Library Management Case Study

JC Morgan is the director of the Campbell County Public Library. Located in the northern part of Kentucky near Cincinnati, Ohio, the Campbell County Public Library includes four branches and serves 90,000 residents (Campbell County Public Library). JC Morgan has served as the library director of the Campbell County Public Library since 2003. As library director, Morgan Professionalism is considered one of the American Library Association’s core values of librarianship. The ALA states that becoming a librarian requires a graduate degree (ALA Council). The value of professionalism provides legitimacy to the services the library provides by having a staff that is qualified and knowledgeable in library services and technology. For Morgan, he

The course might have been required when he was in library school from January 1996 to May 1997. However, he took the course over two decades ago and might not remember everything he learned during the course. In his opinion it was beneficial to take the course in understanding policies and people-management skills. Other skills that would have been useful to learn in the course would be to focus on the financial aspect of the management. However, he considers experience in the field a better teacher. Circumstances that one may face in the field each day is different and one management course may not teach everything one needs to know to be an effective manager for the library they are

Advice he would give to a MLS student is to develop a passion for what you do. Be an advocate for the place that a library has in the community. He also states that it is important to reach outside one’s own boundaries and comfort zones, and make it a professional goal to leave libraries better than you found them. In addition, he emphasizes that library school is foundational and students should take classes that appeal to them. The nuts and bolts, as he puts it, will be learned on the job. While in school, students should learn about the profession as a whole and not worry too much about operational skills. In addition, learn about every aspect of librarianship, that information can be transferable to any area of librarianship. His advice is to take the fun and interesting classes which will help in the long term as one matures in the profession. Most importantly, his number one advice for MLS students was to get library experience. Even if it is just volunteering a couple hours a week, library experience goes a long way in a job market flooded with MLS