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Libraries have an organizational structure headed by a director and assistant directors who oversee departmental managers responsible for collections, research, and administrative tasks. The library board of trustees oversees the budget, while the director manages day-to-day spending. Larger libraries have more specialized managers, while smaller ones may have just one director and volunteers. Departmental leaders oversee entry-level librarians, student staff, and volunteers.
Like other institutions, libraries are methodically organized for efficiency and customer service. Depending on the size of the collection and the budget, a library’s organizational structure will be headed by a single director or a director and a few assistant directors. These library professionals, typically role holders, oversee a line of departmental managers – some responsible for a particular collection or research function, others dedicated to more administrative tasks. All other library staff come under the supervision of these middle managers.
A director is technically the top of a library’s organizational structure, even though it is customary for him to report to a library board of trustees. Members of this body are often appointed by elected county commissioners or in some communities by voters. For libraries affiliated with educational institutions, the school board of directors will appoint library administrators for specified terms. The backgrounds of these trustees can vary widely, from business leaders, lawyers and future politicians to retired citizens, die-hard library supporters and educational leaders.
The board usually oversees the budget, but it is the director who oversees the day-to-day spending of that money to further the library’s mission. Immediately below the director and any assistant directors the library can afford is a group of managers. Some are responsible for staffing and acquisition budgets dedicated to certain collections – such as the Non-Fiction, Classics or Reference departments or certain functions – such as Youth Programs or Adult Education. An operations manager may run a department of sub-managers performing tasks such as accounting, marketing, and information technology (IT).
Large libraries with extensive collections and generous funding are likely to have more managers with more specialized roles. A small municipal library may have just one director and a handful of volunteers who divide up the library’s various duties in whatever way works best. Other duties or departments that a manager is usually assigned to in larger libraries include: circulation, Web, library extension services, branch supervision, children, seniors, community, research, and extracurricular activities.
In all but the smallest libraries with primarily volunteer staff, departmental leaders are positioned in a library’s organizational structure to oversee entry-level librarians, student staff, and volunteer staff. A circulation manager might oversee a small army of students or library volunteers, each with the responsibility of staying organized and up-to-date on a particular part of the collection. For example, in the organizational structure of a library the size of the University of Chicago, a collections manager oversees employees responsible for Fiction, Nonfiction, History, etc. A smaller media library, of course, might have a collections manager responsible for each of the library’s acquisitions.
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