Monthly Archives: September 2025

In my last post I introduced a five-part series on the crucial quality of dependability for academic library leaders, promising to explore it in four different dimensions. The first of those four that I want to address is the dimension … Continue reading →

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the quality of dependability, about various ways it does and doesn’t manifest itself in library leaders, why it’s important, and how leaders can demonstrate it. I’ve decided to produce five(!) posts on this topic, … Continue reading →

If you’ve recently become the dean or director of an academic library, you may now find yourself in an unusual and unexpected position. Like many (though not all) of us, you may have suddenly become a university official, with both … Continue reading →

Those who have been reading Vision & Balance for the last year will know that I occasionally post on the theme of “Two an a Half Cheers” — a slight variation on the “two cheers” idea, which usually denotes the … Continue reading →

Some years ago I read an article in which the author recounted working with a particularly gifted leader, and cited one incident in particular that demonstrated the leader’s wisdom. A member of the management team had made a mistake of … Continue reading →

I once had the displeasure of working in a library whose leader seemed to believe that being the library director meant being the best librarian in the building, across all specialties and subdisciplines. Whenever this director heard someone else in … Continue reading →

I’ll never forget that meeting. Earlier in my career, I was attending some kind of gathering for mid-level campus leaders, led by someone at the VP level. Not only can I not remember the name of that person, I can’t … Continue reading →

Hi, everyone — By now you’ve hopefully noticed that Vision & Balance has moved to its new home on the WordPress platform. It’s now also fully free (though not, I suppose, technically open access) rather than half-free/half-fee. I’ll maintain at … Continue reading →

As a library leader, one of the things you have to get used to is the feeling that nobody really knows (let alone understands, let alone appreciates) how much work you do. Sure, most of the people you lead will … Continue reading →