To determine how academic library leaders make decisions about their organization’s future and how they effect changes, the author interviewed 44 university librarians and deans from institutions belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). The author analyzed the interviews using content analysis to identify the most frequent themes among the responses. Results indicate that collaborative decision-making is key to academic library leadership and that strategic planning processes guide organizational change. Digital projects and support of teaching and research top the list of strategic priorities. The author identified key professional development programs and techniques that support the training of future deans and university librarians.
This article presents the results of a study analyzing the position descriptions from science and technology librarians as described by online job advertisements. Fifty-five job ads listed in the American Library Association JobLIST Web site were discovered in 2008 and 2009. Content analysis was used to determine the number of job responsibilities each library position required. The results show the remarkably high amount of multitasking required of science and technology librarians and an increase in the number of job tasks over the past few decades when compared with previous studies.
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