Managing Through the Void: Overseeing a Library Department Amid Personnel Vacancies

Authors

  • Emily Alford Indiana University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5860/llm.v34i4.7456

Keywords:

support staff, student employees, position vacancies

Abstract

There are a variety of reasons a library department may experience a temporary position vacancy. Whatever the cause, this presents managers with the often overwhelming task of filling in the gaps, or even predicting and coping with stress inadvertently placed on the remainder of the department. Managers may be planning further into the future than we may be accustomed to in ordinary times. This brief, practice-based piece calls out the best ways to tame this frustration through maintaining three key focuses.

Author Biography

Emily Alford, Indiana University

Emily Alford manages the Government Information, Maps & Microform Services Department (GIMMS) at the IU Libraries, and serves as IUB Coordinator for the Federal Depository Library Program. In these roles, she shares her expertise as the government information and data specialist regarding local, state, federal, and international governmental organizations, and as collection manager for materials related to government information and data. Her research interests include public health, public safety, and sustainability.

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Published

2020-09-28

How to Cite

Alford, E. (2020). Managing Through the Void: Overseeing a Library Department Amid Personnel Vacancies. Library Leadership & Management, 34(4). https://doi.org/10.5860/llm.v34i4.7456

Issue

Vol. 34 No. 4 (2020)

Section

Features

License

Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0) that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.