The Expert Library: Staffing, Sustaining, and Advancing the Academic Library in the 21st Century (review)

Academic librarians are searching for guidance today as they struggle to balance their newly found position in the information spotlight with declining resources and increased administrative scrutiny. Hardly a day goes by that one does not read or hear contradictory forecasts on the future of libraries and librarians. At the same time, the need for university administrators to look for alternate funding sources in the wake of enormous federal and state cuts in higher-education funding is forcing many library directors to rethink their operations and organizational structures. We are scrambling to defend our positions, budgets, and in some cases our very existence. Academic libraries cannot afford to be seen as conducting "business as usual." Published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (a division of the American Library Association), The Expert Library: Staffing, Sustaining, and Advancing the Academic Library in the 21^st Century is a timely new collection of engaging and thoughtful essays, presenting a variety of staff-focused strategies to help us move our operations into the 21^st century.

If our organizations do not change and adapt, we will be moved to the sidelines and unable to assume our rightful place at the heart of the university. The key to success lies in the library staff. The editors of this volume, Scott Walter, associate dean of libraries at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Karen Williams, associate university librarian for academic programs at the University of Minnesota, explain that "the library's most valuable collection is its people" and they take great pains to make this case. (p. ix) They bring together some of the profession's most astute trendsetters and forward thinkers to present a cogent and rousing call to arms.

The genesis for this collection stems from James Neal's seminal essay on the future of library staffing, "Raised by Wolves: Integrating the New Generation of Feral Professionals into the Academic Library" (Library Journal 131, no. 15 [February 2006] 42–44). Neal, who also contributes the foreword to this volume, made what has now become a familiar argument—libraries need to add professional staff from more diverse fields if they are going to accomplish the revolutionary change needed to remain in a leadership position on the university campus. This book is dense, but because its chapters are well grouped into thematic areas, one can focus appropriately. Broadly outlined, these areas include building organizational capacity, core competencies, defining the new professionals, and subsequent professional development support for them once hired.

The opening chapter by David Lewis identifies the trends and describes what he believes the academic library will look like in 2015. This chapter is an extension of Lewis's groundbreaking article, "A Strategy for Academic Libraries in the First Quarter of the 21^st Century," (College & Research Libraries 68, no. 5 [September 2007]: 418–434), used by many library directors to recalibrate their strategic planning efforts. One of the most substantial contributions in the book is the grouping of chapters on human resources issues. John Lehner succinctly documents the need to change our hiring processes in recognition of the dynamic and changing nature of our work. He thoughtfully outlines differing approaches to personnel selection and presents a variety of interviewing techniques. All library personnel directors willing to rethink how they hire staff should read these chapters.

Leaving Our Libraries Behind is the focus of several elegant chapters on core competencies and new services. Stephanie Crowe and Janice Jaguszewski document the organizational restructuring at the University of Minnesota Libraries, in response to the parent institution's strategic repositioning. This chapter is an excellent description of the process and contains useful appendices including an outline of academic expectations, position description frameworks, and a tool for knowledge, skills, and abilities self-assessment. This dovetails beautifully with Craig Gibson and Jamie Wright Coniglio's chapter outlining the competencies of...