Governing (Not Managing) Your Library

Abstract

It seems like many years since anyone considered a library merely a place with books, or a librarian just a person who checks them out. But it is a reasonably safe bet that conceptions of the position and role of the library board have been largely unchanged for generations. Libraries inhabit a world of rapidly changing possibilities and expectations; their staffs must continually update their technologies, knowledge and practice. In this environment, it is daunting that the technology of governance is unlikely to have advanced at all. Today's library boards do much the same as their predecessors: they hear reports, listen to staff recommendations, attempt to help the staff with staff jobs, form committees, attend to emergent issues, and generally carry out a reactive role.