OVERVIEW:
In libraries, we spend a lot of time talking about how to make our organizations great places for visitors—welcoming, friendly, and helpful. We don’t spend a lot of time talking about how to make libraries better for the dedicated people who ensure the library functions day in and day out, our employees. This is even trickier because many of us move into library leadership without being taught the skills needed to serve in a management role. While all librarians spend time thinking about how to improve life for our patrons, few take time to think about improving life for themselves or what it takes to run their organization.
Our employees are the engines of the library that keep things running, and they deserve excellent managers, mentors, and leaders, who take steps to make their work lives better and their operations smoother. This requires innovative programs to increase autonomy, flexibility, and wellness for our employees. It also requires managers who understand how collaboration, negotiation, and yes, even a little politicking can advance the goals of the library and its employees with external administrators. If our library managers don’t learn how to advocate for their employees, make choices that place a premium on staff and faculty wellness, and create library cultures that promote autonomy and growth, no one else will. For libraries to work well for everyone, they must work, first and foremost, for library employees.
This webinar will present human resource strategies and management approaches that can help library leaders support their employees and improve the quality of their organizations at the same time. The discussion will include flexible work, wellness initiatives, collaborative approaches to management, advocating for employees, library work cultures, and growing as a library manager.
LEARNING AGENDA:
- Learning to be a library manager and growing from past experiences—the value of succession planning.
- Implementing innovative human resource strategies in libraries—difficulties and benefits.
- Instituting wellness initiatives in libraries.
- Understanding managements styles and their impact on morale—promoting collaboration, autonomy, and ownership.
- Advocating more effectively for library employees—salaries, benefits, and staffing.
- Creating positive library work cultures.
About the Speaker
DR. STEVE ALBRECHT. Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, security, and supervision. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons. In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. He is currently writing the sequel, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, for Rowman & Littlefield. Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment. He has written 24 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives with six dogs, two cats, and three chickens. (Not all in the same room, of course.)
