of nine research-support librarians purposely selected from these libraries took part in in-depth interview sessions. The responses were analysed using Miles and Huberman's technique, which involves data reduction, data display, conclusion-drawing and verification.

Five emerging themes and 31 sub-themes were identified. There was a general consensus among the respondents that their library management does provide research-support librarians with a self-directed learning environment to enhance their competencies as academic librarians. Nevertheless, these librarians also highlighted some challenges, issues and barriers related to the initiative and support received. Some suggestions are advanced for improvements to support self-directed learning by research-support librarians working in public university libraries.

Empirically, this study attempts to fill the gap in the knowledge that needs to be addressed from the perspective of Malaysian librarians, especially the research-support librarians, who serve in public universities in Malaysia, who have received little attention from local librarianship researchers.

Knowledge management (KM) is an emerging method of management. This study aims to explore the various aspects of implementing KM in university libraries of Pakistan.

A survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire, and data were collected from 75 chief librarians and reference librarians of 48 university libraries of Pakistan. A total of 60 valid responses received and analyzed using SPSS version-21.

The results disclose that a majority of respondents are familiar with KM, and literature reading is the major source of their awareness. The Pakistani academic librarians believe that KM can be applied, in the reference services, resources sharing, networking and information literacy programs of libraries. While, need for professional training and KM education are also reported. KM can be implemented in libraries through, use of ICT, developing knowledge sharing culture and developing mentorship in organizations. A lack of staff training, lack of expertise in KM, lack of knowledge gaining and sharing culture, lack of understanding of KM concept and its benefits and a lack of IT infrastructure are the major challenges faced by library and information science (LIS) professionals. Communication skills, information management skills, IT skills, leadership skills, human resource management skills are identified as key skills for the implementation of KM.

This study provides a base to develop a KM strategy and implementation plan for academic libraries in Pakistan. It will facilitate to constitute an important step toward the management of intangible assets in Pakistani libraries.

The results of the study will unveil the perceptions of academic librarians toward KM. It will help to understand the relationship between KM and LIS. The study will also identify the challenges faced by librarians and skills required for the implementation of KM in libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to report the training of college librarians, academic and management staff, IT managers and students on how to organise, manage and use a user-friendly library. In Uganda, as in many countries, the problem is that school and/or college libraries are managed by librarians who may have good cataloguing and management skills, but who do not have the pedagogic skills and knowledge of the school curricula that are necessary for librarians to be able to guide and mentor both teachers and students or organise curriculum-related activities or facilitate research. The development of user-friendly libraries contributes in improving education quality through nurturing the interest of students and teachers in literacy activities and active search for knowledge. Under the stewardship of the Belgium Technical Cooperation and the Ministry of Education in Uganda, library stakeholders were trained on how to put users – rather than themselves – in the centre of the library’s operations and introduced to active teaching and learning methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections. Several measures, short and long term were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. Given the disparities in the trainees’ education level and work experience, the training was delivered in seven modules divided into three units for over eight months in 2015. By the end of the training, trainees developed unique library strategic plan, library policies and procedures, capacity to use library systems, physical design and maintenance systems, partnerships, library structure and staff job descriptions.

