Page 56 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Unit 3: Personnel Administration in Library

9. Human relations in administration simply means accomplishing the goals of the Notes
organization without …………………
10. As the leader of the organization the librarian sets the tone of the administration, whether
it is democratic or …………………

Case Study Library Administrators

et’s call this case of B, a Librarian I, working as assistant to Librarian III who in turn
is under Librarian V, a stickler for proper procedures. Librarian III is a
Lnon-conformist who frankly disagrees with any one including Librarian V, a
superior officer, when necessary. B is a very reserved girl, hardly able to make a dissenting
opinion, usually quiet, hard-working and has gotten along well with fellow workers for
three years. On the third year she became the girlfriend of a student assistant under her
supervision.
Friction with a co-worker D ensued when the boyfriend would not allow B to go with D to
places as they used to. One such friction occurred when a reader requested B and D to wait
for her because her class will be dismissed at 5:00, the same time that the library closes and
it will take some time to come down to the library. Both agreed to wait. At 5:00 the
boyfriend came, hurrying B to go home because he said “She also needed rest”. Due to
repeated statements on the part of the boyfriend, D let B go ahead grudgingly. This was
later patched up. As a matter of fact they ate a potluck lunch together. The very next day,
however, B sent a letter addressed to Librarian V asking for transfer specifying that she
cannot get along with her colleagues; her work is boring because she does nothing but
charging and recording serials. She wrote: “Maximum amount of work and services can
be accomplished in any unit of the library if there is harmony of the staff, if the treatment
of subordinates by supervisor is equal and if work is properly distributed to everyone.
Given these conditions, I believe that any library unit will be a place worth working in”.

Librarian III found the letter on her desk and called B. She asked her why she had to write
directly to Librarian V, a higher official, when communication channels were wide open
with her immediate-supervisor. This is done only by people who are suppressed but she
is not. Just three months ago she evaluated the Library and Librarian I with a grade of 1.17
and just a month ago she did not give any suggestion or hint in the staff meeting that she
was unhappy in her job. Librarian III further explained to her that her public relations will
suffer by doing this and so she was asked to sleep over it and give her decision the next
day. She kept mum on the questions laid before her and just said she had decided the
matter. She was even arrogant in the manner she answered her immediate superior, a trait
quite foreign to her. Librarian III asked her to take all her time to write down why she
thinks there is unequal distribution of work load, what unequal treatment she received
under her, and why the library is not a place worth working in. All she could write about
was merely her desire to be transferred. Nevertheless, Librarian III insisted that she sleep
over it.
The next day B had the same decision and so Librarian III endorsed the letter with pertinent
remarks.
Librarian V called Librarian III and B separately and after eight days rotated B to the Main
Library to do mere charging work.

Contd...

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