Suggests that the task of ensuring a high level of staff motivation requires from library managers a range of managerial, sociological and psychological skills for which they have had very little training, if any at all. These include effective communication with staff, the encouragement of good workplace relationships, the involvement of staff in the decision making process, helping staff to come to terms with change, promoting job rotation, recognising and rewarding initiative and providing relevant training for staff.
Public libraries, in common with other local government services, are obliged to obtain best value by striving for customer service of the highest quality and greatest efficiency. This article draws on data gathered from the Developing Research in Public Libraries (DRIPL) project, which shows how an understanding of research methods is increasingly required by public library managers to move services forward in strategic and operational terms. Following a description of the principles of best value, research areas are indicated which contribute to the achievement of best value in public libraries. The article notes areas where research could usefully be incorporated and shared more widely, and suggests publicly available resources which could be used by managers for performance measurement and user consultation.
Research into the valued characteristics of work placements on Library and Information Studies (LIS) first degree courses in UK universities was carried out by the Centre for Information Research and Training at the University of Central England in Birmingham (UCE). Group Feedback Strategy (GFS) was used to generate and evaluate characteristics from employers, tutors, students and graduates. Results showed that placements were seen as important by all participating groups. A reasonably high level of satisfaction was also recorded for a majority of the valued characteristics, by all groups. This article outlines the research and examines the characteristics which achieved higher satisfaction scores from employers than from other groups. These were: offering teamwork experiences; assessing capabilities; offering training opportunities; giving hands on IT experience; and requiring business confidentiality. Reasons for these differences are proposed and discussed.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.