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Managing the Business of the Library: How an MBA Benefits Librarians
by Susan Payne
Both internal and external economic forces have long affected research libraries. Over the past few years, the Chronicle of Higher Education has highlighted fiscal challenges facing academic libraries, such as the spiraling costs of journals and fluctuating university endowments.
As an academic librarian, I have for the past four years assumed increasing responsibilities for managing budgets and selecting materials. In my present position, I oversee five funds that are closely associated with academic departments. At my library, the budgets are funded from the schools on my campus, so I feel an added responsibility to build a cohesive collection that supports the research needs of the faculty, staff, and students.
Finagling Finances
Yet, as library budgets have tightened and journal prices inflated, I have struggled with how to do more with what amounts to less (after inflation). Even though libraries are classed as non- profits, librarians must strive to maximize the allocation of their resources. At my library, this includes reconsidering contracts and managing collections more effectively. I believe that librarians who can comfortably navigate both business and library culture will be better equipped to solve the financial quandaries libraries find themselves in today.
Academic librarians seem more cognizant that, now more than ever, they must negotiate. For many librarians, there has been a steep learning curve associated with the complexities of licensing and negotiation. While I hesitate to make predictions, I do believe that negotiations and business meetings will increasingly become integrated into the academic library landscape, especially as libraries continue subscribing to products from publishers like Thomson or Reed-Elsevier.
Since I began working at Hopkins, I have noticed a shift in the organizational culture. Historically, when times were good and money plenty, my library tended to pay the vendor's asking price. Now it is not uncommon for librarians, including those at Hopkins, to question the publishers' licenses and counter their offer with more attractive terms. Recently, for example, I negotiated the reduction of a price cap for a new subscription. The cap ensures that the vendor cannot raise the cost above a set percentage during the term of the license.
Many universities are now thinking about information repositories and some have begun populating them. Information repositories can be thought of as vast containers that can have any type of information (or, if you're a techie, data) dumped into them. The ramifications of these projects, such as D-space, are that universities remain in control of their content creators' intellectual capital. For Hopkins, a repository of papers produced by our faculty might someday negate the need to buy published papers from for-profit publishers.
Expanding Educational Horizons
I earned my master's degree in the science of information (MSI) from the University of Michigan's School of Information. The curriculum touched on many different aspects of library administration, such as negotiation, management, and microeconomics. Although I particularly enjoyed classes related to web site design and database administration, I opted to focus on reference and liaison work after library school. I chose this route because I possess a customer-service philosophy of helping people connect with appropriate resources. With scholarly information available in many different forms, patrons often need help navigating and evaluating research results.
While my initial library training and on-the-job experience have served me well, I believe that my MBA program will further expand my understanding of libraries' changing environment. I also hope that the program will extend my understanding of the management of organizations and financial resources, and am confident that every course in the program will support my ongoing commitment to managing resources effectively.
The broad, cross-cutting curriculum offered in the Hopkins business school also gives me an advantage that I would not have had with my library degree alone. While I do not place much stock in the recent predictions that initiatives that circumvent for-profit publishers will eliminate librarians, it never hurts to have a back-up plan just in case.
The MBA will also help me obtain my long-term career goal of becoming a library director. Historically, the accepted continuing educational path of library directors has been either a PhD in library science or education. For me, it comes down to a simple cost-benefit analysis. I believe that the MBA will accelerate the trajectory of my intended career path in libraries faster than a traditional PhD in library science. Ultimately, effective library management requires thoughtful solutions to the economic problems that libraries struggle with today.
Susan Payne is Librarian for Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. She earned her Master of Information Science from the University of Michigan in 1999. Her personal website is available at http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~paynes/