Search

Our guest columnist is Karl Bridges who has served in a variety of leadership roles in academic libraries. I have gotten to know Karl over the past few years as he was asked to serve in an interim dean role and then hired into the permanent dean positions. At the time, I was at the University of Wyoming and serving as a leader in sparsely populated state where everyone knows your name. Western leaders have to form a tight bond – there are fewer of us and the distances are great. But regardless of geographical situations, leaders need and depend on peer networks that provide a safe space for frank conversations and sharing ideas that help all libraries achieve their goals. Karl has dealt with changing university leadership, library transformations, and dire budget situations. Well, pretty much what every library leader must face. Despite these challenges, library leaders have an opportunity to make a real difference. Karl draws upon his years of experience to provide a thought piece about library leadership noting the complexity, the importance of leadership, and the real joy of making a difference in someone's life. I hope you enjoy this raw look at leadership and that it reminds you of the purpose of leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the philosophy of personalism, show its relationship to the management philosophy of servant leadership, and suggest how servant leadership can be useful in library management. It mentions that Nineteenth-century growth of technology and science, coupled with societal changes such as mass urbanization. It also mentions works of French philosopher Emmanuel Mounier relating faith to modern social movements.

Introduction With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, libraries began not only developing an innovative technology, but have also started developing new economic paradigms for library services. In an economy [...]

Introduction The fundamental issue for survival in modern librarianship is adaptation. In the modern information environment the basic criteria that determines the success or failure of a library is the [...]

Introduction The academic world is at the beginning of a major shift in the library computing paradigm. Librarians have participated in the movement from paper-based systems to mainframe computing. This [...]

Objective The objective was to develop an understanding, using the Functional Resonance Analysis Method (FRAM), of the factors that could cause a deer hunter to misidentify their intended target. Background Hunting is a popular activity in many communities. However, hunters vary considerably based on training, experience, and expertise. Surprisingly, safety in hunting has not received much attention, especially failure-to-identify hunting incidents. These are incidents in which the hunter, after spotting and targeting their quarry, discharge their firearm only to discover they have been spotting and targeting another human, an inanimate object, or flora by mistake. The hunter must consider environment, target, time of day, weather, and many other factors-continuously evaluating whether the hunt should continue. To understand how these factors can relate to one another is fundamental to begin to understand how incidents happen. Method Workshops with highly experienced and active hunters led to the development of a FRAM model detailing the functions of a "Hunting FRAM." The model was evaluated for correctness based on confidential and anonymous near-miss event submissions by hunters. Results A FRAM model presenting the functions of a hunt was produced, evaluated, and accepted. Using the model, potential sources of incidents or other unintended outcomes were identified, which in turn helped to improve the model. Conclusion Utilizing principles of understanding and visualization tools of the FRAM, the findings create a foundation for safety improvements potentially through training or safety messages based on an increased understanding of the complexity of hunting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an overview of the concept of a campus-wide information system. In particular, it focuses on the use of Gopher software to provide distributed information access. Besides discussing the setup of a campus-wide information system (CWIS), it also gives possible uses such as providing campus information, library schedules, etc. In its conclusion, the article suggests an administrative paradigm for such a system that stresses cooperation between various campus entities and emphasizes the need for the library, academic computing, and administration to rationally divide responsibilities. Finally, some of the possible sociological effects of the CWIS are discussed including the impact on the traditional university culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]