For a week last March, thirty-five law librarians met in Tucson to explore what it means to be a manager and a leader of law libraries at what was billed as the first AALL Management and Leadership Institute. The attending librarians were carefully selected as ones with track records reflecting potential to be exemplary individuals in both these roles. A cross spectrum of libraries was represented with twenty librarians from academic institutions, ten from firm and corporate libraries, and five from state and court libraries.
Facilitated by Maureen Sullivan, the Institute sought to combine the aspects that bridged both the daily operation of law libraries as well as the aspirations of establishing ideal programs and services for library users. Sullivan commented that this might have been the first time she was asked to combine both management and leadership to reflect how they should overlap in a librarian’s every action.
The Institute was also facilitated by the presence of one of its organizers, Michael Chiorazzi, director of the law library at the James E. Rogers College of Law, The University of Arizona. Often he was able to offer a director’s point-of-view and reflections on reality of the demands of managing and leading a law library.
During the course of the Institute, the daily topics were divided into broad areas:
These topics often overlapped but were approached from different vantages that brought out new ideas from the participants. A constant recurring theme was the need to engage all the stakeholders at all levels in and outside our libraries from deans, managing partners, and judges who are our superiors; the students, faculty, lawyers, and pro se litigants who are our users; our librarian peers with whom we must work; and our support staff, whether library paraprofessionals or building custodians, who we must supervise. Managers and leaders must engage with all these groups in order to learn their wants and needs, and to facilitate working together to meet those wants and needs.
Sullivan’s approach to the Institute was not to lecture or present topics per se, but to solicit input from the participants, only occasionally filling gaps with knowledge of management and leadership approaches from other types of libraries, and directing the conversations that resulted from this input. The learning experience can best be described as one of sharing. Participants contributed their knowledge and experiences and when combined these contributions expressed an inspirational level of performance needed to be great managers and outstanding leaders of law libraries.
From this Institute, the one key point I took away was the need to communicate and understand my peer librarians in my library. We must share our vision of our library’s mission to establish the standards and goals as we seek to meet our institutions’ missions. This takes a great deal of give and take as we each must contribute to the process.
When, and I hope it is a when and not an if, this Institute is next offered, I recommend every librarian regardless of aspirations of being a director or not, consider taking part. At whatever level of a library organization you fill, as a librarian, a professional regardless of managerial role, you work with others who you inspire or despair whether you know it or not. Is it not better to inspire improvement and increasing the value of your library offers its parent organization?