Introduction to Library Trends 38 (1) Summer 1989: Critical Issues in Library Personnel Management

PEOPLE RUN LIBRARIES; they provide the essential services, process the materials, prepare the budgets, and establish the policies and practices that shape the institution.This is not always recognized by a public that often perceives the library as a place for collections of books.Certainly, an important aspect of any library is an array of objects that contribute to library service: the media, physical facilities, and electronic technologies.But a human being is responsible for combining these elements into effective library service, and failures in library service are often failures to deal appropriately with human issues.Perhaps someday the wholly electronic library will make people unnecessary.But today the proliferation of library technologies has highlighted rather than diminished the vital role that people play in the changing library environment.The purpose of the 29th Allerton Conference was to identify and discuss some of these issues, and to provide a forum for exchange of ideas on critical issues in personnel management.Managing personnel is an especially difficult task because the reasons people act as they do are varied and often opaque.The library manager, whose training emphasizes librarianship more than management, is forced to operate in this difficult environment with few guidelines.What motivates staff members?Martin Maehr, from the University of Illinois, addresses this issue in the general context of worker motivation.Similarly, Charles Martell explores the necessary conditions for high achievement in the library workplace.In each of these articles, the emphasis is on library workers as people.The articles are a recognition of the importance of human needs and the implicit potential of greater productivity in their fulfillment.