Demonstrate professional leadership and communication skills;

Introduction

It is a basic criterion for information science professionals to be knowledgeable on the principles of good leadership and sound communication. Authentic leadership is a state of being. Librarians serve as leaders for the institutions that employ them. Part of leadership is identifying problems and then seeking the solution. Leaders guide their work and need to be cognizant of the long-term outlook and the larger picture. A part of leadership is to delegate tasks and responsibilities to the most suitable coworkers. Everyone has the capacity to develop leadership skills. While some individuals appear naturally gifted, a willingness to commit to the development of leadership skills is all that is required to improve one’s leadership capability. Communication is critical to coordinating the staff of multiple work sites into a single unified organization.

In this program, through the courses of INFO 200 Information Communities, INFO 204 Information Professionals, LIBR 247 Materials for Young Adults, and INFO 250 Design and Implementation of Instructional Design for Information Professionals [K-12], I have assembled a solid foundation on the best practices of communication and professional leadership, and how to foster those practices within myself and my coworkers.

Explication

Leadership

Leaders guide their work area’s operations and use a problem-oriented mind set to identify and implement improvements to how the area under their purview conducts their day-to-day business. When making changes or implementing solutions to problems, leaders need to be cognizant of the big picture and the long-term outlook. A part of leadership is to delegate tasks to the most suitable coworkers, but more importantly is that they delegate responsibilities over a period of time. Through the gradual delegation of responsibilities, a supervisor can empower their employees.

Leaders should uphold the American Library Association Code of Ethics “to treat co-workers and other colleagues with respect, fairness, and good faith, and advocate conditions of employment that safeguard the rights and welfare of all employees of our institutions” (American Library Association, 2021). Leaders should listen to all perspectives. To treat their workers fairly, librarians should refrain from jumping to conclusions. When a manager penalizes an employee of an action that they did not commit, it is terribly damaging to their working relationship. Once trust is lost, it is difficult to regain.

While leadership skill may be difficult to master, everyone has the capacity to improve their leadership ability through practice. As a person practices leadership strategies, they will develop the self-confidence and courage to implement them in their day-to-day interactions.

As lifestyles, demographics, and economics shift and technology advances so too will the demands of an institution’s client base. To maintain relevancy, an organization must evolve

to match these changes. It is the task of leadership to oversee these changes. One of the most difficult aspects to implementing such changes can be altering the duties and routines of existing staff. Should there be pushback, it is the responsibility of leadership to foster acceptance by the affected personnel.

One strategy to head off resistance is to have personnel come up with the solution themselves. This is accomplished by first discussing the original problem with the person or persons in question. To encourage speculation, the next step is to detail one’s grievances with the current problem and move the conversation toward wishing for a solution. When the person or persons speculation corresponds to the new policy, the manager should compliment them on providing such a great idea and authorize the idea’s implementation. Because authorship of the idea grants the staff or staffer ownership of the idea; he, she or they will implement the new policy without resistance.

As a paraprofessional, I have used this strategy with some success when working under a supervisor who had a reputation for rejecting any idea that did not originate with her. During walk-up service during the COVID-19 pandemic, I sought to move the receptacles for battery and light bulb disposal to the front of the library to broaden the range of services that the staff could provide at the door. In a conversation where the supervisor lamented the limitations of walk-up service, I brought up to my supervisor in instance where staff turned away a patron who wanted to depose of used batteries. She then came up with the idea to move the receptacles for disposal of batteries and lightbulbs to the lobby and authorized the staff to accept light bulbs and batteries for disposal as long as the proper COVID-19 protocols where followed.

Communication

For a unified operation, communication is critical. Long hours, large staff, and multiple work sites can all contribute to failures of communication. Miscommunication can result in reduced productivity of an organization’s workforce, but more importantly it often results in the inconsistent application of policy rules. This negatively affects the patron experience. When prevalent, inconsistent enforcement of the rules can raise the ire of a client. Email correspondence is an ideal method to prevent miscommunications from occurring. Through asynchronous communication, messages can reach all staff members provided that mailing lists are kept up to date.