To effectively engage the participants each topic was conducted using active teaching and learning (ATL) methodologies, including: lecture with slides and hands-on practice – each topic was introduced in a lecture form with slides and hands-on exercises. The main goal was to introduce the participants to the concepts discussed, offer opportunities to explore alternative approaches, as well define boundaries for discussion through brainstorming. The question-answer approach kept the participants alert and to start thinking critically on the topic discussed – brainstorming sessions allowed thinking beyond the presentation room, drawing from personal experiences to provide alternatives to anticipated challenges. The goal here was for the participants to provide individual choices and approaches for real life problems; group discussions: case study/ scenario and participant presentations – participants were provided with a scenario and asked to provide alternative approaches that could solve the problem based on their personal experience at their colleges. By the end of the group discussion, participants presented a draft of the deliverable as per the topic under discussion. More so, group discussions were an excellent approach to test participant’s teamwork skills and ability to compromise, as well as respecting team decisions. It was an opportunity to see how librarians will work with the library committees. Group discussions further initiated and cemented the much-needed librarian–academic staff – college management relationship. During the group discussion, librarians, teaching staff, ICT staff and college management staff, specifically the Principals and Deputy Principals interacted freely thus starting and cultivating a new era of work relationship between them. Individual presentation: prior to the workshop, participants were sent instructions to prepare a presentation on a topic. For example, participants were asked to provide their views of what a “user-friendly library” would look like or what would constitute a “user-friendly library”; the college library of HTC-Mulago was asked to talk about their experience working with book reserves, challenges faced and plans they have to address the challenges, while the college librarian from NTC-Kaliro was asked to describe a situation where they were able to assist a patron, the limitations they faced and how they addressed them. Doing so did not only assist to emotionally prepare the participants for the training but also helped to make them start thinking about the training in relation to their libraries and work. Take-home assignment: at the end of each session, participants were given home assignments to not only revise the training material but also prepare for the next day training. Further the take-home assignments provided time for the participants to discuss with their colleagues outside of the training room so as to have a common ground/ understanding on some of the very sensitive issues. Most interesting assignment was when participants were asked to review an article and to make a presentation in relation to their library experiences. Participant reports: participant reports resulted from the take-home assignments and participants were asked to make submission on a given topic. For example, participants were asked to review IFLA section on library management and write a two-page report on how such information provided supported their own work, as well as a participant report came from their own observation after a library visit. Invited talks with library expert: two invited talks by library experts from Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association with the goal to share their experience, motivate the participants to strive higher and achieve great things for their libraries. Library visitation: there were two library visits conducted on three separate days – International Hospital Kampala (IHK) Library, Makerere University Library and Aga Khan University Hospital Library. Each of these library visits provided unique opportunities for the participants to explore best practices and implement similar practices in their libraries. Visual aids – videos, building plans and still photos: these were visual learning aids to supplement text during the lectures because they carried lot of information while initiating different thoughts best on the participants’ past experience and expertise. The training advocated for the use of ATL methodologies and likewise similar methodologies were used to encourage participants do so in their classrooms.

Addressing Key Concerns: Several measures, both long and short term, were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. The measures taken included: selected representative sample of participants including all college stakeholders as discussed above; active teaching and learning methodologies applied in the training and blended in the content of the training materials; initiated and formulated approaches to collaborations, networks and partnerships; visited different libraries to benchmark library practices and encourage future job shadowing opportunities; and encouraged participants to relate freely, understand and value each other’s work to change their mindsets. College librarians were encouraged to ensure library priorities remain on the agenda through advocacy campaigns. Short-term measures: The UFL training was designed as a practical and hands-on training blended with individual and group tasks, discussions, take-home assignments and presentations by participants. This allowed participates to engage with the material and take responsibility for their own work. Further, the training material was prepared with a view that librarians support the academic life of teaching staff and students. Participants were tasked to develop and later fine-tune materials designed to support their work. For example, developing a subject bibliography and posting it on the library website designed using open source tools such as Google website, Wikis, blogs. The developed library manual includes user-friendly policies and procedures referred to as “dos and don’ts in the library” that promote equitable open access to information; drafting book selection memos; new book arrivals lists; subscribing to open access journals; current awareness services and selective dissemination of information service displays and electronic bulletins. Based on their library needs and semester calendar, participants developed action points and timelines to implement tasks in their libraries at the end of each unit training. Librarians were encouraged to share their experiences through library websites, Facebook page, group e-mail/listserv and Instagram; however, they were challenged with intimate internet access. College libraries were rewarded for their extraordinary job. Given their pivotal role in the management and administration of financial and material resources, on top of librarians, the participants in this training were college administrators/ management, teaching and ICT staff, researchers and student leadership. Participants were selected to address the current and future needs of the college library. These are individuals that are perceived to have a great impact towards furthering the college library agenda. The practical nature of this training warranted conducting the workshops from developed but similar library spaces, for example, Aga Khan University Library and Kampala Capital City, Makerere University Library, International Hospital Kampala Library and Uganda Christian University Library. Participants observed orientation sessions, reference desk management and interviews, collection management practices, preservation and conservation, secretarial bureau management, etc. Long-term measures: Changing the mindset of librarians, college administrators and teaching staff is a long-term commitment which continues to demand for innovative interventions. For example: job shadowing allowed college librarian short-term attachments to Makerere University Library, Uganda Christian University Library, Aga Khan Hospital University Library and International Hospital Kampala Library – these libraries were selected because of their comparable practices and size. The mentorship programme lasted between two-three weeks; on-spot supervision and follow-up visits to assess progress with the action plan by the librarians and college administration and college library committee; ensuring that all library documents – library strategic plan, library manual, library organogram, etc are approved by the College Governing Council and are part of the college wide governing documents; and establishing the library committee with a job description for each member – this has strengthened the library most especially as an advocacy tool, planning and budgeting mechanism, awareness channel for library practices, while bringing the library to the agenda – reemphasizing the library’s agenda. To bridge the widened gap between librarians and the rest of the stakeholders, i.e. teaching staff, ICT staff, college administration and students, a college library committee structure and its mandate were established comprising: Library Committee Chairperson – member of the teaching staff; Library Committee Secretary – College Librarian; Student Representative – must be a member of the student Guild with library work experience; and Representative from each college academic department. A library consortium was formed involving all the four project supported colleges to participate in resource sharing practices, shared work practices like shared cataloguing, information literacy training, reference interview and referral services as well a platform for sharing experiences. A library consortium further demanded for automating library functions to facilitate collaboration and shared work. Plans are in place to install Koha integrated library system that will cultivate a strong working relationship between librarians and students, academic staff, college administration and IT managers. This was achieved by ensuring that librarians innovatively implement library practices and skills acquired from the workshop as well as show their relevance to the academic life of the academic staff. Cultivating relationships takes a great deal of time, thus college librarians were coached on: creating inclusive library committees, timely response to user needs, design library programmes that address user needs, keeping with changing technology to suite changing user needs, seeking customer feedback and collecting user statistics to support their requests, strengthening the library’s financial based by starting a secretarial bureau and conducting user surveys to understand users’ information-seeking behaviour. To improve the awareness of new developments in the library world, college librarians were introduced to library networks at national, regional and international levels, as a result they participated in conferences, workshops, seminars at local, regional and international level. For example, for the first time and with funding from Belgium Technical Cooperation, college librarians attended 81st IFLA World Library and Information Congress in South African in 2015. College libraries are now members of the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association and have attended meetings of these two very important library organisations in Uganda’s LIS profession. The college librarians have attended meetings and workshops organized by these two organisations.

