Download complate issue - Ozean Publications

Ozean Journal of Social Sciences 2(3), 2009together can be arranged for staff as this will afford them to come together and interact and discuss variousissues that may enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the library services. Being an authoritative leader: An authoritative leader leads by example and explains every actiontaken, therefore library managers should endeavour not to be authoritarian in the leadership. Whenpunishment is necessary, justice should be tempered with mercy. It is not every time that the big stick iswielded by the leader, so library managers should show a little bit of kindness as this will surely engendercollegiality among staff and consequently good job performance among the workers.CONCLUSIONA popular proverb says, “united we stand, divided we fall”. This proverb is very appropriate to the subjectmatter of this paper which is collegiality in academic library. It must be realized that no group or department inan academic library can exist in isolation. Collegiality is important due to the interconnected work library staffperforms and the complications varying levels of staff create. At this juncture, one can ask how then shouldlibrary leaders promote collegiality in the academic library? It is possible to suggest several ways thatcollegiality could be encouraged in the library. These include the decentralizing tasks, rotating of newemployees and working on cooperative projects such as book weeding. This method can help introducecollegiality in a reference department. There is no reason why these ideas could not be translated library-wide.For instance, it would be possible for a library to involve all departments in the training of new staff. While theemploying unit would provide most of the training, the new staff could then rotate to other departments wherethey could be instructed in the basics of what the unit does and how they rely on people in others parts of libraryto get the job done. Although, this could be easiest to conduct with librarians and support staff as they are hiredless frequently, it could also be done with student employees. Another idea which can encourage collegiality inthe library is the possibility of involving a large portion of the library staff in cooperative tasks as well. Thereare many areas of library work like catalogue maintenance, customer service and collection development thatdraw on the expertise of library staff in different departments and of different levels. For example, the entirestaff could be involved in planning and conducting university library week activities. In this scenario, a largegroup could be brought together representing different parts of the library. As the tasks are broken down, manyof the significant and visible roles could be given to support staff and student employees as well as librarians.Each group and individuals will see themselves contributing to the total development of the library and this willcertainly promote collegiality among the staffs of various departments in the library.It is the duty of the university librarian and library management which is made up by professional librarians toencourage several ideas to promote collegiality. These include promoting trust, increasing job satisfaction,making sure that everyone is included, and helping librarians with unique strengths to use them whenappropriate. It must be realized that promoting trust in a library is a difficult task, it is not something that anyone administrator can decide to fix one day, have a staff-wide project and expect that trust has been gained bythe library staff. It is something that will have to be worked on. The university librarian will have to model itby proving to the staff that he/she is trustworthy. The university librarian will also have to insist that all libraryadministrators will act in a trustworthy manner which will inspire faith and confidence in them from the librarystaff. The management must realize that library staffs unsatisfied with their jobs can cause problems. They aremore apt to lash out at others and behave in ways that decrease collegiality. This problem can be solved bychanging jobs of staff members so that it is more meaningful to the person.Finally, it is very important for library manager to encourage the idea of acting professionally to all library staff.It must be realized that not everyone who works in a library is a professional librarian. However, all librarystaff can act professionally. In addition, all library staffs are expected to be treated professionally.134