LIBS 6031: Library Administration and Management
East Carolina University
College of Education
Department of Interdisciplinary Professions
Master of Library Science program: http://www.ecu.edu/educ/libs/
Spring 2016
Prerequisites: Tier I Courses
About the Instructor
Contact Info
Plummer Alston “Al” Jones, Jr., PhD
East Carolina University
jonesp@ecu.edu
252-328-6803 (office)
During the week, I try to reply to any student email inquiry sent between 8am – 6pm M-F
as soon as possible (usually within a few hours). During grading periods, I work straight through
weekends and holidays.
If you would like to talk to me, please feel free to leave me a voice message or send me
an email indicating you want me to call you and I will. Just let me know your name, the number
to call, the time you will be available, and what you would like to discuss. I want everyone to
make a good grade and to enjoy the course, and will do most anything to help you do both. If
there is anything you don’t understand, please contact me (prior to submitting the assignment
rather than after). I believe every question is important and no question is stupid. I also happen
to believe that when you paid tuition for this course, you purchased reasonable access to my
services.
About the Course
Welcome to LIBS 6031: Library Administration and Management. This course is an
introduction to the management and administration of libraries and information centers, and
approaches course content from both theory and practice.
The assignments are designed to provide an immediate opportunity to apply what you
learn in class. The course does not presume to teach you everything you will ever need to know
about library administration and management, but should serve as a starting point for a life-long
learning process. Again, it is a general administration course and applies to most types of library
environments (i.e. public, academic, school libraries). Students must focus all assignments and
projects on their preferred library environment.
Program Objectives, Course Objectives and Standards met by LIBS 6031
MLS Program Objective:
6. Understand and apply the principles of management, leadership and advocacy to direct and
advance library programs
Course Learning Objectives:
1. Explain the relationship between two contrasting definitions of the library, and debate
their relative merits within the context of the parent organization’s mission.
2. Formulate a personal philosophy of leadership, and practice applying this philosophy to
make professional and ethical decisions.
3. Analyze problems and propose solutions to typical challenges in library management.
4. Estimate the cost of operating a library in current dollars, and in the context of the parent
organization’s resources. Use statistical sources to compare costs with similar libraries,
and evaluate their libraries’ relative funding positions.
5. Design a plan to measure and evaluate library success based on library stakeholders’
desired outcomes.
6. Integrate course assignments into a unified presentation that demonstrates good practice
in library management.
ALA Core Competences of Librarianship:
8. Administration and Management (all)
ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians (2010):
Standard 4: Advocacy and Leadership (all)
ALA/ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Education:
7. Management/Administration: Libraries engage in continuous planning and assessment to
inform resource allocation and to meet their mission effectively and efficiently.
North Carolina School Library Media Coordinators Standards:
Standard 1: School Library Media Coordinators demonstrate leadership.
a. lead in the school library media center and media program to support student success
b. lead in their schools
c. advocate for effective media programs
d. demonstrate high ethical standards
Standard 4: School library media coordinators demonstrate knowledge of learners and learning
and promote effective instructional practices
b. know the content appropriate to their teaching specialty
Standard 5: School Library Media Coordinators reflect on their practice.
b. link professional growth to their professional goals
c. function effectively in a complex, dynamic environment
Course Resources
Required Text: None
Other Readings
All of the assignment folders include documents or reading lists of materials that are
required to complete the specific assignment.
Suggested Journals for Browsing
Following are additional journal resources to supplement the course readings and should
provide background and information for your assignments for this class and your ongoing
professional education as an information service manager. They are all available from the
Joyner Library homepage (choose “Find E-journal/E-book Titles” and enter journal title in blank
field). This will pull up a list of databases that provide full-text access to journal issues. Be sure
to pay attention to the dates of coverage, then choose your favorite provider if there are multiple
providers. You are most likely to find these electronic journals in the database, Library
Literature & Information Science Full Text.
American Libraries
Library Journal
Library Administration and Management
Library Management
Journal of Academic Librarianship
Journal of Library Administration
Knowledge Quest
North Carolina Libraries (open access)
portal: Libraries and the Academy (open access)
The Bottom Line (library budget and finance)
Public Libraries
School Library Media Research
Teacher Librarian
Additional Resources
Periodically I may send out additional resources for students. I will post these resources
in the course Blackboard site and/or email them to students.
ECU Databases
Access to the ECU databases and electronic journal subscriptions available to enrolled
students can be found at http://www.ecu.edu/lib/, the Joyner Library homepage. There is also a
link directly from Blackboard. You can search for citations and/or full-text journal articles, and
also browse individual issues of journals by journal title.
About the Assignments
There are five assignments and complete information about them is contained in separate
folders under the “Assignments” link on the Blackboard site. Due dates are provided in the
assignment instructions, and in a separate Course Calendar file.
