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ObjectiveThis study sought to better understand effective leadership through the lived experiences of academic health sciences library directors.MethodsPhenomenological interviews were conducted with eight academic health sciences library directors to capture the essence of their shared leadership experiences. The research question that guided the study was: How do academic health sciences library directors understand their leadership effectiveness? The interviews were transcribed and coded, and the data were analyzed thematically.ResultsThree main themes emerged from data after analysis: assessment of the environment, strategies and decisions, and critical skills. Assessment of the environment includes awareness not only of trends in libraries and technology, but also the trends in health information, higher education, and current events and politics of their institutions and states. The strategies and decisions theme is about the ability to think both in the long-term and short-term when leading the library. Finally, critical skills are those leadership skills that the research participants identified as most important to their leadership effectiveness.ConclusionsThe study identified three main themes capturing the essence of the research participants’ leadership experiences. The three themes constitute a wide array of leadership skills that are important to learn, understand, and develop to increase leadership effectiveness. Effective leadership is fundamental to obtaining long-term strategic goals and is critical to the long-term future of the libraries.

Beginning in January 2012, a 1-year pilot pay-per-view (PPV) service was implemented. Twenty-four journal subscriptions were canceled to fund the service, and through the PPV service, the library was able to offer patrons access to over 700 previously unavailable biomedical journals. At the end of the pilot period, the total PPV cost for each journal accessed was compared to the subscription cost to determine if PPV was an effective use of library money. While remaining essentially budget neutral, the number of full-text articles accessed increased over 400%. PPV can be a cost-effective method for expanding access to journals.

Online users seek help from virtual reference services via email, phone, texting, and live chat. Technologies have enabled new features in library websites to help make this service more accessible and effective. This article is an evaluation of an experimental pop-up live chat box on the website of a health sciences library to see whether the feature would enhance virtual reference services.

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