POLICY MAKING AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: A PIONEERING COURSE FOR SENIOR LIBRARY MANAGERS
| Pages | 4-8 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/01435129310027200 |
| Date | 01 March 1993 |
| Published date | 01 March 1993 |
| Author | Don Kennington |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
Policy Making and Strategic
Management
A PIONEERING COURSE FOR SENIOR LIBRARY MANAGERS
Don Kennington
THE CONCEPT AND HOW IT CAME ABOUT
The need for management training has long
been recognized by the library and information
profession. The schools of librarianship and
information studies, and others in the
commercial sector, have responded to this
need to some extent, but the concept of an
intensive, and therefore expensive, course
targeted at senior management remained,
until 1991, a vision rather than actuality.
Many top managers of library and
information services have benefited from
courses designed by, and sometimes run by,
their own organizations. Others, particularly
from the public library sector, have
participated in the courses provided by such
bodies as the Institute of Local Government
Studies at the University of Birmingham.
These courses were generally multi-
disciplinary and the librarian participants
exchanged experience with others from
different areas of local government.
There is no doubt that these courses were
immensely valuable to — and valued by —
those fortunate enough to attend them.
However there remained — particularly in
the context of substantial changes in the
library and information world — a perceived
gap in the market. One of the problems was
that residential management courses with top
lecturers and workshop leaders required a
major time commitment from the individual
participant, considerable belief in the likely
benefits from his or her manager, and
substantial funding. On the whole libraries
and information services were becoming
increasingly conditioned to the £100 plus
short (one-day) course on a policy issue, but
to spend up to £2,500 for one member of
staff to participate in a two to three week
management course was much more difficult
to justify. This was particularly so when the
entire annual training budget was less than
this.
Although the need then was felt, it took
the spin-off from an initiative in the United
States to provide the catalyst for action. In
1982 the Graduate School of Library and
Information Sciences at the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) started its
Senior Fellows Program, initially with
financial resources from the Council on
Library Resources, a national body. Selected
middle to senior level librarians from large
academic research libraries were brought
together every two years at UCLA for a
four-week intensive course of lectures, project
work and seminars. The main purpose of the
Programme is to assist in producing a body
of people who are capable of moving into
top library jobs and become the leaders of
the profession.
The emphasis of the Programme is on
strategic management, which is concerned
with formulating policy in the light of
various constraints and developments that
affect libraries including political change,
technological advances and changing needs
of library users.
In 1989 the British Library invited
Professor Bob Hayes of UCLA to visit the
United Kingdom and, through a series of
meetings, explain the nature of the
Programme and gauge the potential for a
similar course in this country. The very
positive response to his investigation
prompted the British Library Research and
Library Management, Vol. 14 No. 3, 1993, pp. 4-8,
© MCB University Press, 0143-5124
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