Library Management: Importance, Objectives, and Guidelines for Staff Members

This essay provides a reflective study on the experiences gathered from an organization of a library where students of diverse background visit the library for facilitating themselves with various academic sources. It also provides the management status of the organization provided with certain guidelines for the staff members who work in a small library ensuring the motive of the organization, that is, the application of continuous learning in the organizational environment.

Running head: LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Having a degree in Librarianship management, I joined an organization based in
Canada for a period of eight months. I did Management for Library and Information Services
(LIS) and on the basis of my subject, I joined an organization in which my job was to assess
the operational management along with strategic management dwelling in the library and
information domain. Through my workshop experiences and seminars on my subject, I
assessed my learnings by reflecting upon the organizational environment. The paper focuses
to deliver a reflective study on the experiences gathered from an organization of a library
where students of diverse background visit the library for facilitating themselves with various
academic sources. Following it, the essay provides the management status of the organization
provided with certain guidelines for the staff members who work in a small library ensuring
the motive of the organization, that is, the application of continuous learning in the
organizational environment.
On the basis of my perspective and my experiences, the organizational motive was
carried out successfully with consistency. The organization primarily focuses to retain an
atmosphere of personal professional development among the employees and staff members
and continuous learning among the visitors. Generally, Libraries are recognized as the service
institutions thereby the management and the organizational motive emphasize on the
personalized and efficient service provided with courteous and friendly behaviour. The
organization where I worked, focused on the process of integration and coordination as the
organization had differentiated and dedicated behaviours. The process of integration includes
three factors that are, the power that flows through the hierarchal relationship (Bryson, 2017).
Secondly, the process of administration and organizations that retains the basic structures of
organizational decorum and thirdly, the discourse network in the organization (Moran &
Morner, 2017). The library focuses on being organized on the foundation of the material they
provide or serve, for example, periodicals, books, microforms, machine readable shapes

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(Bryson, 2017). The organization focuses on the shift time for variant departments. But the
organization lacks in providing a good model of time-frame structure. Thereby, the
organization faces difficulties in measuring performance, breakdowns in one shift that further
affects the other and even accidental occurrences (Moran & Morner, 2017). Through such
experiences, I feel that the organization might need to think about constructing well
coordinated shift timing in order to provide a better service for 16-24 hours a day. Being a
part of this organization, I have witnessed the organization setting up a library committee that
works as an advisory body or the governing body of the library (Bryson, 2017). The step
evaluates and simplifies in understanding the staff functions. The method helped me in the
tenure of my service as I was facilitated by good guidance through the well incorporated
graphic organizational chart in which the functional and coordination points are described.
Through my eight years of experiences, I feel that there are certain measures that need
to be taken in order to provide 16-24 hours service in a day. Following it, the time shift
management of the organization needs to be taken care of as the organization contains
different departments of varied sub-organizational action levels like operational management,
strategic management, transaction process and the sectors of management manage (Moran &
Morner, 2017). The library should incorporate the core Management Information
Organization (MIS) that captures useful information and data from the organizational
environment (Bryson, 2017). The involvement of MIS regulates the operations and
transactions of the library. It deals with both the external and internal factors of the
organizational environment. The external environment includes the community, customers,
policies, unions, the labour force (Moran & Morner, 2017). While the internal factors involve
the information that is processed within the organization ranging from clerical level to the top
hierarchal levels. These factors develop the efficiency of the libraries in determining the
effectiveness and efficiency and performance provided with the facilities like data collection

