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College and Research Libraries
September 2002, Vol. 63, No. 5

Book Review

Leadership in the Library and Information Science Professions: Theory and Practice. Ed. Mark D. Winston. Binghampton, N.Y.: Haworth Information Pr., 2001. 198p. alk. paper, $44.95, cloth (ISBN 0789014157); $22.95, paper (ISBN 0789014165). LC 2001-39488.

This collection of essays is well conceived and executed. Most of the contributors are themselves prominent leaders in the library profession, and without exception they have provided thought-provoking and well-researched chapters that are as easy to read as they are informative.

In the opening chapter, “The Crisis and Opportunities in Library Leadership,” Donald Riggs draws an important distinction between management and leadership that is either explicit or implicit in all the essays: managers work within established bounds and use established techniques to achieve predetermined ends, whereas leaders attempt to persuade others to participate in realizing a vision. He goes on to argue that, with a few exceptions, libraries, information/library schools, and our professional associations have been less effective in developing opportunities for fostering leadership than they have been in supporting management skills programs. Believing that our inattention to leadership is destructive to the profession, he exhorts us to declare a library leadership manifesto. After dispelling some myths about leadership (for example, there can be only one leader in an organization), Riggs describes how leaders must anticipate and respond to change and identifies the qualities that tend to be found in most effective leaders.

The chapter by change management consultants Becky Schreiber and John Shannon draws on their experience working with librarian clients to analyze the concept of leadership and identify the traits of effective leaders. They contend that leadership development is “a life-long endeavor, which needs different kinds of support for different stages of our lives” and include an overview of the five stages of leadership development: Courageous Follower, Mastery, Exerting Influence, Mentor, and Sage.

The book’s editor, Mark Winston, also contributes a chapter in which he explores how recruitment theory can be used to identify people with the greatest potential for being successful leaders in a particular profession or organization. He reports on the results of studies based on recruitment theory that sought to determine what attracted librarians to become children’s librarians, business librarians, or science/engineering librarians. The librarians included in the studies were defined as leaders in their fields by virtue of their records of achievement. Although the results of the studies were not entirely unexpected (for example, in the case of children’s librarians, interest in the content of the specialty and working with children were primary factors in the decision to adopt the specialty), they point the way to a means for identifying the kinds of individuals who should be approached and persuaded to seek careers as library leaders. This is perhaps the driest chapter in the book, an occupational hazard when discussing empirical studies, but it makes obvious the practical value of recruitment theory.

Several essays consider how gender, culture, and ethnicity can influence and expand our understanding of leadership. Haipeng Li’s comparison of the dominant leadership styles in Russia, China, Australia, and the United States is necessarily superficial given the space available and the enormity of the topic but is sufficient to show why some leadership styles are more successful in certain cultures than in others. Betty Turock provides a succinct and engaging introduction to the feminist values that can contribute to the making of an outstanding leader, combining “inclusiveness and connectedness with empathic reasoning and the ability to maintain relationships.” Camila Alire offers excellent advice to emerging leaders of color, such as why we need members of minorities in leadership positions, what they have to offer based on their unique experiences, and how they can deal with the many challenges that never arise for their white counterparts.

Kate Donnelly Hickey and Stuart Glogoff each writes about the need for specific expertise: what leaders should know about financial resources (Hickey) and information technology in the virtual library (Glogoff). Hickey emphasizes credibility and communication. In all likelihood, a library director will find her or his superiors very supportive if she or he is fiscally responsible and an effective advocate for the library’s needs while also knowing when to bow gracefully and cooperatively to the needs of the larger organization. And a director who communicates well and regularly both within and beyond the library will forge the relationships necessary to build coalitions, overcome resistance, and create win–win opportunities. Glogoff analyzes the opportunities for transformative leadership that have arisen from networking information, absorbing “Net Generation” values into the library, and adopting emerging technologies. According to Glogoff, rather than being driven by technology, library leaders can be the drivers if they use organizational structures that invite new ideas and promote adaptability.

Writing about leadership evaluation and assessment, James F. Williams II synthesizes a wide and impressive range of pertinent literature. He defends the ideal concept of library directors helping to design the method and criteria by which they will be evaluated and preparing a self-assessment as part of the performance evaluation. Williams focuses on academic library deans/directors, so some of what he has to say may not interest those who do not aspire to that role. However, a good many of his insights do apply to other contexts and certainly academic librarians will find this chapter especially useful.

George Needham shows that organizations may be considered to exercise leadership, too, and he examines how technology-related organizations have collaborated to develop standards and protocols, assess possible futures, and identify new means of serving end users. Implicit in his chapter is the notion that library leaders can wield special influence if they develop the skills to work effectively within such organizations.

This book demonstrates the need for creative and effective leadership in the library profession and is recommended for most libraries. It was published simultaneously as the Journal of Library Administration, volume 32, numbers 3/4.—W. Bede Mitchell, Georgia Southern University.