For all their informational focus, libraries are still organizations that need to be managed and guided by strong leaders, and it is crucial that librarians are willing to take on those leadership roles so that strategic decisions can be guided by people that understand the profession.

One way that librarians need to think strategically and systemically, as described in dimension 6.1 (Engages in systems thinking), is about the group dynamics in their organization, and in LIS 650: Leadership and Management in Information Organizations, we had an assignment to analyze the dynamics of the group that we had been placed in for a group project. It was fascinating to think analytically and critically about our work together, and gave me insight that I have used several times since then, particularly the idea of “Norming” and “Storming” as phases of group development. An understanding and awareness of those phases can really help move group work forward.

Dimension 6.2 asks us to engage in strategic planning. An essential prerequisite for strategic planning is to develop an accurate picture of the organization. An environmental scan of a fictional academic library was a project in 610 Collection Management. We were asked to develop Mission and Vision Statements and guiding values for the organization, as well as a bibliography of key collection items.

Team building (dimension 6.3) was a part of many projects and assignments during the LIS program - group projects were a feature of almost every class. In 618 Materials for Adolescents we had two group projects and were assigned the same group for both. Our first project was to create an informational slide deck for a Margaret A. Edwards Award-winning author. Our group had an easy rapport, and we were able to both split up tasks according to our strengths and preferences, but we also were able to collaborate on larger decisions as needed.

My Capstone project has been a master class in Project Management (dimension 6.4). Having to coordinate all the aspects of the project and arrange it into the compressed academic calendar of the College of Veterinary Medicine was a challenge. Ensuring that recruitment materials were sent out with enough time to select and notify participants in advance of the study period require significant advance planning and execution. I also completed an IRB application for this study, which required significant amounts of training, learning, and organization.

Creating a collection management plan developed for a fictionalized small academic library in LIS 610 provided experience in dimension 6.5 (Locating, Allocating, and Managing Fiscal Resources. This project required our group to think not only about the library’s existing resources, and about resources that we would like to have, but also about managing the resources we already had. How we would keep those collections up to date, and how we could improve them (digitizing historical collections, for example).

Finally, for dimension 6.6, Emotional Intelligence, I worked on a project in LIS 650 that required my group to assess a (fictional) fellow librarian that was having some issues with her coworkers and her supervisor, and present her with some recommendations about how to change her personal work practices, as well as the ways that she interacted with her colleagues. It was a challenging task, but very useful, especially in terms of looking at an interpersonal situation from multiple perspectives. The concept of “attributional bias” was an important one to learn here, as it describes the way that we can sometimes incorrectly attribute problems that our own behavior is causing to the behavior of others around us. This is a crucial aspect of self-awareness, especially in a professional setting.