Chapter 7:

Management of
Reference
Services
C H R I S T O F F E L U . N AWA N G
Table of Contents
1. Sample Position Description: Head of Reference 4. Responding to Conflict
• What is Reference Managers all about? • Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument
• Managerial Roles and Expectations
• Responsibilities and Roles 5. Policy in Action: Balancing Principles, Politics,
• Competencies and Skills and the Service Imperative
• Managers as Leaders • Policies

2. Develop Your Own Management Philosophy 6. Professional Development Resources for Library
• Planning Managers
• Categories of Staff • Professional Associations
• Institutes and Webinars
3. Job Aids for Reference Work • Books and Journals
• Job aids
• Communication
• Meetings
 Let’s have Game activity!
Telephone Game (with a little Japanese ver. about Library)
1. Sample Position Description:
Head of Reference
#1. In your own opinion, what can you imagine
about the Reference Managers?
WHAT IS REFERENCE MANAGERS ALL
ABOUT?

 Reference Managers allow you to organize your

references and access them online.

 Some of them will also allow you to keep your articles online
in the cloud as well, so that they don’t take up space on your
own device.
Managerial Roles and Expectations
 Librarians with responsibilities for managing reference services do so in a
variety of contexts and organizational structures.

 Different Types of organizational structures, the specific title given to positions

with reference management responsibilities varies accordingly.

positions with reference management responsibilities varies:

 Head
 Manager
 Coordinator or Team Leader
RESPONSIBILITIES
AND ROLES
 Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick’s (1937)
One of the most frequently cited descriptions of the manager’s role,
they discovered POSDCoRB model.
 RESPONSIBILITIES AND ROLES
POSDCoRB model

Planning: Organizing: Staffing: Making Directing: Coordinating: Reporting: Reporting on Budgeting:

Determining Dividing work all personnel Overseeing and Coordinating unit activities and Determining how
goals and among units, decisions, assigning work to activities between accomplishments, keeping the unit’s budget
deciding how establishing including staff individuals. units. upper management will be allocated
they will be met. procedures to hiring and informed about progress. and ensuring that
accomplish tasks. evaluation. unit stays within
budget.
COMPETENCIES
AND SKILLS
 Success as a manager or leader requires more than executing a set of
responsibilities.

The skills and competencies needed to be a reference librarian:

the ability to gather
the ability to organize, and
analyze information
Managers as Leaders
 Leading leadership theorist John P. Kotter argues that
management and leadership are distinctive
but complementary modes of action (1990).
 By contrast, management involves planning and using resources efficiently to produce
the intended results.
 In practice, most reference managers are expected to both manage and lead.
Moreover, the techniques of leadership that focus on motivating, inspiring,
and aligning people are valuable skills for anyone
who wants to influence future directions
in the workplace or the profession.
2. Develop Your Own
Management Philosophy
#2. Reflect on the good, and the not so good,
managers you have worked for in the past.
What are your traits you like “to emulate”and
that you want “to avoid” and why?
Just give one for each.
Planning

 Planning is a process that deals with the resource

mobilization in terms of short- and long-range
requirements and drawing up a working program
for its implementation over a period

 Librarians should pay attention to what is happening outside of the

library’s walls, both within the local community and in the world.

 This includes not only an awareness of trends at other libraries, but

factors that might affect local users and their information habits such as
demographics, economics, and technology trends as well.
Planning

 Attention to changes over time can inform

the creation of a new service point or
the combination of service points or changes
in who is staffing a service.
(Todorinova et al. 2011; Ward and Phetteplace 2012)

 Gathering information from users and the staff who work the frontlines
of the reference service can support richer decision making.

 Those working the reference desk daily are best situated to alert
management to emerging patterns such as a particular shift becoming
busier, an increase in questions from off-campus students, or a decline
in questions that require the use of traditional reference sources.
Categories of Staff
 In every organization of more than one person, there are different
staff roles and titles.
 in many library settings, positions are defined by level of education, training, and
experience.
 “professional” and “paraprofessional” or “professional” and “clerical”
3. Job Aids for Reference Work
Job Aids
 Job aids include things like procedure manuals, opening
and closing checklists, and computer help screens.
LIST OF JOB AIDS
 An alarm bell—a reminder to check the e-mail queue
for incoming questions or to take the room count.
 Troubleshooting guide—a flowchart of questions to ask
and things to try when a user reports problems
accessing an online resource.
 Images—a photo or map showing the meeting spot for
building evacuations.
 Dashboard—an easily used Web page of links or set of
bookmarks to key resources needed to provide
reference services. This might include links to key
databases and catalogs, as well as to desk schedules,
individuals’ schedules, software, log-ins, procedures,
and the like.
LIST OF JOB AIDS
 Canned answers—prewritten answers to commonly
asked questions that can be used as a customizable
template for responding to chat, e-mail, and other
inquiries.
 FAQs—automatically generated or cooperatively
developed lists or databases where staff share
information for common (and not so common)
questions
COMMUNICATION
• It is vital to be able to communicate
with different groups and to be active
in listening as well as sharing
information and ideas.
 COMMUNICATION

