Under-Represented Groups and Library Leadership
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Under-represented groups and library leadership Tennessee Libraries Vol 55 No 2 The Rainbow Effect -- Under-Represented Groups and Library Leadership President's Program Rosa Burnett, Director, Southwest Tennessee Community College; Murle Kenerson, Assistant Director, Tennessee State University; Thura Mack, Associate Professor, University of Tennessee Knoxville; Biddanda "Suresh" Ponnappa, Associate Dean, Director Medical Library, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University; moderated by Kay Due, Memphis Shelby County & Information Center Abstract from the conference program: Ethnically diverse library administrators are still somewhat rare. Library leaders from under- represented ethnic groups will tell personal stories of challenge and triumph. Attendees will gain insight needed to navigate the road to leadership. Expect frank talk about mentoring, networking, and avoiding career pitfalls. The majority of the following text is a lightly edited transcript of a live recording of this program. Thura Mack's written version of her presentation is included in place of a transcript. Rosa Burnett, Director, Southwest Tennessee Community College: Kay gave us a few questions to ponder and I sort of laughed at of some of them, but I just want to start our presentation with this: "Librarianship is a career which helps communities." Just ask a librarian and they will let you know. Well, now, if you ask a community, I wonder what kind of answers will be given to that-- because when we have problems within the library or with some of the public libraries, it's those people who use the library the most that may speak up when you're really down to the wire. I became a librarian because I really did not want to teach. When I came out of college we had what was called practice teaching I think they call it file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/jonesmf/Desktop/TL/v55n2/rainbow.htm (1 of 12)9/12/2005 12:30:59 PM Under-represented groups and library leadership internship now-- I didn't want to do it. So there was a position available in the school where I was--1st grade--and I took that position and I've been in libraries ever since. I like to tell other people what to do...I like to do that sort of thing. I like to talk, and I like to interact with other people, too. I didn't actually pursue a leadership role in librarianship; I just naturally gravitated towards it. When you work in one-librarian type libraries, you are the leader there and you develop some skills that you're going to need later on. So you don't have to go out [with leadership in mind]. There are people who are after this in their careers, but you just work. You start out working in an elementary school library or a high school library--usually there is one person and you are responsible for everything that happens there. So I just gradually moved into a leadership role. I have worked at historically Black colleges and I have worked at predominantly white institutions also and I've experienced the same types of issues and concerns in each one of those institutions. It's just a different type of people. The staffers could be something other than ethnicity--it could be your religion, it could be your gender, it could be your sexual orientation and then, in some cases, you got some people who just like to challenge authority, it doesn't make any difference what it is. Those kinds of people keep you on your toes. Now you've got this little card in front of you: file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/jonesmf/Desktop/TL/v55n2/rainbow.htm (2 of 12)9/12/2005 12:30:59 PM Under-represented groups and library leadership I came up with this acronym "BE ALERT." When you're traveling on highways you always see construction, and a lot of times you will see signs saying "Be alert, Arrive unhurt." Keep that "arrive unhurt" in the back of your mind, but "BE ALERT." You want to be able to Build Relationships with your peers as well as your boss. Now, your boss--I don't do the boss thing ok? I have superiors, I have supervisors, I have managers. If I have got to do a boss thing, it would have to be the president of the organization that I'm involved in. You need to be able to maintain a good relationship with these people. I mean, that's a job in itself, and you need to make sure that you keep that relationship with your peers and your colleagues-- the people who are the same level that you are on. If you are a director, you've got department heads, you've got some other deans within their academic areas--those are your colleagues, and you need to develop a relationship with them. Education is very important. When I finished my B. S. I thought, "That's it. I'm done." I fooled myself--I needed some more education. There was some more learning that needed to be file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/jonesmf/Desktop/TL/v55n2/rainbow.htm (3 of 12)9/12/2005 12:30:59 PM Under-represented groups and library leadership done. You need to go ahead and get that masters. You're going to have to have it anyway to work in the library, to be a librarian, you need it. But don't stop there. Go on ahead and get that doctor's degree, because if you're pushing yourself in leadership roles, you need to make sure that you got the educational background that you need. Also there are seminars and there are conferences out there that you need to make yourself a part of. A--Agility and Ability. I thought about the quickness, the nimbleness--and then I thought of, "Jack be nimble. Jack be quick; Jack jump over the candlestick." He's jumping over that fire. We've got to be quick in some of the things we do. We've got to have the capability and the gift, also, to take care of some of the business that we're going to have to take care of in this leadership role. L--The Leadership. You are guiding people. You are guiding that library that you're in charge of, or the department within the library that you're in charge of. Then there are the people that you end up having to guide. You are the one that's responsible. This is your role as a leader. I don't care what goes down, you're responsible for it; I don't care what goes up, you're responsible for that. E -- Experience. I remember when I first went out and I would look at job announcements. You know, you needed five years of experience, and I thought, "Give me a chance, here." Then all of a sudden the years just disappear. Well, now, there is experience in work study, there's experience in volunteering for a library, there's experience in doing some of the skills that's required in a library. So even if you start with a master's degree, the first year working, you've got several years experience under your belt because of what you've done prior to that. You need to prepare yourself. R – Reliability and Responsibility. Reliability--People need to know that they can rely on you. Responsibility--a lot of us don't like to take responsibility for our actions. We want to distance ourselves when bad things happen. We want to blame somebody else for it. If you are in a leadership role, the buck stops there, and you have to prepare yourself for it. So you have to be able to work with your people so that they can trust you enough to know that you're not going to lay the blame on them. And then, if they are the cause of problems, that you going to work with them in a fair manner. And then lastly, T- Technology. We need to make sure that we stay on top of technology. Technology is a driving force in librarianship today. It's the driving force in library services today. So we need to be aware of that as leaders. You don't have to know it all-- you've got experts that work for you--but you need to be able to discuss it sensibly, so that somebody can file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/jonesmf/Desktop/TL/v55n2/rainbow.htm (4 of 12)9/12/2005 12:30:59 PM Under-represented groups and library leadership at least understand what it is you're trying to say. Especially when you're talking to non- librarians-- you know that this is one of the most complicated professions there is, nobody understands it but us. Team. It used to be that we had a lot of committees, but committees now aren't that big of a thing anymore in some places because they say that committees are self serving. It's usually the individual that's being satisfied by a committee, but with a team everybody takes ownership in whatever it is that's going on. Then, on top of that you're working together. So you got a lot of people in librarianship that like to work by themselves, but this is a profession now where we cannot work alone, anymore. We've got to be able to work with a group of people. Tenacity. You've got to stand fast on your word, on your beliefs, and on your principles.