Introduction
The programme “Leadership Skills for Libraries and Information Institutions” develops professional practice in Libraries. It connects the subject with workplace challenges by examining existing evidence and practices and choosing methods appropriate to the organization and its available resources.
The learning progresses from library service development and knowledge organization to data analysis and decision support, with practical work on leadership and team direction, document, records, and digital preservation management, information systems analysis, integration, and service management. Participants prepare outputs to support workplace application and review the quality and results of implementation.
Learning objectives
- Design a library service and organize its resources to facilitate access and use in an application related to “Leadership Skills for Libraries and Information Institutions”.
- Identify leadership practices suited to the situation and allocate responsibilities clearly.
- Build a document life cycle controlling classification, permissions, retention, and retrieval.
- Analyze information system requirements and design acceptance, integration, and operational criteria.
- Turn available data into documented analysis that supports a specific professional decision.
Learning areas
1. Library Service Development and Knowledge Organization
- Analyze beneficiary groups, their needs, and search and access methods, identifying gaps between available resources and actual use.
- Develop an acquisition and collection development policy considering specialization, currency, rights, budget, and multiple content formats.
- Apply principles of description, cataloging, authority control, and access points, reviewing rules and fields appropriate to the system in use.
- Design research and guidance services and a digital repository with metadata, permissions, and accessibility features suited to beneficiaries.
- Select indicators for discovery, lending, use, and satisfaction, and prepare a pilot to improve a library service and evaluate its results. The application examines a case related to “Leadership Skills for Libraries and Information Institutions”.
2. Leadership and Team Direction
- Analyze the leadership situation in terms of the task, the team's experience, and the constraints affecting the decision, and select an appropriate approach to direction.
- Distinguish the leader's responsibility for results from team members' responsibility for delivery, and define performance expectations that can be monitored.
- Apply delegation by specifying the task, authority, resources, and review checkpoints, and address overlapping team responsibilities.
- Conduct a leadership conversation that includes listening, questioning, and specific feedback linked to behavior and results.
- Address a practical situation requiring a choice between leadership approaches, and document the reasons for the choice and how its effects will be monitored.
3. Document, Records, and Digital Preservation Management
- Inventory document and record types, owners, and reasons for retention, and distinguish operational copies from the authoritative record.
- Design classification, coding, metadata, and version control rules, with clear naming, indexing, and search criteria.
- Define viewing, editing, and approval permissions and usage tracking, and protect confidentiality and record integrity throughout circulation.
- Prepare a retention and disposal or permanent preservation transfer schedule after reviewing legal and regulatory requirements specific to each record type.
- Test retrieval, migration, backups, and file integrity verification, and set indicators for indexing accuracy and continuity of access.
4. Information Systems Analysis, Integration, and Service Management
- Analyze system users, processes, and the decisions it supports, translating needs into clear functional and nonfunctional requirements.
- Model data flows, entities, relationships, and interfaces, identifying each data item's source and the party responsible for its quality and updating.
- Compare build, buy, integration, and hosting alternatives according to constraints, security, total cost, and available support capabilities.
- Design test cases covering performance, permissions, usability, and integration, and connect each test to a testable acceptance criterion.
- Prepare a transition, operations, support, change management, and backup plan, defining indicators for service availability, fault resolution, and improvement review.
5. Data Analysis and Decision Support
- Frame an analytical question linked to a specific decision, and define the unit of measurement, time period, and data needed to answer it.
- Check data quality for completeness, accuracy, consistency, and duplication, and document cleaning steps and limitations on reliance.
- Select appropriate comparisons, indicators, and charts, and distinguish statistical correlation from causal explanations of results.
- Interpret results in the work context, test assumptions and unusual values, and present alternatives and their associated uncertainty.
- Prepare an analytical report containing the finding, recommendation, data source and date, review owner, and next follow-up step.
Practical outputs
- A library service plan, resource description card, and usage indicators.
- A map of leadership roles and a mechanism for team delegation and follow-up.
- A classification plan, retention schedule, and document metadata template.
- A requirements document, data flow map, and testing and acceptance plan.
- A dashboard and decision memo explaining the data, assumptions, and alternatives.
Who should attend
- Practitioners, specialists and supervisors whose work relates to the programme subject.
- Managers and teams working in libraries, according to their practical responsibilities.
- Professionals responsible for applying the outputs of “Leadership Skills for Libraries and Information Institutions” within their organizations.
Prerequisites
- Working familiarity with the programme field and the ability to discuss a professional case or challenge.
- Confirm the suitability of your experience and any specialist prerequisites with the Union before participation.
Conclusion
The programme “Leadership Skills for Libraries and Information Institutions” brings together concepts, case review and a practical application. Participants prepare steps that can be adapted to their responsibilities and organizational resources, with an indicator to follow application and review results after returning to work.
Participation arrangements and any special requests are specified in the confirmation issued by the Union.