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and professional development and training of the staff. The organization through the
application of MIS needs to monitor performance and financial ratios. The application of MIS
schedules the added new facilities and customizes according to the departmental shifts
(Moran & Morner, 2017). However, the implementation would only help in the development
of performance assessment of the organization and not the library managers and staff. Having
being experienced for eight years, it is observed that the organization needs to approach for
comprehensive, and accurate library statistics on the daily basis that results in helping in the
progress of the library, improving the existing service, measuring the performance of the staff
(Bryson, 2017). Though the statistics would have the potential to misuse, abuse and overuse
yet certain steps needs to be backed up and taken on in order to retain fairness while
assessing library statistics.
The importance of library management lies in the objectives of the library. The objectives are
met through the effective and efficient management of labour force, money, machinery and
the material. From the above discussion that is made through my experiences, it is understood
that a library needs a proper management system in order to avoid issues and threats.
Libraries require strong service management in order to provide the best attendance to the
customers. Management of library is achieved through the combination of crucial functions
and skills as discussed before regarding the roles of management (Moran & Morner, 2017). A
library manager manages the roles and responsibilities related to the leadership provided with
the duties of scanning and monitoring several clusters of variant departments (Bryson, 2017).
The manager is a figure of decision making that is done by looking out the new perceptions
and ideas and further adopts favourable ideas in order to incorporate them in the
organizational management system. The management system is expected to solve
unanticipated trouble and handle unwanted threats. The management part of the organization
also contributes to the role of negotiation. The proper implementation of the management

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system has led libraries to grow with times in the dynamics of every social, scientific,
cultural, technical and environmental factor. Library management also involves the major
aspects of organizational structure. The structure of the library is determined through the
service provided, staff strength, document kinds ad collection(Bryson, 2017). Many
ephemeral materials are collected in the library in excess and these materials are basically the
years old textbooks, catalogues, torn story books and outdated reference books. these books
need to be groomed and maintained well enough to make readable and also the fact that the
organization are supposed to pay attention towards weeding out the old in order to make
space for the new (Moran & Morner, 2017). Thereby, it is necessary to ensure the mass of the
structure to be adequate from every perspective. The architecture of the library is considered
to be an important action to be taken on as it helps in retaining a comfortable environment for
the public (Bryson, 2017). The design of the library should be based on the services and
functions of the library. The structure for a library is planned accordingly ensuring the load
bearing capability of the floor, the interior loads bearing walls are avoided and the
environment is made quiet and comfortable (Jordan & Lloyd, 2017). The structure is planned
accordingly that facilitates the reading rooms to be attractive, filled with simplicity, flexibility
and comfort (Moran & Morner, 2017). Thereby, based on my analytical views that I gathered
from my experiences, the importance of management in libraries is quite observable in order
to retain the sustainability of the organization.
Staff members are an essential resource to manage the environment of a library. Staff
management is the management of the organizational subordinates. In small organizations,
the services of the library depend on the communication and involvement of the staffs at
different levels. The objectives of a small organization are carried out mainly by the staff
members (Jordan & Lloyd, 2017). Following it, there are certain guidelines that need to be
imbibed by the staff members. Firstly, staff responsibility is to keep a check on the ambience

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of the library (Bryson, 2017). Secondly, staff should have the human skills that include the
understanding of motivation and skills of interaction that results in effective public relations
(Jordan & Lloyd, 2017). Thirdly, a staff member should be skilled in technical factor in order
to manage the community at large and the aspects of the library processes. There are also
expected to handle the technical details at every level (Bryson, 2017). Fourthly, a staff
member should assess an effective library management through the process of selecting,
provisioning and maintaining the entire range of library materials, provided with a strict
check on the identification of the organizational information (Jordan & Lloyd, 2017). Fifthly,
a staff member is supposed to keep a check on the selection and maintaining the exclusive
collection of new books and informatory and useful materials (Jordan & Lloyd, 2017).
Thereby, from the above discussion, it is concluded that efficient library management is
essential in a library to retain and sustain in the environment provided with the assistance of
managers at hierarchal levels and the organizational staff members.

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References
Bryson, J. (2017). Effective library and information centre management. Routledge.
Dewe, M. (2016). Planning public library buildings: Concepts and issues for the librarian.
Routledge.
Johnson, P. (2018). Fundamentals of collection development and management. American
Library Association.
Jordan, P., & Lloyd, C. (2017). Staff management in library and information work.
Routledge.
Moran, B. B., & Morner, C. J. (2017). Library and information center management. ABC-
CLIO.