Succession Planning in Canadian Academic Libraries

Succession Planning in Canadian Academic Libraries

Janneka Guise

Table of Contents

Cover image

Title page

Chandos

Copyright

List of tables

About the author

1. Introduction

Thesis

The Canadian academic library landscape

Canadian Association of Research Libraries

What is succession planning?

The changing role of the academic librarian

2. Literature review

Corporate succession planning

Library succession planning

Elements of succession planning

Summary

3. Methodology

Part one: online survey

Part two: on-site interviews

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

4. Themes

The participants

The libraries

The themes

Summary

5. Best practices

Preliminary planning

Identifying participants and conducting the talent review

Implementation, training, and feedback

Summary

6. Barriers

Budget

Transparency and fairness

Organizational structure as a barrier

Knowledge transfer

Changing roles of librarians/archivists/libraries

Summary

7. Implications

Preliminary planning

Identifying participants and conducting the talent review

Implementation, training, and feedback

The end and the beginning

Conclusion

Appendix

References and further reading

Index

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Copyright

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Copyright © 2016 Janneka Guise. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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List of tables

Table 2.1 Mapping steps of succession planning

Table 3.1 English-language CARL institutions, with total librarians and archivists

Table 3.2 Definitions and position descriptions

Table 4.1 Range of responses about professional development allowance funding at CARL libraries

About the author

Janneka Guise has worked in large and small academic libraries in Canada and the United States since 1999. She began her career at the University of Toronto (Ontario, Canada), moved west to Red Deer College (Alberta, Canada), south to Washburn University (Kansas, USA), east to Memorial University of Newfoundland (Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada), and back west to her current position as Head of the Eckhardt-Gramatté Music Library at the University of Manitoba in 2007.

Jan holds a Master of Library and Information Studies (University of Alberta, Canada) and Master of Music in Music Theory (Western University, Canada). A firm believer in leading from within, she has benefitted from many leadership development opportunities throughout her career, and enjoys fostering leadership skills in others. She has attended the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians at Harvard University, and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Skills Institute. In 2011 she completed a Graduate Professional Certificate in Library Sector Leadership (University of Victoria, Canada).

She has served on many local, national, and international committees, most notably for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) and the International Association of Music Libraries (IAML). She served for 2  years as treasurer on the executive board of the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries (CACUL), and 7  years as membership secretary, vice president, president, and past president on the executive board of the Canadian Association of Music Libraries (CAML).

Jan enjoys the benefits of leading an embedded branch library, collaborating with music faculty and working one-on-one with music students. At the University of Manitoba (30,000+ FTE students), she is part of a cadre of 50+ professional librarians and archivists, and she works collaboratively with her peers on projects to benefit the entire university community. Her research interests have been wide and varied during her career, focusing on assessment of collections and public services, innovations in information literacy training, developmental evaluation, leadership and staff development. In 2013–2014, Jan took a 6-month Research Study Leave from the University of Manitoba to research and gather data for this book.

1

Introduction

Abstract

This chapter gives an overview of the Canadian academic library landscape, particularly in the member libraries of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. The demographics of professional librarians and archivists are changing, and there is more and more turnover in senior administrative positions such as the University Librarian and Associate University Librarian positions. Studies, such as the so-called 8R's report, have shown that newer and middle manager librarians either are not interested in, or do not feel qualified for, movement into these vacant senior positions. The chapter concludes with a description of succession planning.

Keywords

8R's; Academic libraries; Canada; Canadian Association of Research Libraries; Landscape; Succession planning

Academic libraries seem to be in a continuous state of change. The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) recently identified six trends in research libraries that are transforming the librarian roles (Jaguszewski & Williams, 2013). A decade earlier, Canadian academic librarians identified increased use of Information Technology, Reengineering, and Functional Area Integration as the top three contributors to librarians’ changing roles (Ingles, De Long, Humphrey, & Sivak, 2005). Prior to that, the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) (Schwartz, 1997; Ad Hoc Task Force, 2002) reported on changes to the library profession affecting organizational structures and librarian roles at academic libraries across North America.

