The April 2023 issue of Library Leadership & Management (LL&M) is now available. We’re pleased to share with you the first issue of the calendar year, with these peer-reviewed articles:
Improving Library Organizational Communication through Intentional Knowledge Management / Ian Chan and Jennifer L. Fabbi, Ph.D.
Creating a single internal communications hub can drastically reduce the volume of “noise” employees must wade through to access important information. A seven-year knowledge management initiative at the California State University (CSU) San Marcos Library documented the transformation of the library’s organizational communication from decentralized and ineffective communication outlets to a single communication hub, while also identifying areas for future improvements. A Library Task Force created a needs-based matrix of requirements to determine that Confluence, a product from Atlassian, offered the best combination of features, flexibility, design, vendor support, system stability, and cost.
Lessons Learned about Working from Home During a Pandemic / Renee Gould, Audrey Koke, and Marissa Smith
A survey of 23 questions was sent out to various library related listservs during the fall of 2020 to investigate the unique impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the survey were mixed. Many but not all elements of technical services tasks were successfully completed at home. Aspects, such as lack of necessary equipment, administrative support and even Wi-Fi made it difficult to completely conduct tasks. In short, investigators found that short-term technical services operations can occur from home. Long term, however, is questionable and dependent upon individual institution’s abilities to financially support technical services. This article hopes to illuminate systematic flaws that create obstacles for technical services employees to work from home. Hopefully, it will also expose critical issues that can be researched in the future.
Louisiana Academic Library Workers and Workplace Bullying / Catherine Baird, Andrea Hebert, and Justin Savage
Workplace bullying is a problem in many work environments and can take different forms, including spreading gossip, criticism of work, unreasonable workloads, and being excluded. It can cause physical, psychological, and emotional stress, manifesting as depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues, exhaustion, feelings of rage/despair, and in some cases, post-traumatic stress disorder or suicide. Little is known, however, about the prevalence of bullying amongst library workers in academic libraries. This comprehensive state-wide study provides a replicable model to explore workplace bullying in a systematic manner amongst all academic library workers, not just librarians.
Hope for the Future: Academic Libraries in the 21st Century / Alejandro Marquez
This essay focuses on how academic libraries can have hope despite low morale, burnout, and budgetary issues. Despite these challenging times, it is an opportunity for an employee focused future of work and life balance. It is also a time to redress relationships with historically marginalized groups by examining pay equity, workload distribution, and diversity issues. Libraries have been so focused on the yearly budget that they are not thinking about the long term issues. Libraries that survive the next budget crunch will inherit a fractured workplace if equity and diversity issues are not addressed.
