Monthly Archives: March 2025

One of the very wise things my library did long before I arrived as university librarian a few years ago was to create a guidelines document for administrative decision-making that includes definitions of various levels of “stakeholder” in a program, … Continue reading →

In my two previous posts, I discussed a couple of important principles of policy management: first, the fact that library policies are like carbohydrates – in that they’re essential, but not all of them are equally healthy and it’s easy … Continue reading →

Every library needs policies – and, just as important, it needs a healthy system for making, curating, and amending policies, or what I’m going to call a “policy regime.” Let’s look at each of those three elements of the policy … Continue reading →

Every healthy library organization has a clear workflow for producing, re-examining, and revising policies. No library can function well unless its employees (and its patrons) are able to easily find and clearly understand its organizational policies, nor can it function well if there isn’t … Continue reading →

As a library leader, one of your most important jobs is to make space in your organization for the expression of minority perspectives. Of course, one complicating factor is that the term “minority perspectives” can mean so many different things. … Continue reading →

Some years ago, I was on a campus search committee that was chaired by one of the university deans. As search committees are, we were tasked with winnowing down a large group of applicants to a small group of finalists. … Continue reading →

In recent years, as social and political issues have become increasingly fraught and there has been more and more division and conflict both in our society and on the campuses that academic libraries serve, there has been increasing controversy over … Continue reading →

In an earlier post, I wrote about what I called the “value-neutrality” of innovation – basically making the point that an initiative isn’t necessarily either more or less valuable simply because it can reasonably be called “innovative.” What matters is … Continue reading →