2nd Diary Entry, Essay Example

Personal Theory of Management

My personal theory of management is based upon the concept working in an administrative capacity in order to meet the organizations goals and objectives by encouraging group dynamics and collaborative teamwork arrangements; this whilst protecting the rights of individuals within the organization.  In the role of the librarian this extends to embrace information technology in order to support the business requirements of the organization. The Corporate librarian also serves as both a knowledge creator and distributor of knowledge and this aligns with management information systems.

Collaboration and Teamwork

The article talks about users wanting to do their own research and access information by themselves. This relates to collaborative effort between the librarian and others who wish to to use the library technology i.e. computer hardware and software applications.  The librarian can offer instruction in the use of these applications. An analogy might be the user is the Pilot and the librarian the Navigator.  Familiarity with the technology and sources of information places the librarian as a valuable resource to any potential researcher.

With regards to management, when the librarian is instructing others in the use of the technology they are managing the process.  A personal experience relates to my occupation as an Accountant where learnt that the Managers would not instruct staff on the use of new programs and technologies; preferring the staff to figure it out for themselves. As such there was a steep learning curve in accessing the Company database for financial information. This proved both time consuming, costly and was largely unsuccessful resulting in many missed deadlines.  Hence the concept of individuals doing their own research is a good one but they will benefit from managerial input and instruction that will save them time, point them in the right direction and essentially ensure that they get the best use from the technology placed at their disposal.

The Technology Interface

The article makes the important point “Todays laggard is yesterday’s early adopter and todays early adopter is one who uses wikis, blogs, voip…” (Feng, 2005).  This means the librarian needs to be on top of the game with regard to understanding, utilizing and accepting technology as an important part of the library services. Libraries help provide both knowledge acquisition and knowledge distribution and the computers / search engines and software are applications that help accelerate the process.  In this sense they can be described as Management Information Systems in helping to fulfil the broader objectives of the library.

Core Competencies

The article goes at lengths to discuss the core competencies of the librarian. The key to this is information mastery.  An information enabler, a knowledge creator and an instructor in the technology (enabler) to provide corporate librarian services. The image of the corporate librarian is often not a good one and they are often under-utilized. This often as a failing of the organization to recognise their value sets. “In particular, the librarian should seek ways of exploiting the power of the electronic databases to develop innovative services that managers can recognize as having tangible value. A possible service of this kind is the recognition and tracking of issues of potential significance to the corporation…” (F.W. Lancaster, 1994).  As such the Organization needs to be more supportive in the marketing and value of the managerial services provided by the Corporate Librarian.

Works Cited

F.W. Lancaster, J. L. (1994, 10). The corporate library and issues management – The Library in Corporate Intelligence Activities. Retrieved 2 8, 2011, from BNet: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1387/is_n2_v43/ai_15948865/

Feng, A. (2005). Corporate Librarian 2.0 : New core competencies. Information Outlook.