Check out this post from Angel over at The Gypsy Librarian on getting to know our students and who needs to know them better. Angel writes “I guess here is what worries me. I can educate the students. I am comfortable with them, and they tend to be willing to at least give the crazy librarian a chance. I don’t think I can educate those administrators, and that worries me since they make the decisions with no idea of what the reality in the trenches is like.” I think that this is a problem at many schools – and may be one of the reasons why it is so difficult to institute postive change.
Hi Jennifer,
I saw Angel’s post too, and it’s pretty spot-on for MPOW. Our university got a new president recently, and when he was on campus prior to his actual start date he managed to meet with all the deans except the director of the library and distance education (same person). I don’t have much contact with the distance ed folks, but this oversight has definitely made the library staff a bit more leery of the new president than they might otherwise be. It’s a shame, since I think he’ll be good for the campus.