James M. Matarazzo

Academic libraries: A soft analysis, a warning and the road ahead

Networked access to full-text databases has disrupted both academic and corporate libraries from the research process. The for-profit environment, where libraries are less insulated by organizational prestige and historical tradition, has felt the impact of this more immediately. The changes in corporate libraries, as well as their efforts to remain relevant, can provide insight for academic libraries on how to weather the new realities. Academic libraries will need new strategies to maintain their relationship with students, faculty, and the academy to ensure sustainability.

A Review of Research Related to Management of Corporate Libraries

The authors began this review of the research available on the topic of managing corporate libraries with the hypothesis that there has been a lack of funding for such research that in turn has limited its production. After reviewing the relevant research literature produced in the last three decades, however, the assumption of inadequate funding causing a lack of research on this topic could not totally be supported. As we sought to identify what funding was available, the literature suggested additional questions: How or if research on the subject of managing corporate libraries was encouraged and funded and by whom? What type of research would be most useful for corporate library managers? Finally, how research results were disseminated and whether the results had been put to use by practitioners? Here the authors are defining the topic of “managing libraries” in the broadest sense and occasionally delve more specifically into the topic of valuing library services. While we address corporate libraries in particular, most of our findings and commentary can be applied to special libraries in general.

Leadership in disruptive times

These are times of economic disruption globally, nationally, regionally, and locally. This ongoing turbulence will inevitably have an impact on your library regardless of the type of organization you support. The consequences of ongoing economic instability are exacerbated by what seems to be an extraordinary turnover in library leadership. This turnover requires a steady supply of new leaders to fill the shoes of those who retire or for other reasons leave their positions. Today our profession is confronted with the question of whether or not we will have enough new leaders or existing managers stepping up to leadership roles to drive the sustainability of information services? This question will be addressed through examination of four domains where the need for existing and aspiring leaders in the information profession is critical, regardless of the type of library: finance, fundraising, organizational politics, and evaluation. Equally important is understanding the role of the leader (as opposed to that of the manager) as the strategic thinker, visionary, and motivator, who inspires their team to excellence in these four areas and through demonstrating contribution to the organization’s success, achieves sustainability. Using case studies as well as insights from past research and from colleagues around the world in different kinds of libraries, we will be looking at why these four domains are important to sustainability and what you as a leader needs to do in thinking through how to adapt them to the specific needs of your organization.

The Emerald Handbook of Modern Information Management

This handbook aims to be an integral text for students of library and information science and a ready-reference for information professional practitioners. The chapters provide a construct through which any information professional may learn abut the major challenges facing them in the early part of the 21st century.

Salaries of special librarians in the United States

This article reviews the salaries of the US members of the Special Libraries Association who have responded to the Association’s Salary Surveys and compares them to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 1982 to 2012. Salaries are shown to have increased sharply as has the CPI for the years studied. Significant gains have occurred in the mean and median salaries from 1982 to 2002. In the years following 2002, the salary gains were smaller, while the CPI increased at a higher rate. The salaries of these members of the Special Libraries Association are compared to the average salary for all librarians in the United States. This paper also comments on the salaries paid to holders of other advanced degrees which have similar educational requirements.

Guest editorial: bites, bits, and video games: the changes ahead by James M. Matarazzo

Abstract Special and research libraries are experiencing growing and conflicting pressures in a rapidly changing environment. At the same time that organizations are increasingly viewing information as central to their competitive position in the marketplace, there has been a veritable explosion in the amount of information available for review and analysis. The result is that today and even more so tomorrow, it will be more—not less—difficult to find and utilize information for effective decision making, research, and publications. In many respects, the special and research libraries have been the unwitting recipients of this apparent paradox. Caught between the demand for delivering better, faster, and more information and knowledge on the one hand, and the difficulty of identifying, retrieving, and synthesizing information and knowledge on the other hand, the role and place of these information centers of tomorrow are undergoing considerable debate. At one extreme, some would argue that traditional library functions should be largely outsourced and many services transferred to the end-user. Others would view the core library functions as providing the springboard for enterprise-wide policies and procedures regarding information and knowledge management. In light of the above discussion, we conducted a study in 1997 and again in 2000. We selected a number of U.S. corporations and research libraries as grappling with this underlying dilemma. More specifically, this research was concerned with the direction in which special and research librarians and information managers saw their own libraries moving in the future. The subject libraries were selected largely because of their presence in industry and the academy, and because they were large organizations with at least some global presence. Structured interviews were conducted with the head of information and library sciences within each organization. To insure candid responses those in the survey were assured of confidentiality.

The knowing organization: How organizations use information to construct meaning, create knowledge, and make decisions: by Chan Wei Choo. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. 298p.

An organization uses information strategically in three areas: to make sense of change in its environment; to create new knowledge for innovation; and to make decisions about courses of action. These apparently distinct processes are in fact complementary pieces of a larger canvas, and the information behaviors analyzed in each approach interweave into a richer explanation of information use in organizations. Through sensemaking, people in an organization give meaning to the events and actions of the organization. Through knowledge creation, the insights of individuals are converted into knowledge that can be used to design new products or improve performance. Finally, in decision making, understanding and knowledge are focused on the selection of and commitment to an appropriate course of action. By holistically managing its sensemaking, knowledge building and decision-making processes, the Knowing Organization will have the necessary understanding and knowledge to act wisely and decisively. Copyright O 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd