lecture presented by Mrs. Salvacion M. Arlante at PAARL Forum on the occasion of the National Book Week celebration (25 November 2011) held at the National Library of the Philippines, Manila

1. Discovering Connections,
Connecting Discoveries
LIBRARY PERSONNEL
PRODUCTIVITY & LEADERSHIP
2011
Prof. Salvacion M. Arlante

2. OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Good Library Management: Transformational
Leader
 Personnel as One of the Essentials of Good Library
Management
 Characteristics of Good Library Personnel
 Increasing Productivity of Library Personnel
 Becoming a Motivational Leader
 Conclusion

3. INTRODUCTION
A good library program leads to increased
academic achievement and personnel
productivity.
“Productivity is never an accident. It is
always the result of a commitment to
excellence, intelligent planning, and
focused effort.” -- Paul J. Meyer

4. INTRODUCTION
 Productivity is about change. It is about
changing current management and work
practices in all aspects of the global
economy.
 Change, by its very nature, requires that
difficult decisions have to be made.
 To arrive at a sound decision, one must
have superior leadership skills.

5. GOOD LIBRARY MANAGEMENT:
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
Leadership
Is a function of knowing yourself, having a vision
that is well communicated, building trust among
colleagues and taking effective action to realize
your own leadership potential (Hernon and Rossiter, 2007, p.
4)

6. GOOD LIBRARY MANAGEMENT:
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
Vision
 Here is what we are
 Here is what we do
 Here is where we are heading and
 Here is what is important and unique
about our Library

7. GOOD LIBRARY MANAGEMENT:
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
 Effective transformational leaders
 Embrace change because it is necessary to
move library organizations forward
 Motivate and/or empower their followers in the
organization to work on a shared vision &
implement that vision
 Mentor/coach followers to deal successfully with
the change process (Hernon and Rossiter, 2007)

8. GOOD LIBRARY MANAGEMENT:
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
 Why do we need a transformational
leader?
 Libraries are experiencing rapid change as a
result of the technological transformation of
society, higher education & service delivery
 However, library staff resist change &
reforms because it can:
 Alter the status quo
 Advance new systems & styles
 Abort traditional paradigms
 Allocate more resources to emerging paradigms
 Announce radical & apparently unacceptable policies
 Appear unpredictable & therefore received with a lot of fear

9. GOOD LIBRARY MANAGEMENT:
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
 Change & reform in an organization
are vital for scientific breakthrough &
technological advancement, social
transformation & institutional &
organizational survival

10. PERSONNEL AS ONE OF THE ESSENTIALS OF
GOOD LIBRARY MANAGEMENT
 The management of people at work is an
integral part of the management process.
 To understand the critical importance of
people in the organization is to recognize
that the human element and the
organization are synonymous.
 A well-managed organization usually sees
an average worker as the root source of
quality and productivity gains.

11. CHARACTERISTICS OF
GOOD LIBRARY PERSONNEL
 Level of Education and Training
 Technical Skills and Abilities
 Acquired from education, training and experience
 Indicates ability to use knowledge, methods and
techniques in the performance of library tasks
 Human Skills
 Ability to work with and through people
 Includes understanding of motivation and application of
effective leadership
 Conceptual Skill
 Incorporates the ability to understand the complexity of
the overall organization

12. INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY OF
LIBRARY PERSONNEL
 Motivation
 Job enrichment
 Provides employees with an opportunity to grow
psychologically and mature in a job
 Increases a job’s range and depth, which refers to the number
of activities and the autonomy, responsibility, discretion and
control
 Merit pay
 Promotion

13. INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY OF
LIBRARY PERSONNEL
 Motivation
 Flexible working hours
 Flexible time is intended to ensure that the work of the
organization is accomplished and permits library staff
and their supervisors to establish work schedules that
recognize individual and family needs.
 Research indicates that flexible scheduling can be
motivational in that job satisfaction is improved and
absenteeism is reduced (Pears, 1989).
 The ability to accommodate employee needs is a
healthy and positive approach to motivation.

14. INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY OF
LIBRARY PERSONNEL
 Performance Rating
 Benefits
 CPE
 Affiliations with organizations and institutions both local
and foreign
 Tenure
 Application of ICTs to Library Processes

15. CRITICAL OBSTACLES TO PRODUCTIVITY
 Bad planning
 Lack of basic (raw) materials to work with
 Equipment breakdown and poor machine design
 Careless and dysfunctional working habits
 Occupational hazards and accidents
 Poor working conditions
 Inadequate production infrastructures

16. BECOMING A MOTIVATIONAL LEADER
Motivational leaders consistently
demonstrate a number of qualities that
develop gradually over time in response to
successes and failure in achieving desired
responses from others

17. BECOMING A MOTIVATIONAL LEADER
 Key Qualities of a Motivational Leader
 Knowledge and skills
 Effective communication of ideas
 Confidence
 Commitment (ability to translate the goal or purpose
and elicit actions)
 Energy (empower and fire the imagination of others.
The “high energy leader” who is effective in one
situation may be viewed as “pushy & aggressive” in
another situation.)

18. BECOMING A MOTIVATIONAL LEADER
 Key Qualities of a Motivational Leader
 Insight into the needs of others (acute awareness of
the reason behind events and an ability to anticipate
results of action)
 Ability to listen, reserve judgment, give direct and
positive feedback, recognize individual value
through respect for others, and use humor
 Professional practice and shared governance to
produce an environment that fosters autonomy in
decision-making and provides the skills, resources and
information needed for others to make this transition

19. BECOMING A MOTIVATIONAL LEADER
 Promoting Library Services (Multi-level marketing)
 Leadership includes promoting library services and
resources using bold approaches
 Web 2.0 tools (Social Networking Sites, Blogs, Wikis, RSS,
Tagging, Virtual worlds, Social bookmarking & resource
sharing )
 Branding
 Badging
 Library radio program

20. CONCLUSION
 It is the responsibility of the library management
(leadership) to discover the potential in each library
staff member and to apply the appropriate
motivational strategy to increase productivity.
 One cannot hire only the hand and the brain; the
owner of that hand and brain must always come
along.
 “The only irreplaceable capital an organization
possesses is the knowledge and ability of its
people. The productivity of that capital depends on
how effectively people share their competence with
those who can use it” -- Andrew Carnegie (Source: Stewart, 1997,
p. 128)

21. THANK YOU 