Succession planning and management are critical parts of strategic planning for libraries in the twenty-first century. Making certain that the right people are in place with the prerequisite training and experience to assume leadership positions is a vital part of strategic planning and talent management in libraries that rely on teams of people working in flatter structures and greater accountability. The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition framework suggests that mentoring, coaching, and professional development empower staff for movement up organizational career ladders as part of succession planning and management. To maximize human capital, administrators need to determine skill development levels among staff so that they can identify skill “gaps” internally, create new career ladders, identify emerging stars, and enhance evidence of values for staff contributions.
Futurists envision a virtual world in which networked information supplants traditional library structures and collections. In today's reality, however, technology does not supplant, but supplements traditional means of scholarship and communication. Academic libraries currently house both the old and the new, and librarians are expected to provide links among changing formats while teaching users to utilize the tools available to them. When such a teaching mission is coupled with an increasingly technological orientation and the need for absolute fiscal responsibility, hard choices must be made. Reference librarians move from thc desk to the bibliographic instruction room, and the classDeborah S. Grealy is Science Reference Librarian, Penrose Library, University of Denvcr, 2150 East Evans, Denver, CO 80208.
The growth of adult education on college campuses is significantly affecting college and university libraries which now must deal with issues surrounding adult and distance education, along with the proliferation of information resources and unprecedented technological change. Desktop provision of licensed electronic library resources, along with Web-based tutorials, Web-based pathfinders, and skillful mediation of electronic reference questions can help alleviate anxiety, saving valuable time for non-resident, non-traditional students by enabling them to access and utilize remotely accessible electronic library resources effectively.
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