Leading the Academic Library in Strategic Engagement with Stakeholders: A Constructivist Grounded Theory

Abstract

The current diversity and disparate needs of stakeholders present significant challenges to academic libraries globally. The constructivist grounded theory presented in this paper recognizes the guiding role of the library director in responding to this problem and the need for different strategic mechanisms for engagement with various stakeholder groups. Key contributions of this work include establishing a strategic framework for engagement with stakeholders and tentative suggestions for various types of university libraries. The implications of this research include the need for outwardlooking library directors, an evidence-based approach to stakeholder engagement, and the encouragement of a customer-focused organizational culture among staff.

How the Botswana International University of Science and Technology Library Engages its Stakeholders in Connecting Information Resources, Services, and Space

“…The BIUST Library engaged various stakeholders from both the internal and external environments to play different roles that can be generalised as supportive, consultative, funding, or sponsoring in line with the broad categories observed in the reviewed literature (UN, 2005;Chellappandi & Vijayakumar, 2018;Harland et al, 2019). The engagement strategies for these entities vary according to the desired impact or goal.…”

“…The accounts of library leaders in 15 academic libraries in Pakistan by Ashiq et al (2018) demonstrate how stakeholder engagement and poor professional development of team members pose challenges to transformational library management. A sustainable engagement of stakeholders calls for a proactively innovative and dynamic library team with critical skills for transformational knowledge sharing as per the needs of the specific stakeholders (Harland et al, 2019). The liaison librarian has to be assertive and proactive in proposing collaborative activities that address the users' needs (Church-Duran,2017).…”

“…Pinfield et al (2017). The case shared byHarland et al (2019) presents the Model of Academic Library Strategic and Cultural Engagement with Academic Library Stakeholders from the library director's perspective.…”

Changing behavior of academic libraries and role of library professionals

“…In other words, as academic librarians are engaging in the classroom, providing instructional sessions and access to information "the academic library community currently faces challenges in advancing information literacy in higher education" (Maybee, 2018, p. 4). As a result, academic library professionals have become a more valuable and effective partner in increasing the student's experience and playing a great role in developing academic prospectus and offering information literacy sessions (Cheng and Hoffman, 2020;Harland et al, 2019;Schulte et al, 2018).…”

“…A study reported that training programs may prepare library professionals to provide innovative services (Rooney, 2010) and handle new technology at the workplace as current demand of new trends in information seeking by diverse patrons (Cheng and Hoffman, 2020;Fallon et al, 2011). On the other hand, Harland et al (2019) expressed that organizational infrastructure and human capital can play a significant role during the implementation of the plan, the contribution of workers assist leadership in decision-making and also helps leaders to make the right decision that all steps are vital toward a successful change in all types of organizations (Appleton, 2018;Lembinen, 2018). Meulemans and Maltin (2019) recognized new skills and competencies are equally significant in the changing nature of information as increasing demand of highly experienced and knowledgeable person in the library profession (Fallon et al, 2011;Kalin, 2008).…”