The library business is changing - please excuse our dust during renovations!

'Only while sleeping do you make no mistakes. Mistakes are the privilege of the active person, who can start over and put things right.' - Ingvar Kamprud, Founder of IKEA1

As we reach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the business of running an effective and efficient library - within a university or college setting, as well as within a municipality - has become more challenging than ever. The business of gathering and sharing information is one that has many active players. The library's historical role as the primary source of information and data for research and learning purposes is being challenged and in some cases replaced by a battery of other players - Google Scholar, Amazon.com and Wikipedia to name a few of the new emerging sources of data in today's wired world. With this shift in the position of dominance that was once the natural claim of virtually every library, it means that where a library's primary resource once was its collection, this is no longer true.

The library's 'collection' can now be accessed from a variety of locations - other than the library building itself. On a college or university campus, some students claim that 'I don't need to go to the library any more - I can access what I need on-line, without even leaving my room.' Little do they realise that this on-line accessibility is being provided and supported by the library. It's as though the library has become somewhat invisible on campus.

So . if the collection is no longer the library's dominant resource, what is? It is the people component of your operation. It is the people who work diligently on behalf of your patrons and customers - even though they may be somewhat invisible, behind the scenes. It is the staff members who make up your library team who have now become your most vital resource.

In any business where your services can be accessed from a variety of sources, it is your people who are the differentiating factor that determines whether your patrons and customers come to you - or go elsewhere to have their needs met. In a time when financial resources are constantly under pressure, the statistical data that outline the relevance of your services becomes a huge leverage point, or a huge limitation point, as to your relevance when you are only one of several departments or business units of a larger corporate enterprise seeking your 'fair share of the budget pie'.

So, if this premise has merit, then the critical question is: 'How can we maximise our impact, through our people, to ensure a degree of relevance and security for the future?' Answering this is the fundamental purpose of this book.

We wrote this book as a practical resource for library leaders in a variety of settings. It is not designed or intended to be an academic piece of work, totally supported by new and original research data. Instead, we chose to write this book in a pragmatic, conversational style that we hope will encourage library leaders to consider ways of focusing an appropriate degree of attention on your people - your human resources, the resources that create the greatest leverage value in achieving your organisational mandate and goals.

The 'art of people management' is not a new skill or a new science or a new field of study. However, it is a field in which one must try to be as relevant as possible as the needs, expectations and aspirations of your staff shift and move in an ever-changing world. We have tried to include some new theoretical concepts, some recent research data, some lessons learned over many years of practical experience along with some of the solid truisms presented by several leading authors from years past. Much of this wisdom and these insights have stood the test of time when it comes to the basic practices of sound human dynamics and effective people management practices - even in today's fast-paced, technologically connected world.

The real-life examples cited throughout this book have been drawn from the current and the past professions of both authors - as senior executive officers in various types of organisations, as a library leader for one of the authors and as a management consultant specialising in organisational effectiveness and human resource management for the other author. The examples represent real-life experiences from a variety of sectors: the private sector, the public sector, the academic sector and the not-for-profit agency sector. The breadth and depth of this combined experience, which includes periods in a variety of different cultures and countries, helped us to recognise that there are some relatively universal truths and practices that seem to be very effective when it comes to managing staff. We have also discovered that there are some practices that may be very ineffective in certain work settings. What is critical is to be able to determine which practices are best suited to any specific setting or culture in different parts of our global community.

This is not intended to be a definitive book on the subject. Instead, it is intended to prod the reader into examining their own specific situation through various lenses and various insights. If any of the ideas, concepts or tips presented here seem to make sense and you feel that they may have a positive impact in your own library setting, then feel free to experiment with various ways to apply your new insights to improve the quality of work life in your own organisation. If some of the concepts give you some discomfort that's good too. Don't dismiss them prematurely. Most sound improvements and changes have their roots in discomfort. As one author so eloquently put it:

'Hope has two lovely daughters - anger and courage. Anger at the way things are and the courage to change things.'2

Our efforts to make life in organisations better are the fuel for searching out new, innovative techniques to help staff members feel important and valued for their daily efforts and contributions. That's what makes it possible to develop the most effective library system in the world - wherever you may be located.

We believe this book can become a valuable resource for current library leaders - Chief Librarians, Library Deans, Library Managers and Library Human Resources professionals. It may also enable the next generation of library leaders - the library staff members or students in library academic programmes who have aspirations for positions of leadership within a library - to begin to understand and to value the importance of people management skills. We hope it will be a catalyst for these individuals to work on developing and expanding the skills and competencies needed to create a dynamic team of library staff members who are willing and able to face the challenges of the library of tomorrow.

Effectively managing your people, in order to achieve the greatest potential for your library, is clearly a very significant management competency for leaders in any library setting. How well prepared are you to meet this challenge? We hope that some of the ideas and insights outlined in this book will contribute to generating the motivation one needs to become a truly effective leader of the 'People Resources' of your library. Being able to release and capitalise on the talents, energy, spirit and technical competencies of your people, in the service of your patrons, clients or customers becomes a major portion of your job responsibilities as the Chief Librarian, the Library Dean or a Library Manager. To achieve this goal, library leaders and managers must be able to create a workplace environment that makes it possible for staff to feel truly engaged in the overall direction and strategy of the library. Although this may seem like a very obvious point, it should not be treated lightly.

Although every leader and manager who holds some responsibility for employee performance would love to find the key to releasing and activating the talent and energy of staff members, the truth is that this key is owned and operated by individual employees. They will use the key when they feel engaged and involved in their work. The leader's and the manager's task is to create the type of workplace environment or setting that generates employee engagement. Without this engagement, management efforts to produce constructive corporate results will be severely compromised.

Stephen Covey writes about the concept of employee engagement in his book The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. He presents some findings by Harris Interactive, the originators of the Harris Poll, from a poll of 23,000 US residents employed full time within key industries. Their poll revealed these eye-opening statistics:

 Only 37% said they have a clear understanding of what their organisation is trying to achieve and why.

 Only 1 in 5 was enthusiastic about their team's and organisation's goals.

 Only 1 in 5 workers said they have a clear 'line of sight' between their tasks and their team's and organisation's goals.

 Only half were satisfied...