(via Dr. Jason Martin – Director, Cook Library & Learning Center at Florida State University, Panama City)
This is a call for chapter proposals for a forthcoming book from Bloomsbury Libraries Unlimited titled Creating Healthy Library Workplaces: Five Factors That Improve Employee Engagement and Satisfaction.
The proposals can consist of original research, theory, or case studies on ways to positively influence each of the five factors listed below to create healthy library workplaces. This book is intended to be a practical guide written from different perspectives and applicable to all types of libraries. While the book covers the topic of leadership, the book is not only for formal or hierarchical leaders; everyone in a library – both librarians and library staff – can contribute to making their library a better workplace.
Authors from all types of libraries – academic, public, school (K12), and special libraries as well as library and information school faculty – are encouraged to submit a proposal. This book especially seeks the input of BIPOC and other marginalized and traditionally underrepresented groups in libraries.
Five Factors to Create Healthy Library Workplaces:
1. Culture & Work Environment-This section includes but is not limited to organizational culture and values of the library, the relationships between co-workers, the support system for library employees, bringing individuals back into the culture after some time away, including individuals who work different shifts/remotely, diversity and inclusivity in all its forms, including race, gender, age, and staff/librarian divide, and working and getting along with the quirky and difficult personalities that sometimes make up a library workforce.
2. Leadership-Leadership and culture go hand in hand, and each influences the other. Chapters in this section can examine what makes for positive library leadership, how library leadership can be improved, and what library leaders can do to influence the other four factors. Leadership is broad and inclusive and includes both formal and informal library leadership.
3. Workload & Work Expectations-This section includes but is not limited to chapters on how library employees can find the right balance between too little and too much work that is the right amount of challenging based on their experience and abilities. Chapters can also explore ways to reinvigorate careers that have plateaued, and how we can help librarians and library staff – and how they can help themselves – adjust to the changing nature of library work.
4. Recognition-Proper recognition for library work comes in many forms. Salary is certainly one of them, but so is the recognition of supervisors and peers for a job well done. Recognition also takes the form of campus and school administrators, library boards, city officials, students, and the community served as a whole understanding and appreciating the wide variety of important work the library does. This section will explore ways we can recognize the hard work done in our libraries and be successful advocates of the library to our communities.
5. Meaning-The meaning we find in our work is critical for our success in and satisfaction with the work. This section can include chapters on how librarians and library staff can reconnect or find for the first time their purpose and meaning in the work they do, and the role library leadership plays in creating meaning around the work the library does.
The submission deadline is Friday, April 19. For information and to submit a proposal, please visit here.
For questions, please e-mail libraryworkplace@gmail.com.