The first four assignments fit together to make the course artifact (Assignment 5). I
recommend that you read the instructions for Assignment 5 before you begin the course.
I require draft reviews for Assignments 3 and 5. These drafts are mandatory. I welcome
draft reviews for assignment 4, but a draft is voluntary. The draft reviews provide you with
feedback regarding the completeness of the assignment, adherence to assignment criteria and
grading rubric components, and general grammar and editing suggestions. I do not guarantee
that I will identify every error or opportunity for improvement, but I will let you know if you are
working in the right direction. Draft reviews need to be submitted by noon on the draft due date
prior to the final submission due date in order to be reviewed (see Course Calendar). A review
of the final artifact draft (Assignment 5) is mandatory. Class members are expected to critique
Assignment 5 for one another and I will comment on the drafts also.
The work schedule is paced to roughly two assignments per month. Again, due dates are
listed in the Course Calendar.
The College of Education and the MLS program have chosen the American
Psychological Association publication style using the in-text and reference list options as the
required style. A quick guide is available at http://www.apastyle.org/ You should own already a
copy of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th Ed.). For online
guides to APA style, including the APA Style Guide to Electronic References, see
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/Reference/refdesk/style.cfm
How to Complete and Submit Assignments
All drafts and final submissions are due by noon of the date due. Anything received after
12:01pm is considered late. Assignments submitted late (i.e. anytime after noon on a due date)
will be subject to a late point deduction. My late penalty is usually one point per day late. There
are no exceptions to the late penalty based on technical problems (such as computer failures, loss
of Internet or email, no wireless service available, etc.), so please plan alternatives ahead of due
dates, e.g., back up all your work, identify another computer you might use to submit
assignments if you primary workstation crashes, and delete unnecessary items from your Pirate
Mail box regularly so that you can send and receive mail, etc. It is important that you do not let
your Pirate Mail exceed the storage limit.
Submit all assignments in a 12-point font for readability, double-space format unless
otherwise noted. References, charts, tables, etc. within an assignment or that accompany
assignment can be single-spaced, but still need to use a 12 point font. All resources consulted for
the assignment should be provided at the end of the paper as “Works Consulted,” and resources
actually used (quoted, noted, or used as an example, etc.) should be noted by in-text references.
Students are encouraged to use charts, diagrams, and other creative devices to address
assignment criteria whenever appropriate.
Suggested page or slide counts are noted in the instructions for each assignment. These
are guidelines. If you exceed them because your paper is content-rich, this is not a great
problem. If you exceed them because your writing style rambles, you duplicate content, or you
include irrelevant material, then you will lose points. The sole exception is Assignment 5 (the
course artifact), which must not exceed the stated length limitation.
Students will create assignments in Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint as the
instructions indicate. If you must use other software to complete an assignment, please check
with me prior to submission for usability and access.
PowerPoint presentations must be self-explanatory and not simply an outline of key
points. The presentation must provide the viewer with all of the pertinent information necessary
to understand the salient points of the message, as you will not be here in person to fill in the
missing information as I read it. If you include additional commentary in the “notes” field, I will
not read it.
Assignments emailed to the instructor are acknowledged upon receipt. I will open the
attachment and make sure that everything works, and then I will send you a message saying the
assignment has been received. Do not expect an immediate reply to the assignment submission
message; send a follow-up message only if you have not received a receipt message by the end
of the next day.
How the Assignments Work
There is a separate folder in Blackboard for each assignment containing everything you
need to know to do the assignment successfully. Read every document in the folder before you
begin. If you have questions about the assignment, contact me immediately. Chances are that if
you have a question, other students are wondering the same thing. If someone will shout it out, I
can post the answer as an announcement and you will have done your classmates a great service.
I suggest you read the assignment instructions, do the assigned readings, and look at the
assignment grading rubric before you begin to respond to the assignment. After you have
completed the assignment, look at the grading rubric again to make sure you have not missed any
of the elements for which grading points are available.
The general rhythm of the course is set up so that you can optimize work during
weekends. Assignments and drafts of assignments (when permitted/required) are all due on
Mondays. You will receive score points and comments within one week, along with an
Assignment Wrap-Up message. These events are detailed below.
Like most of the MLS program courses, this is a writing-heavy course. For students who
recognize that writing may be a barrier to their success, I highly recommend the University
Writing Center’s Online Writing Lab. Lab personnel will review papers submitted online and
return them with diagnostic suggestions for improvement. Complete information on how to
submit is available at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/writing/uwc/OWLetutoring.cfm
Review and Grading of Assignments
I will send each student comments on assignments and the point score after each
assignment has been reviewed and assignments have been graded for all students. My goal is to
return final comments and score points within seven days of the submission deadline, e.g.,
submissions due Monday at noon would be returned and score points posted by Sunday evening.
