New and Noteworthy: Making Every Hour Count: Librarians and Time Management

• Published in: Library leadership & management 2012, Vol.26 (3/4), p.1
• Main Author: Bartlett, Jennifer A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Budgets; Careers; Handbooks; Information professionals; Law libraries; Librarians; Library associations; Library collections; Library management; Productivity; School librarians; Time management
• ISSN: 1945-8851; 1945-886X

A good introduction to the issues concerning time management and productivity in general may be found in the recent book Productivity for Librarians: How to Get More Done in Less Time, part of the Chandos Information Professional Series and written by Samantha Hiñes, an academic librarian at the University of Montana - Missoula.1 Hines' main thesis involves an emphasis of the importance of life balance over work output (quality, not quantity, in other words). In order to be the most productive, professionals must consider first what productivity really means to them, not only at work, but at home as well. There is no "one size fits all" approach to time management; Hines provides useful self-assessments to help readers determine their own approach to productivity. The book offers separate chapters on time management and the issue of procrastination, both of which contain helpful suggestions. Particularly useful is an annotated guide to online productivity tools, articles, and other materials, including discussions of popular systems such as [Stephen R. Covey]'s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and David Allen's Getting Things Done (popularly known as "GTD").2 A relatively quick read, Productivity for Librarians is a good source for practical advice and tips, self-assessment tools, and outside resources, for the most part targeted towards professionals working in information fields. Librarians in college and university settings also face unique time pressures. Especially in institutions that offer tenure to its librarians, professionals are expected to excel not only in job duties, but also in research and service. In her 2001 article "Time and the Academic Librarian," architecture studies librarian Jeanne M. Brown emphasizes the value of a daily time log to accurately track how much time is being spent on various responsibilities.6 An in-depth analysis of time studies in library settings revealed to Brown that the amount of time spent on various professional activities varied widely depending on the librarian; this paper describes the process of keeping a time log over a period of seven years. Accumulation of such a deep well of data exposed patterns of work that helped Brown synthesize the three bases of her job: primary responsibility, service and research, into a unified whole. As Brown states, "We do have time: not enough to do everything we'd like to do, but time nonetheless to allocate as we see fit" (68).