Library public services staff have primarily focused on providing services through interactions with their users. Although service quality and customer satisfaction are important in the delivery of these services, the emphasis and nature of the work have often been influenced by a library-centric philosophy rather than a user-centric philosophy.…

This article discusses a public service review and redesign that resulted in a blended service desk combining reference and circulation functions, staffed by nonlibrarians. The redesign implements a number of organizational structures that encourage service excellence, as found in the business literature and in examples of nonlibrary organizations…

Special collections and area studies librarians face similar challenges in the changing academic library environment, including the need to articulate the value of these specialized collections and to mainstream processes and practices into larger discovery, teaching, learning, and research efforts. For some institutions, these similarities have…

We have now reached a tipping point at which electronic resources comprise more than half of academic library budgets. Because of the increasing work associated with the ever-increasing number of e-resources, there is a trend to distribute work throughout the library even in the presence of an electronic resources department. In 2013, the author…

Since the earliest days of the profession, academic librarians have attempted to reconcile their status within the academy. This project takes a new approach to this effort by using Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal's "Four Frames" model to analyze the issues. To more closely examine the dynamics, tensions, and implications associated with…

The objective of this paper is two-fold: to propose a theoretical framework and model for studying organizational innovation in research libraries and to set forth propositions that can provide directions for future empirical studies of innovation in research libraries. Research libraries can be considered members of a class of organizations…

This report is based on a series of presentations at the second CLIR Seminar on "Participatory Design of Academic Libraries," held at the University of Rochester's River Campus June 5-7, 2013. Participatory design is a relatively recent approach to understanding library user behavior. It is based on techniques used in anthropological and…

The integration of librarians and technologists to deliver information services represents a new and potentially costly organizational challenge for many library administrators. To understand better how to control the costs of integration, the research presented here will use structural contingency theory to study the coordination of librarians…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of academic librarians on two topics: the delivery of services to students and faculty in a time of rapid technological changes and an organizational structure appropriate for delivering services to students in a time of rapid technological changes. Several researchers agree that to…

Introduction: This paper discusses an "information in context" design project at Auraria Library in Denver, Colorado which aims to collaboratively create organizational structures and communication systems with and for library employees. Method: This action research project is founded within shared leadership, informed learning and…

Technological innovations have transformed all areas of community college libraries. Automated library systems, office software, and Internet access have altered work processes for library personnel and have changed research methodologies for students and faculty. The purpose of this bounded multiple case study was to explore how the adoption of…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the leadership orientation of the academic library leader considered ideal by faculty, administrators and librarians in private, non-profit, doctoral universities in Southern California. Theoretical Framework: The theoretical framework used for this study was Bolman and Deal's Leadership…

Discussion of Humanistic Management by Teamwork (HMBT) rationalizes a preference for HMBT in academic library management. The University of New Mexico's Zia model of library organization is described as an example of HMBT, and several benefits of the Zia model are summarized. (MES)

Argues that the organizational structure of an academic library can facilitate the development of an awareness of events and decisions which occur outside a library, significantly affecting its ability to achieve its goals, if the library's organizational design (including its traditional hierarchy) is modified. (Author/JD)

Presents a functional organizational model for research libraries consisting of six major divisions and subunits: acquisition (buying, borrowing, leasing); organization (records creation, records maintenance); collections (collections management, selection, preservation, special collections and archives); interpretation (reference, instructional…