Over at Library Journal, there's John Berry. You probably know of him, as he was editor of that fine publication for over thirty years. Since retiring from that position, he has continued to share his viewpoint on all sorts of library topics in a series of editorial columns called Blatant Berry, and I find myself reading these first when looking at LJ. He also keeps up an infrequent blog at the LJ site. Like a lot of the people who have been around the profession for a while, Berry sometimes looks at what is new through the prism of what counted for 'new' over all his many years in the profession. Typically that means an insightful idea about the direction of librarianship, an infrequent flub into the 'past was better' realm, and an occasional grand slam where he takes a matter of the highest importance and calmly articulates it with a wisdom and skill that the rest of us can only hope to attain by the time we have reached an age (ahem) where he is now.

Berry gets it with the first pitch in his latest Blatent Berry column that appears in the current issue of LJ, conveniently published on the web. Berry's topic: managing a library. His key truism: there is no formula for management. Berry captures in words what those of us who manage every day already know. We live it, and when he describes it, we know exactly what he is talking about. Management is an art not a science. Managers respond based on intuition and skill developed over many years. Good managers have an innate sense of how to proceed, especially when events are moving fast and time is short. Management is a combination of instinct, experience, foresight, and sensitivity. Managers don't calculate the area under the curve using derivitives. There is little math or science involved once you'e analyzed your data. Decisions come from within, and Berry's description of the real essence of library management is the best one for librarians that I have read in a long time.

Eric C. Shoaf
Editor, LA&M

There are some changes at LA&M, as former editor Gregg Sapp retires into the sunset in his new position out in Olympia, Washington where he will serve as Dean of Libraries at Evergreen State College. We wish him well.

I am moving into the editor's chair, and hope to hear from everyone about the direction of the journal, or about possible topics for articles. All input is appreciated. In addition, we welcome two co-associate editors, both from Texas A & M University Library, who will share responsibility for making LA&M all it can be and more. Pixey Mosley is currently Head of Access Services and has published in LA&M and other library literature titles. She will work closely with her colleague Wendi Arant-Kaspar, coordinator of Policy Sciences and Economics, who is a noted author of books and articles in librarianship. Wendi and Pixey recently had their two-part series Making the Good Hire published in LA&M. We are fortunate that they are joining the journal in this important time as the transition to a completely online publication will be finished during their tenure.

Eric C. Shoaf
Editor, LA&M

Back in the 1960s, a new form of writing arose called the new journalism and led by such luminaries as Tom Wolfe, Hunter Thompson, and Truman Capote. In this style of reporting/journalism the writer would get right in the middle of the story, observing, gathering facts, and interviewing main actors, then apply literary principles to the final writing. During the Irag invasion of 2003, reporters were embedded with troops so they were indeed reporting from the middle. Here on South Harbor Blvd, in sunny Anaheim, CA as the ALA convention rolls on, LAMA members embedded or 'in the vortex' of the convention are observing several things. This report relies less on 'new journalism' and literary reporting, but hopefully captures a little of the flavor here:

Attendance at the convention appears to be aff by rather a lot compared to last summer's convention in Washington, DC. Whether this is due to concern about the location in a resort city, or the economy, or other factors, it is somewhat disappointing.

The LAMA Mentoring Committee held its kick-off in an overflowing room on Saturday, and represents an exciting new program to enhance the experiences of new LAMA members and to foster leadership qualities.

Speaking of leadership, LAMA members are talking about the division's name change set to take effect on September 1. The new name means much more than Kerry and Fred getting new stationery, of course. The new acronym, LLAMA, sounds the same phonetically, but brings a slightly different focus - Library Leadership and Management Association. This emphasis on leadership is not new in LAMA. In fact, several committees already have leadership as a focus. Rather it represents a refinement of the LAMA mission and an effort to be more widely inclusive for other ALA members who may be interested in leadership but might feel excluded because they do not define their working role as administrator. Leadership happens all over the library, not only in the functional unit called 'administration' and the new name builds on that theme.

Yesterday's LAMA President's Program featured a presentation on skills for contemporary leadership which also builds nicely on the new division name. Other LAMA programs, and there were over a dozen, had good attendance, were successful, and well-received which is testament to the continued hard work of so many LAMA (soon to be LLAMA) members.

Eric C. Shoaf
LA&M Associate Editor
ecs@brown.edu

I stumbled across an interesting quote in the New Yorker magazine recently, ‘perfect is the enemy of good.’ I had never heard this, and a little ‘net snooping led me to find it attributed to Voltaire. Sitting in yet another meeting the other day, looking for creative solutions to new problems in the library, it struck me that one of the sharpest arrows in the obstructionist’s quiver is “but what if we do that and xxxx happens? We must solve xxxx first!” Perhaps perfection is the enemy of good *implementation* because many in the library profession seem to want to solve all the problems, real and imagined, associated with a new idea before it gets put into action. They have difficulty accepting that it is often not possible to anticipate every outcome and consequence, intended or not. As library leaders, it is important to have the skills to bring the overly concerned to a place of comfort with the ambiguity that comes with new ideas and ways of doing things.

While management and leadership are not the same thing, many use the words interchangeably. And they are very much part of the same branch on the tree, fused to each other in many ways. But the root of management is managing. In any new activity or procedure, there will be planning prior to implementation. But the key to success will be to manage the implementation as it rolls out and through the process. In this case, managing is tracking the roll-out and dealing with issues as they arise, solving problems and creating solutions as they are call for.

Planning is important, but once you have the plan then managing it to success is equally important. Sometimes, front-line personnel are so focused on the specific applications of new processes that they get bogged down in the details and want answers to every concern, real and perceived. This is not always possible. Help them understand their role in managing a new implementation. Make them a part of the problem-solving team, and give them confidence to deal with the unintended consequences of change. Perfect may be the enemy of good, but that doesn’t mean we should strive for less than excellence. Rather, we shouldn’t let the pursuit of perfection derail good implementation plans and we should manage those plans (perfectly?) to success.

Eric C. Shoaf
LA&M Associate Editor
ecs@brown.edu