“This is an Opportunity for Librarians to Reinvent Themselves, but it is about Moving Out of their Areas”: New Roles for Library Leaders?

ABSTRACT

This article shares the research based on interviews with 12 U.K. university senior managers commissioned by SCONUL and carried out by external consultants who found that libraries can have a positive impact on student satisfaction and experience and are a source of institutional information about the student body. Libraries are seen very much as supporting learning and teaching; centrality to research was less apparent. They are rarely seen as problematic except in terms of future resource levels, but there is awareness that rapid change will continue to affect libraries; library leaders will need to provide innovative solutions to this and other challenges. The need for strategic alignment is a key factor. These findings are seen within the context of a survey of senior librarians carried out by SCONUL showing a trend toward greater centralization of services. The position of the senior librarian is now lower down the reporting structure than in the past.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaboration
• leadership
• roles
• university libraries

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Alison Baud, Alison Allden, David Ford, and David Baker for their helpful comments.