Learning Outcomes

1. Attendees will identify gaps in professional development opportunities for academic library managers. 2. Attendees will describe potential opportunities for professional development for academic library managers. 3. Attendees will critique the state of management preparation in libraries.

Key Topics

Why did you become a manager and how well were you prepared for that role? How do library schools prepare (academic) library managers? What do you see as the most challenging gap in professional development for library managers? What assessment practices can be integrated into the field to better evaluate library managers? What unexplored methods might we consider when assessing library managers?

Plan for attendee engagement

The session will use Mentimeter to engage the audience throughout the session. At the start of the session, we will use the word cloud feature to gain the audience’s perspective on the skills needed by academic library managers in order to be successful. Throughout the panel discussions, we will use polling before new questions to gain the audience perspectives on a topic. For example, if we ask panelists to reflect on the gaps in their formal education related to managerial training, we will have a poll related to the formal learning audience members had in this area. Finally, we will leave at least 15-20 minutes for audience questions and answers.