preschool literacy initiative

public librarian recruitment

certification

PLA/LAMA/ASCLA Certified Public Library Administrator (CPLA) Program Core Course

Course Name

Current Issues in Public Library Management

General Description

Two and one-half day course, divided into two sessions, providing participants opportunities to engage in study and discussion of current issues relating to management of public libraries and public library services. Specific issues will reflect interests and needs of participants and will change over time. Each participant will select one issue and explore it in depth, producing a paper documenting their findings and making and defending recommendations for how the issue might be resolved in a particular public library.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Identify major current issues in public library management.
2. Identify how general political, economic or social trends relate to the issues in their public library management context.
3. Analyze an issue in depth, incorporating information gleaned from all relevant sources, and document how the issue could impact strategic planning, services policies, resource allocation, or collection management as applicable.
4. Develop and defend recommendations for how an issue might be addressed and resolved in a particular public library.

Components

Specific issues will vary over time. Major issues areas that seem relevant in 1999 are:

1. Leadership development, including how to identify potential leaders on a public library staff and how to assist in their development of knowledge and skills to carry out more and higher level responsibilities. Could include leadership assessment tools, role of mentoring in leadership development, career ladders.
2. Legal issues (beyond just “library law”) including library liability, trustee liability, federal and state employment law, data privacy in electronic information environments, rights of minors, copyright.
3. Outsourcing, including why it is appealing to many government officials, pros and cons, identification of operations that might be outsourced, development of comparative cost data, preparation of requests for proposals, setting and monitoring performance standards, and evaluation.
4. Internet filtering, including arguments pro and con, First Amendment implications, relationship to federal and state law, relationship to library mission and policy statements, statements of the American Library Association and other library associations, how filters on the market operate and perform, addressing community input.
5. Safety and security issues, including staff protection from hostile and disgruntled customers, de-escalation strategies; customer personal safety in using public library facilities; security of on-line information systems from hackers.

Suggested Methods

1. Survey of participants to rank the relevance to them of the major issue areas and to identify additional interest areas to be explored in the course.
2. Initial one and one-half day session for overviews and participant discussion of the major issue areas.
3. Course assignment for each participant to develop their issue area and recommendations.
4. One and one-half day session for presentation of summaries by participants of their papers, with discussion and feedback.

Key Sources

Each participant will need to identify the key sources of information in the issue area they choose.

Possible Presenters

There should be one person responsible for the overall course, including the initial issue area survey, incorporating the results of the survey into the final plan for the three-day course, identifying and securing outside speakers, assisting participants with their individual projects, and conducting the final sessions. Outside speakers could include a personnel specialist on leadership development, an attorney on legal issues, and a library administrator who has had experiences with outsourcing.

Evalution

1. The person responsible for the overall course will critique participant papers and presentations. Written critiques will be provided to participants.
2. Survey of participants at the end of the second session, gathering their feedback on the degree to which objectives were met and ways that the course could be improved.
3. Six-month follow-up survey of participants to rate the usefulness and applicability of what they learned to their job responsibilities.