Henry Mintzberg’s (1980) classic model of managerial work,

based on long-term observations of managers on the job,
identifies three informational roles that most managers play:
1. Monitor:
Seek out information related to the broader organization and the
user community as well as to professional developments in
reference services and related areas
2. Disseminator:
Serve as a conduct of information, sharing, interpreting, and
integrating information of potential value to the reference
department or team and colleagues
3. Spokesman:
Represent and speak for the reference department or team,
transmitting information about plans, accomplishments, and
policies, and so on, to people outside the team.
COMMUNICATION
WITH STAFF
• Good communication within the
reference department or team helps
develop staff who are fully engaged
in providing service.
• Also it helps to ensure that effort is
focused on broader goals and
outcomes.
“Managers need to share enough information
with employees so that everyone understands
what is happening and their place in the overall
scheme of things. When employees understand
the why and how of something, they are apt to
do things correctly and to take ownership,
responsibility for, and satisfaction from the job.”
Rachel Singer Gordon (2005)
Meetings
 meetings may seem unnecessary, and communicating via e-mail or some
other means might appear to be a more efficient way to share information.
 Meetings, be they in person or online, provide a venue uniquely suited to sharing
information, generating ideas, problem solving, and decision making.
 Regularly coming together as a group to focus on shared work and goals
empowers staff and creates a positive work environment.
4. Responding to Conflict
#3. What style do you think would be most
effective for resolving a difference with another
manager over allocation of an open office and
why?
 THOMAS-KILMANN
CONFLICT MODE
INSTRUMENT
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict (Thomas 1992) identifies
five styles for responding to conflict:
• Competition: This approach focuses on gaining control and
pressuring a change even at another’s expense.
• Collaboration: This approach addresses conflicts as
problems to be solved and looks for solutions satisfying all
parties’ concerns by identifying underlying concerns,
testing your own assumptions, and understanding the
views of others.
•Compromise: This approach seeks a mutually acceptable
“middle-ground” solution that partially satisfies all parties’
concerns.
 THOMAS-KILMANN
CONFLICT MODE
INSTRUMENT
• Avoidance: This approach tries to avoid, ignore, or
withdraw from conflict. It may be appropriate when
you need more time to decide how to respond,
confrontation might hurt a relationship or be
damaging to you personally, or there is little chance
of satisfying your needs.
• Accommodation: This approach involves setting
aside your own needs to keep the peace and
preserve relationships.
5. Policy in Action: Balancing
Principles, Politics, and the
Service Imperative
#4. If no policy existed at your library,
how would you tell staff to respond to
this situation?
POLICIES
 libraries find it useful to develop a general reference service policy that provides “an overarching
statement of purpose”, including “goals and objectives”, as well as “a broad strategy” that will be
followed to reach those goals and objectives (Katz 2002, 184–86).

 The best service policies are grounded in a shared philosophy of service and stem from a
thoughtful consideration of what reference means at that institution (Kern 2009, 32).
POLICIES
 Professional guidelines and standards provide invaluable guidance when developing policy and can
support staff if a policy is challenged.
 The Madison Public Library’s “Reference Assistance Policy,”
 Ex. Specifically cites both state statutes regarding the confidentiality of library records and the ALA
(stands for American Library Association) Code of Ethics (Madison Public Library Board 2001).
POLICIES
 Professional guidelines and standards provide invaluable guidance when developing policy and can
support staff if a policy is challenged.
 The Madison Public Library’s “Reference Assistance Policy,”
 Ex. Specifically cites both state statutes regarding the confidentiality of library records and the ALA
(stands for American Library Association) Code of Ethics (Madison Public Library Board 2001).
 reference managers may be involved in creating policies regarding new modes of service delivery,
such as virtual reference services, geared either to the public or staff, to clarify the scope of the
service.
6. Professional Development Resources
for Library Managers
 PROFESSIONAL
ASSOCIATIONS
• Library Leadership & Management Association
(LLAMA): LLAMA is a division of ALA focused on
advancing outstanding leadership and management
practices and developing excellence in current and
aspiring library leaders. LLAMA brings together
librarians from all types of libraries.

• Reference and User Services Association (RUSA):

RUSA provides an excellent venue for connecting
with others involved in the provision of reference
services in every type of library. The Reference
Services Section of RUSA includes a Management of
Reference committee.
 PROFESSIONAL
ASSOCIATIONS
• State and regional library associations are a good
way to network with those close geographically.
Many offer conferences or workshops that can be
attended without lengthy travel, and some offer
online webinars as well.
 INSTITUTES AND
WEBINARS
• Numerous training institutes and workshops
are available for library leaders.
• Many state libraries or regional or state
library organizations offer workshops or
multiday institutes for managers, sometimes
focused on a specific type of library, such as
the Statewide Public Library Management
Institute sponsored by the Illinois State
Library.
 INSTITUTES AND
WEBINARS
• WebJunction: Sponsored by OCLC, this
“learning place for libraries” hosts free
webinars and courses related to library
technology, management, and services.

• TRLN Management Academy: This is an

experiential learning program focusing on
preparing midlevel academic library
managers to manage complex and diverse
resources with emphasis on the sound
management of staff, budgets, and
technology.
BOOKS AND
JOURNALS
Reference managers should also keep up with journals
specific to the type of library in which they work:
• Portal: Libraries and the Academy, Public Libraries,
or School Library Research
• Reference Journals: Reference Services Review,
Reference & User Services Quarterly (RUSQ), and
The Reference Librarian.
• Management-specific journals: Library
Administration and Management, Library
Management, Journal of Library Administration, and
The Bottom Line.
Thank you! (Arigato Gozaimashita!)