What do you think?
Rate this book
Leadership: The Challenge for the Information Profession
Effective leadership is key to the future of information services and professional practice, as demands on leaders within the sector are greater than ever before. Leadership skills are required at all levels of the profession, from the top, through to professional staff called upon to lead a team or to take a supervisory role. To meet these challenges, individuals must develop their leadership capacity. This book invites information professionals across the sector and at different stages in their career to reflect on and engage with the development of their leadership role and contribution. Using theoretical concepts and models, coupled with practical tools, this book encourages readers to think about their own leadership and the leadership provided by others around them as the basis for continuing improvement in management and professional practice. No other book offers such a comprehensive and topical perspective on leadership in the context of the information services and the wider information industry. Contents challenges in leadership knowing yourself as a leader leadership in context promoting change, innovation and creativity leading people setting direction and strategy leadership development influential leadership. A range of features, including learning objectives, chapter summaries, review questions, case cameos and recommendations for further reading, encourages and facilitates engagement and reflection.
Readership : This book is a must-have for information professionals and aspiring leaders seeking to understand leadership and to develop their own leadership practice, as well as the leadership potential in others. It is also a valuable professional education text.
Readership : This book is a must-have for information professionals and aspiring leaders seeking to understand leadership and to develop their own leadership practice, as well as the leadership potential in others. It is also a valuable professional education text.
236 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2008
About the author
Sue Roberts
4 booksSue Roberts MCLIP is an English-Antipodean librarian. After studying in the UK (BA (Hons), DipLib, MA) and working at Edge Hill University in Lancashire, she has held a series of library leadership roles in Australia and New Zealand, including a period as head of the State Library of Victoria.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 29, 2019
I am, to be absolutely honest, almost certainly not being fair to this book. I would have DNFed if it hadn't been mandated reading for a course that I'm taking.
The thing is that that I'm really, really tired of "leadership" being conflated with "organizational management," which this book does. "Leadership" should not be understood to mean, "How people who are in official organizational positions of authority wield the power they are granted over their official subordinates." This is an important topic that absolutely needs to be discussed, but that's not what leadership should be, or at least not what discussions about leadership should be confined to. Discussions of leadership also need to include how people who aren't managers or in other official positions of authority can lead, such as organizing on behalf of themselves and their rights or on behalf of others and the rights of others. I was saddened (but not surprised) that this book did not do this, because leadership books basically don't; if leadership books ever talk about people outside positions of authority doing leadership (and this isn't terribly common), it's generally from a position of, "Even people at the lowest levels can sacrifice their own good for the benefit of the organization by advocating for the organization without pay or recognition or compensation!" and not, "Even people at the lowest levels can organize on behalf of workers/patrons!"
That isn't to say that this book was necessarily a bad read, or that the class that I took was a bad class, but it made me aware of a lot of things about myself and leadership that I don't think were intended, mainly that I think leadership is being portrayed structurally as something I don't agree with (mainly something that is done by people in positions of organizational authority, always by people who seek to benefit organizations rather than people). I think I got a lot out of this book, but I don't think it's what the authors were going for.
The thing is that that I'm really, really tired of "leadership" being conflated with "organizational management," which this book does. "Leadership" should not be understood to mean, "How people who are in official organizational positions of authority wield the power they are granted over their official subordinates." This is an important topic that absolutely needs to be discussed, but that's not what leadership should be, or at least not what discussions about leadership should be confined to. Discussions of leadership also need to include how people who aren't managers or in other official positions of authority can lead, such as organizing on behalf of themselves and their rights or on behalf of others and the rights of others. I was saddened (but not surprised) that this book did not do this, because leadership books basically don't; if leadership books ever talk about people outside positions of authority doing leadership (and this isn't terribly common), it's generally from a position of, "Even people at the lowest levels can sacrifice their own good for the benefit of the organization by advocating for the organization without pay or recognition or compensation!" and not, "Even people at the lowest levels can organize on behalf of workers/patrons!"
That isn't to say that this book was necessarily a bad read, or that the class that I took was a bad class, but it made me aware of a lot of things about myself and leadership that I don't think were intended, mainly that I think leadership is being portrayed structurally as something I don't agree with (mainly something that is done by people in positions of organizational authority, always by people who seek to benefit organizations rather than people). I think I got a lot out of this book, but I don't think it's what the authors were going for.
Displaying 1 of 1 review