Professional Communications

Because those in leadership wield authority to resolve problematic situations, it is critical that they maintain a connection to their discipline’s professional organization as well as cultivate relationships with other professionals in their field. Professional organizations are a source of information to discipline-specific issues and can be a source of solidarity in the face of adversity. Recent attempts to censor stories featuring non-Caucasian cultures or LGBTQ lifestyles have illustrated the importance of remaining connected to one’s professional community. On a personal level, I have found the guidance from the example of others in librarianship to be helpful to responding to probing questions that are intended to rationalize the censorship of materials. Examples of professional communications include attending conferences and volunteering on committees.

Advocacy

The proliferation of the censorship of stories featuring historically marginalized groups and the intellectual free exchange of ideas has brought into stark relief the need for the profession to take a stand and “uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.” (American Library Association, 2021). In addition, libraries should both practice and preach multiculturalism—the “policy or practice of giving equal attention or representation to the cultural needs and contributions of all the groups in a society” (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2012). Librarians should also be advocates of open access to scholarly resources, net neutrality, and privacy in the use of library resources. Through advocacy, librarians can exert a global impact.

Not only should librarians advocate on behalf of these important global issues, but they also will need to advocate to secure financing for their own institutions. Libraries will always have to validate their merit to their stakeholders to justify their funding. When advocating for financing, librarians will have to use evaluations and assessments to attest to the benefits that an institution grants to its client users. It is through the formation of personal relationships with funding authorities and community partnerships with local organizations that advocacy is most effective. Funding authorities for a public library are often members of a city council of a board of supervisors. For a public library that receive financing through a sales tax measure, voters are a key constituency that the public library will need to appease.

Evidence

Evidence 1: Daniel Pearl Magnet High School Grant Proposal

To attest to my ability to advocate for funding of libraries through grant writing for the communication competency, I submit this grant proposal (from INFO 282 Grant Writing and Alternative Funding Resources). This document demonstrates my proficiency in grant writing. Grant writing is a crucial skill to secure programs, equipment, and other improvements that would have otherwise been out of reach of the applicant institution.

This grant proposal was the product of a collaboration between myself and Greta Enszer, the school librarian for Daniel Pearl Magnet High School. The submission provides evidence of my capability to work with others towards a common goal which is vital in the field of information science.

Evidence 2: Portland Airbnb Listing Analysis

I offer this Analysis of Portland Airbnb Listings (from INFO 246-11 Technology and Information Visualization) as of my ability to use diagrams and visual aids with verbal communication to relay the findings of a statistical analysis for the subject of communication.

This document demonstrates my familiarity with presentation software and my comfort in conducting oral presentations. This presentation is also a demonstration of my potential for leadership as I assigned tasks, kept the team on task, and provided the general direction of the long-term project.

Evidence 3: Xbox Filing Memo to Lisa Campbell

As evidence of my knowledge and comprehension of internal communications within a library setting, I proffer this memo from my career as a Library Assistant of the Fresno County Public Library. This document demonstrates my ability to follow best practices for formal internal communications. At the Sunnyside Regional Library in Fresno, CA, we repeatedly had difficulty keeping video games organized by video game system and by barcode number. The Sunnyside Library houses enough video games to make this problematic. After repeatedly being brushed off on the difficulty retrieving video games for a patron, I authored this memo as a first step to improving the way that video games were stored behind the desk.

As a library assistant, my influence on the issue was measured by my ability to persuade the staff to reach a consensus which I accomplished save for one individual. This individual was too lazy to file video game discs into the appropriate video game system let alone take that a step further and file these discs numerically based on the last four digits of the item’s barcode. Thankfully, this memo did get my supervisor to establish a policy and eventually led the Sunnyside Regional Library to adopting a system of multiple labeled binders to store our video game collection. This implementation of this new storage system eliminated misfiled video game discs.

References

American Library Association. (2021, June 29). Professional Ethics. ALA American Library Association. https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2012, May 4). Diversity standards: Cultural competency for academic libraries (2012). http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/diversity