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But I Want To Hold It In My Hand! Print Resources
Gregory, Gwen Myer, ed. The Successful Academic Librarian: Winning Strategies from Library Leaders. Information Today Inc., 2005. ISBN 1573872326. $39.50. Purchase from Amazon.com.
This book, penned by experienced academic librarians, provides background information and guidance to people in all stages of their academic library careers. It's an excellent text for students, new librarians, and old hands; the content is brief enough to be interesting, yet lengthy enough to be useful. Gregory has gathered articles on a broad spectrum of topics, including pieces on interviewing, research, service, promotion, dossier creation, departmental work, and tenure and promotion. Also included are unique chapters on making the transition from public to academic libraries and on moving from the U.S. to Canada. An excellent annotated bibliography caps off the book.
Though it is intended for all groups, The Successful Academic Librarian may prove particularly useful for students and new graduates. Its real-world scenarios can help new librarians to gain a little experience with the everyday knowledge that many feel is lacking from MLS programs.
Sarah K. Steiner is a Learning Commons Librarian at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. She received her M.A. in Library and Information Science from the University of South Florida in 2004, and is currently pursuing an M.A. in English at GSU.
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Gray, Tara. Publish & Flourish: Become a Prolific Scholar. New Mexico State University: Teaching Academy, 2005. ISBN 0-9769302-0-X. $15.00. Purchase from publisher.
Growing out of Gray's writing workshops, this slim volume posits that any scholar can become prolific by following twelve simple steps, including:
- Write daily for 15-30 minutes
- Learn how to listen
- Read your prose out loud
Helpful appendixes cover topics from getting help from writing circles and groups, to keeping a writing log. Gray's systematic approach to writing better and faster can benefit any librarian author, especially those in academic institutions and/or writing for peer-reviewed journals. While none of the advice here is particularly new, the concise format and step-by-step approach offer a non-threatening introduction to improving your prose and workflow. Useful for new writers and those who need a jump-start in improving their productivity.
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Pugh, Lyndon. Managing 21st Century Libraries. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8108-5185-7. $40.00. Purchase from Amazon.com.
This book attempts to provide a wake-up call to libraries, encouraging them to move away from conservative and traditional approaches to management and work towards new and innovative management structures that will assist library staff and users in navigating both the print and digital worlds more efficiently and seamlessly. The focus of the book is on effective personnel management that uses the skills, education, and experience of all library staff to maximum efficiency, not just that of MLS librarians. The author spends a great deal of time explaining how professional and technical library staff, with and without library degrees, need extremely flexible organizational structures in order to thrive and move libraries into the 21st century.
I enjoyed the urgency and the thoroughness of the author on current and future management possibilities that are more pliable and effective for library management for the future. While the author has an obvious European orientation in his examples and case studies, the overall content is of interest to all library administrators and managers.
Bradford Lee Eden, Ph.D., is Associate University Librarian for Technical Services and Scholarly Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He can be reached at eden@library.ucsb.edu.