However, sometimes it may take me a day or two longer, but I will never leave you hanging
indefinitely. If it looks like I’m going to miss the Sunday deadline, I’ll let you know.
Usually the feedback will include general comments, specific instances of needed
improvements, and a comparison of the assignment against the grading rubric for each
assignment. I frequently send my comments as an audio message (mp3) attached to an email.
These files should play automatically through any common media player when the attachment is
opened, i.e., QuickTime, Windows Media Player, iTunes. These plug ins should not require any
additional action on your part. Depending on the circumstances, I may also send a file with
comments and corrections marked up on your original submission. If you prefer to receive
comments in writing only, please let the instructor know.
Students have access to the assignment grading rubrics from the first day of class. The
rubrics indicate what assignment components are being graded and the priorities; i.e. the more
points a grading rubric component is worth, the larger the portion of the information in the
submitted assignment addressing that rubric. It is strongly suggested that students review the
grading rubric and all assignment instructions before submitting assignments to ensure
completeness, compliance, and maximum grading consideration.
About the Course Artifact and Reflection
It is very important that you select the type of library (academic, public, school) you are
or will be working in to base all of your assignments on and that you do not change types as you
work through the assignments. This is very important to the final assignment. Trust me on this
one!
In relation to the above statement, you really need to read and plan out Assignment 5 first
before you have completed the other assignments. Begin planning early in the semester as you
complete each assignment. The final assignment (course artifact) is a compilation of the other
assignments and some planning is required up front to make it work effectively for you. One
way to do this is to select three-to-five main points or statements from the Assignments 1, 2, 3
and 4 as they are completed. This will become the outline of a visual presentation (Assignment
5) that is the designated course artifact.
The MLS program requires students to create, maintain and complete a student portfolio.
In order to complete the course, the student must post an instructor-approved artifact and
complete the reflection in a Taskstream portfolio. Students who fail to post the artifact and
complete the reflection form in Taskstream by the deadline noted in the calendar will have their
course grade lowered by one letter. Students who do not submit a final artifact by the course
deadline will receive an F.
The URL for Taskstream is https://www1.taskstream.com/ Your Taskstream account is
now provided for you free of charge with the proper access code. The code for the 2015-16
academic year is WNLL9A-4MDD78. The program code for Library Science is libsgep.
Grades and Grading
Score points for assignments will be based on the following criteria: Adherence to
assignment requirements; the detailed, concise and logical presentation of information that
addresses the assignment requirements and grading rubric components; use of resource materials
to justify responses; compositional style and use of appropriate grammar and syntax. This is a
graduate level course. Written work that demonstrates a lack of understanding of subject matter,
is unclear or poorly organized, contains few or irrelevant details, does not follow directions,
contains little or unsubstantiated evaluative commentary, or is otherwise poorly written, prepared
(e.g. typos, grammatical errors) or documented will receive fewer score points. Please remember
that while an electronic spell check of a document will note most misspellings, spell checkers do
not recognize context and verb agreement. If grammar, syntax and spelling are not your
strengths, I suggest you find a sympathetic editor to review your assignments prior to
submission. I am not a proofreader, and will send materials requiring extensive copy edits back
to the student without a grade.
The course grade is totaled from the score points earned on each of the five assignments.
The course assignments total 100 points in value. The point total constitutes your final grade for
the course. The grade scale is as follows:
• 93 - 100 total points results in a final grade of "A"
• 85 - 92 total points results in a final grade of "B"
• 77 - 84 total points results in a final grade of "C"
• 00 - 76 total points results in a final grade of "F"
You can follow your score points as they are earned and recorded in the Blackboard
grade book.
Incompletes
Incompletes may be considered, but only as a result of serious and unexpected health and
life situations. Documentation for the request is required in writing with appropriate signatures
or other evidence. A letter grade will be deducted, so the best grade you can get from
completing an I is a B. Incompletes must be made up promptly and by a deadline set by the
instructor. Students who are unable to complete assignments when due are expected to withdraw
from the course. The deadline for graduate students to drop a course without a grade is midsemester (see Course Calendar) so it would have to be an extreme case for the instructor to agree
to an I rather than suggesting the student drop the course.
Additional Course Information and ECU Course Policies
ADA Accommodation
East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) and the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAA). Students requesting
accommodations based on a disability must be registered with the Department for Disability
Support Services (DSS) http://www.ecu.edu/cs-studentlife/dss/ and located in Slay 138 (252)
737-1016 (Voice/TTY). Individuals in need of additional information or training should contact
DSS at (252) 737-1016.
