INLS 585: MANAGEMENT FOR INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

INLS 585 provides a general introduction to the principles of management. Although the focus of the course is on managing information agencies (libraries, information centers, and the like), the principles taught are applicable to any management setting and are important for information professionals to know. Emphasis is on understanding organizational behavior and the budgeting process. A wide range of topics are covered: the organizational environment, planning and decision making, staffing, organizing, team building and conflict management, communication and motivation, finance and budgeting, problem solving, leadership and organizational change.

Since this is an online class, it is extremely important that you feel connected to your instructor and to other students in the class. Communicating in an online environment can be challenging. Online courses, although frequently more convenient, are often not as enjoyable or effective as face to face classes. I hope, with all of your help, to make this course an enjoyable, interactive, and valuable one even though we will not be meeting like a classroom course. Toward this end, in addition to the end of semester evaluation, an optional questionnaire will be provided sometimes during the semester which is designed to give you the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback about how the course is going and what could be improved.

This course uses the UNC Sakai online course management system (http://sakai.unc.edu). Much of the communication for this class will be done in online discussion boards in Sakai. We will also use an audio conference tool called Elluminate (now being re-branded as Blackboard Collaborate) for some synchronous time together both as whole class sessions and for small group and individual conferences. We will also use UNC Voicethread (voicethread.unc.edu) for group conversations around images, documents and videos.

I can be reached at the office number above usually in the afternoons; if I'm not there, leave a message. I will respond to phone or email messages within 24 hours and more often within eight.

You will have a choice of one of two different textbooks -- one oriented to the business world and the other to the library environment. Most of your assigned readings will come from one of these textbooks supplemented by websites, and other readings particularly on budgeting. The readings, exercises, and instructor commentary are designed to encourage you to reflect on past experiences through a management lens.

Some relevant class policies are as follows:

• The learning week begins on Tuesday and ends on Monday. Please plan to check in to the sakai site by or before Wednesday and add a post or repond to a request for a written exercise by or before Friday. Check on the site on the weekend to respond to posts from others or add to the discussion with new thoughts.
• A schedule showing dates, topics and major assignments will act as an overall guide. An agenda for each week will be posted on Sakai at least 48 hours before the beginning of the week.
• The Discussion area of the Sakai site is where discussions will take place. Discussion is central to learning in most online courses. Discussion questions and assignments will be provided and you are invited to add your own thoughts and questions as well. If there is something you do not understand, post a question. The only "stupid" questions are those that are not asked. If you do not understand something, it is likely that many of your classmates also do not understand it.
• Assistance to one another is encouraged. Some exercises and assignments are group-based. We will use these as a way for you to sharpen your group process skills.
• Several Elluminate audio conferences sessions will be scheduled. To this end a good headset with microphone will be helpful. The times of the sessions will vary to accommodate different schedules. All class Elluminate sessions will be recorded for convenience in listening to at another time. Individual and group conferences may be scheduled on Elluminate at mutually convenient times.
• It is assumed that you will commit eight or nine hours each week to this required course.

By the end of the course you should have a sense of how you would like to manage other people and how you would like to be managed. You should have a clear idea of the sort of organizational culture you would find most supportive for you as a worker and as a manager. Since almost every SILS graduate becomes a manager (and many have management responsibilities in their first position), it is important to get a good grounding in management in INLS 585. You will find this course provides useful background for advanced courses in type of library, archival work, specialized client groups, systems work and other contexts. I hope it will provide a pathway for your continued learning about management, leadership and how organizations work.