At the end of the three units training, participants were able to develop: a strategic plan for their libraries; an organogram with staffing needs and job description matching staff functions; a Library Committee for each library and with a structure unifying all the four project-support Colleges; a library action plan with due dates including deliverables and responsibilities for implementation; workflow plan and organisation of key sections of the library such as reserved and public spaces; furniture and equipment inventory (assets); a library manual and collection development policy; partnerships with KCCA Library and Consortium of Uganda University Libraries; skills to use Koha ILMS for performing library functions including: cataloguing, circulation, acquisitions, serials management, reporting and statistics; skills in searching library databases and information literacy skills; skills in designing simple and intuitive websites using Google Sites tools; and improved working relationship between the stakeholders was visible. To further the user-friendly libraries principle of putting users in the centre of the library’s operations, support ATL methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections the following initiatives are currently implemented in the colleges: getting approval of all library policy documents by College Governing Council, initiating job shadowing opportunities, conducting on-spot supervision, guide libraries to set up college library committees and their job description, design library websites, develop dissemination sessions for all library policies, incorporate user-friendly language in all library documents, initiate income generation activities for libraries, set terms of reference for library staff and staffing as per college organogram, procurement of library tools like DDC and library of congress subject headings (LCSH), encourage attendance to webinars and space planning for the new libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current state of continuing education in management for librarians.

Directors from public and academic libraries were surveyed to explore their perceptions of the need for and value of management knowledge in librarians.

The results show that library directors consider a wide range of management areas important for librarians to possess and believe that having above average management knowledge is a significant factor in hiring and promotion decisions. Respondents perceive that applicants for mid to senior positions in libraries are more likely to have average or low levels of management knowledge.

Limitations to the study are the small sample and the exclusive focus on library directors. Future research on the need for and value of management knowledge for librarians should also examine the perceptions of early to mid career librarians and should explore associations between employees' levels of management knowledge and promotion and hiring decisions.

Results suggest that librarians who wish to move up professionally would benefit from pursuing continuing education in management. Libraries should look for ways to offer management training to staff through collaborations with other libraries and community organizations. Library and information science education programs should offer strategically designed continuing education in specific areas of management.

This research demonstrates a gap in the field of librarianship in the development of highly knowledgeable, trained managers, and offers some solutions to librarians, library institutions, and schools of library and information science toward closing that gap.