Copyright
The intellectual property used or created in LIBS 6031 and fixed in any tangible medium
(electronic or paper format) is fully protected by the copyright law as embodied by US Code
Title 17. Examples of intellectual property include the intellectual property of you and your
classmates as expressed in course assignments and email/discussion board discourses, and the
course instructor as expressed in his course syllabus, class assignments, course resources, and
presentations of an audio/video nature. The copyright law does allow what is described as “fair
use" of copyright materials. Under “fair use” of copyright protected materials used or generated
within LIBS 6031, students may only utilize protected intellectual property in support of their
education pursuits in this class as long as fully cited and authorship/creator acknowledgement is
noted. Please ask the instructor if you have any questions regarding copyright law and “fair use.”
The Course Final
There is no final exam for this course, but instruction and interaction continue until the
last day of finals. The period of finals week should be considered the final exam period for this
course, as we will be communicating individually about your draft and final versions of the
course artifact. During this period, I will continue to respond to all emails, telephone calls and
can arrange office hours by appointment if we need to meet individually.
Privacy
While individual privacy is highly valued, it should be noted that there is no absolute
safeguard to guarantee and protect the right to privacy in all circumstances and environments.
Accidents may happen, mistakes can be made, and safeguards can be overcome.
As a result, students should be hesitant to share personally identifiable information (i.e.
personal contact information, Student ID number, etc.) or other sensitive information (i.e.
personal finances, health information, gripes about supervisors or work situations) about
themselves, their family members, or close friends.
Academic Integrity
Students are expected to turn in original work and adhere to the principles of Academic
Integrity. All resources consulted for the work should be provided at the end of the paper as
“Works Consulted,” and resources actually used (quoted, noted, or used as an example, etc.)
should be noted with in-text references.
Students shall avoid all forms of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to:
Collusion – students collaborating in the completion or production of course assignments
submitted for individual credit. This does not preclude students from working together or
assisting one another, but does not permit students to turn in duplicated or co-authored material
unless collaboration is a requirement of the assignment.
Plagiarism – the use or nearly exact use of others’ intellectual property without attribution and
without enclosing the property in quotation marks or other identifying notation. Multiple and
extended quotes, or paraphrasing of another’s intellectual property will be considered plagiarism
even if the source is named when it degrades the overall originality of the work. Basically this
means you cannot cabbage together an assignment by cutting and pasting or retyping the text of
found documents.
Submitting work prepared for another course – do not submit in whole or part, assignments that
have been prepared for another course. This defeats the learning objectives of the assignment,
unfairly advantages you over other students, and would usually earn a poor grade anyway
because it would not match elements on the grading rubric.
Any student suspected of violating ECU’s Academic Integrity policy will be charged
accordingly. The complete policy and charge procedures are available at:
http://www.ecu.edu/osrr/
How to respond to another student’s discussion board posting:
Students are expected to read all the discussion board postings, not just the one
immediately prior to his or her response. A quality discussion response includes: identification
of a central issue, taking a position on the issue, providing some evidence for your position, and
posing an open-ended question on the issue or topic. This follows an inquiry method, as opposed
to simply commenting on what someone has said in an earlier post, e.g., “I liked what you said
about …,” “So true,” etc.
Netiquette
Students are expected to adhere to standard netiquette behaviors during all course
discussions. This includes:
• Beginning all communications with a salutation.
• Ending all communications with your name.
• Do not use all capital letters in a discussion board message; it is a short hand way of screaming
at someone and is considered rude.
• The use of slang, IM lingo, etc. should be extremely limited, as not everyone may understand
your references.
• When expressing a differing opinion, phrase your reply to focus on the message, not the
messenger. In other words, discuss the message content, not the personalities involved.
• If you need to have a private discussion with someone about non-course information, activities,
etc., take the discussion outside the course.
• Be respectful of others. Librarianship is a small world in which kindness and civility are highly
prized; you may need someone in this class to do you a favor someday, or you may find yourself
working with or for someone who was in the class with you.
Technology Related Information
The recommended browsers for using Blackboard and other ECU applications are
Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. Additional technology recommendations are provided at
http://www.ecu.edu/cs-educ/ILS/libs/technology.cfm
In order to successfully complete this course, you will be required to have access to and
be able to effectively use personal computers, the Internet, Blackboard functions, email, and
Skype. While I can sometimes offer advice and counsel with the use of these technologies, I am
not able to troubleshoot your computer. Information and assistance are available from the IT
help desk at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-itcs/help.cfm Technical assistance and resources for using
Blackboard software are available within the course Blackboard site (Blackboard Support tab).
Contingency Plan for Course Delivery in Case of Technical Challenges
I will use either the phone number or the non-ECU email address you provided on your
application to deliver course information in the event that the ECU email or Internet system fails
for an extended period of time. Extreme emergencies resulting in wide scale electrical, phone
outages will be dealt with as appropriate to the situation and following procedures determined by
the University.
Let me say this now. Back up all your documents for this course. $2 spent on a thumb
drive could be the best $2 you will ever spend.
Please note: This syllabus may be subject to change before or during the CURRENT
semester. Changes to the syllabus will be posted as Course Announcements.