Some Principles of Administration in Libraries

Abstract

THERE are three principles of administration which appear to have the greatest significance for libraries today. The purpose of this paper is to examine these principles and their significance and to introduce four more conventional functions or procedures for library management. The three principles of administration are 1) the need to focus on the quality and quantity of work done by staff members and the exclusion of all ''routine tasks from an administrator's schedule, 2) the need for two-way communication up to the point of real understanding of the individual and problems involved, 3) the need to plan and implement change. Stone lists seven functions of library management; planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting.1 These will be discussed later, adding one function and regrouping the rest to form only five functions: planning (included here are organizing, coordinating, and budgeting) ; decision making (directing) ; delegating; staffing and reporting. The first principle of administration is the most important one. It is the responsibility for accomplishment. It sets the tone for an individual's administrative efforts and forces him to concentrate on one thing obtaining production through other people. The need for this principle is in main part caused by the increasing tempo of technological change and both the growth in the number of library users and the increase in the sophistication of their needs. One of the difficulties in its implementation is that it implies and produces much tighter control of individual departments or sections. Tighter control is seen here to be the result of more frequent and more accurate reporting. Obviously if the administrator has the responsibility for accomplishment he also Waddington is at the College of Librarianship, Wales.