Beginning in the late 1990s, as the baby boomers neared retirement age, the library sector predicted a skills and talent gap, as there would not be enough qualified younger professionals to take the places of the retirees (Hernon, 2007; Ingles et al., 2005; Galbraith, Smith, & Walker, 2012). Recent data suggest that librarians in the oldest age brackets tend to hold the most senior administrative positions in libraries. Indeed, there has been very little turnover in those positions in the last 30  years; University Librarians are getting older. In 1986, over 60% of University Librarians at ARL institutions were under the age of 55, whereas in 2010 that number was less than 10%. Meanwhile, over 80% of Assistant and Association University Librarians at ARL are over the age of 55, as are 50% of department heads (Galbraith et al., 2012). The people in these middle management positions are the ones we might expect to move into the University Librarian role when it becomes vacant. With so little turnover in recent decades, have the middle managers gained enough experience to step into the top roles as they become vacant? Are there enough interested, and qualified, candidates among the rank and file to move into the middle management positions?

In Canada, the 8R’s Team administered a landmark survey of strategic human resource planning to library administrators, professional librarians, and paraprofessionals in libraries across the country (Ingles et al., 2005). They predicted two in five librarians retiring by the year 2014, suggesting the library community is well-advised to begin examining their own institutional demographics and planning for the future… (p. 195).

After two decades of demographic research and mapping of trends in academic libraries, only 10% of Canadian libraries have a succession plan of any kind (De Long, 2012). Examples of academic library succession planning are scarce, and Galbraith et al. (2012) suggest that succession planning is an immediate issue that should take precedence over or along with other important concerns (p. 228).

Thesis

I have worked in academic libraries for 15  years, in four Canadian academic libraries and one American academic library. I have worked on a limited term appointment (nontenured), as a tenure-track and tenured librarian, and also as a library administrator. I recently studied human resources planning in a library context, while taking a Certificate in Library Sector Leadership program at the University of Victoria, Canada, and I have observed and taken part in human resources planning over the course of my career.

Yet, I wondered whether Canadian academic libraries heeded the call to action issued nearly a decade ago in The Future of Human Resources in Canadian Libraries (Ingles et al., 2005)? I wanted to collect evidence to find out how Canadian academic libraries are planning for the current and future staffing challenges described above.

Over the course of a 6-month sabbatical from the University of Manitoba, Canada, I undertook an extensive literature review and a two-part study of academic libraries across Canada. The remainder of this introductory chapter gives a detailed overview of the Canadian academic library landscape, followed by definitions of succession planning.

Chapter 2 is a review of the literature from both the corporate world and from the library world on succession planning, as well as an outline of the key elements of succession planning. I describe the need for succession planning in academic libraries and provide examples of such planning from the literature.

In Chapter 3, I discuss the methodology for my two-part study. In part one, I used an online survey to take a census of succession planning practices at member libraries of the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL, the peer group of the University of Manitoba). In part two, I visited six CARL libraries, and interviewed professional librarians and archivists to gather more detailed information on local succession planning practices at those institutions. I describe the process of generating the survey instruments, the selection of the study population, and the qualitative analysis of the data.

Chapter 4 is a description of the institutions I visited and common themes that arose from the study. Chapter 5 identifies barriers respondents identified to succession planning at their libraries. Chapter 6 highlights best practices revealed during the site visits. Chapter 7 summarizes the findings of the study and provides implications for CARL library leaders who wish to improve succession planning practices within their organizations.

This book is for any academic librarian with an interest in career development, leadership at any level of the organization, library planning, or those in a senior administration position or who aspire to such a position. This is not a book about leadership, mentorship, or strategic planning, although these topics are integral to the concept of succession planning. Readers can consult many excellent examples in the library literature for deeper understanding of these topics. This book is not a manual for how to do succession planning. Within these pages you will develop a better understanding of succession planning, how it is understood and applied by Canadian academic librarians and archivists, and its potential role in Canadian academic libraries.

The Canadian academic library landscape

In Canada, the elimination of mandatory retirement in 1994 coupled with the economic crisis of the late 2000s has proven the predictions of massive retirements to be more myth than reality. Baby boomers are choosing to work longer and this generates interesting staffing challenges in academic libraries (De Long, 2012).

One challenge is an ever-widening gap between baby boomers’ experience and institutional knowledge and that of new professionals entering the field. Even if there were enough younger workers to replace those retiring, would they have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to step in and fill the gaps?

In 1994, the federal government abolished a mandatory age of retirement, which makes it difficult to predict turnover of older staff. Warman and Worswick (2010) studied Canadian census data for the period 1983–2001 in order to determine the