Nuts-and-bolts primer includes ready-to-use templates and tools
New York, NY (January 14, 2008)—In 1995, Mary Stanley, then a public services librarian at Indiana University (IUPUI), found herself thrust into an acting HR manager slot without an ounce of relevant training or a minute’s worth of experience. What she did have were questions—lots of them.

Now, with more than ten years of HR experience, Stanley has authored Managing Library Employees: A How-To-Do-It Manual, which answers all the questions she had back in 1995, as well as some she didn’t know to ask at the time. To be published by Neal-Schuman publishers on March 17, this new book is an ideal nuts-and-bolts primer for occasional, new-to-management, and future library HR professionals. Stanley’s guide also gives readers dozens of useful HR tools in the form of ready-to-use templates, sample documents, letters, and checklists.

Organized in a Q&A format that aids quick reference, Managing Library Employees answers the questions that anyone handing HR duties in any kind of library will have. How do you write a job description? What kinds of questions should I ask in the interview? How do you increase job satisfaction and motivation? How do you set up a 403(B) or a 401(K) plan? What are the legal implications of disciplining or terminating a problematic employee? How do we handle a Reduction in Force (RIF)?

Says Stanley, “Being a successful HR manager requires a change in perspective. Coworkers and employees become the manager’s internal customers, and need to be treated like other customers: with respect, care, fairness, and objectivity. Managing Library Employees aims to help the reader cultivate this new outlook and handle challenges with confidence.”

Stanley begins by defining basic HR terms and providing a general overview of the current state of both the field of human resources overall, and library human resources in particular. She then describes the demographics of today’s library workforce and discusses emerging trends—including the increasingly strategic role played by HR managers within the organization; the HR challenges specific to academic, public, special, and school libraries; and the problem of anticipated staffing shortages.

Thereafter, the book focuses on practical how-to concerns. From the basics of hiring and firing, compensation and benefits packages, training, evaluation, recruitment and retention, and the role of unions and collective bargaining—to “hot topics” like conflict resolution, attracting minorities to librarianship, the “graying” of the library workforce, technologies useful for HR tasks, and the growing use of part-time or contractual employees—Managing Library Employees covers the full range of essential HR functions in libraries. Throughout, Stanley emphasizes legal concerns: an entire chapter is devoted to employment law and others touch on topics including sexual harassment, designing lawful disciplinary procedures, and identifying problem areas before they turn into lawsuits.

Managing Library Employees: A How-To-Do-It Manual
ISBN 978-1-55570-628-9. 2008. 8½ x 11. 190 pp. $59.95

About the Author
Mary J. Stanley is Associate Dean at the IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) University Library and Director of Human Resources. During her library career, she has worked in public, academic, and special libraries.

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