Change has been a theme of my life for the past 5 months. I was fortunate enough to gain employment at school in an area I have been trying to move to for several years and have since moved from Sydney to regional Australia.
My high school is one of the oldest in NSW and this is defiantly reflected in the library space ( and its current collection in which the average age of publication is 1999) for context, do you know how all schools need school librarians – well my school is the exact reason for this – everything felt neglected, mismatched and out of date. No wonder no one wanted to be here!
What People Think I Do / What I Do – Image #250,521
I was employed on my ability to create/generate change – I have been described as a living tornado more than once, so my appointment provided me with an exciting opportunity to work with a “clean slate” per se. Some may feel a neglected library would be a bit of a challenge – because it is not just one area that requires attention – in this case, the whole space needs an overhaul – policies not written, new books not purchased for five years and anything that had been done space wise was done without consultation to TL, therefore not fit for purpose.
This is, I feel, a grand opportunity to provide transformational leadership as I could transform this place into something really special. But – transformational leadership is for long-term goals and the hard yards have to be done first. There is a real risk of burnout if i try and “gun-ho” it all at once – and I think there is this tendency for librarians to head to a transformational place, but really, especially after completing assessment 1, that many leadership styles must be used holistically to build capacity and agency in the TL to ultimately turn them into a change-making machine. Librarians are “intraprenuers” (Ponelis 2015) and in this capacity, they can create change within organisations ( Ganapathi 20140
Through Assessment 1, I realised that the TL is a horizontal worker – and therefore is at risk of being pulled in many directions due to their many hats. Instead of trying to fix it all, I have decided to narrow my work in the GHS to two things this year.
- Update the very old, outdated collection – which will increase borrowing (I am already seeing the effects of this borrowing this year has gone up 45%)
- Build agency where there hasn’t been before.
Both of these goals can be achieved through transformational leadership, however, if I wish to build agency in my organisation, I don’t want to “bulldog” staff into change so I therefore have to provide more support with my interactions. so by building the library from the ground up and providing evidence of positive and effective use – I can advocate for more change – leading to transformational processes through, instructional, distributed and situational leadership.
Change I have already successfully implemented a large senior study area and moved my desk for more visibility but there is still a very long way. I am still excited to have such a clean slate to work with – and as long as I don’t get overwhelmed, I cant wait to see what stamp I can place at GHS.
References
Ganapathi, Batthini, Librarianship Needs Intrapreneurial Behaviour (July 20, 2014). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2468739 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2468739
Ponelis, Shana, Librarians as changemakers: the role of intrapreneurship in librarianship. Available at https://learn.unizulu.ac.za/facultyOfArts/pluginfile.php/11534/mod_resource/content/0/AINF312-20150821-intrapreneurship.ppt.pdf
