The Time Management Study as a Tool for New Technical Services Managers

Abstract

Inexperienced technical services managers and those new to their departments or organizations have many challenges, including building rapport and trust with staff, assessing workloads, and prioritizing assignments. Additionally, middle managers of libraries are often not adequately prepared for management through formal education or on-the-job training and workshops. Time management studies are a simple tool for shedding light on work habits, time allocations, and labor expenditures. This is critical information for new managers, and can demonstrate whether priorities, assignments or workflows need to be redirected. At the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Montana libraries two librarians in middle management undertook separate time management studies to increase knowledge and improve management of their departments.