The Importance of political and strategic skills for UK library leaders

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the political and strategic skills needed by library leaders in today’s library environment. The discussion is based on a small scale research project focused on opinions of skills needed by library leaders. The survey involved a questionnaire of librarianship students and library practitioners as well as interviews with established library leaders in both the academic and public library sectors in the United Kingdom. This is supported by an analysis of relevant literature. Analysis revealed some disagreement between the three groups of respondents on the importance of some of the leadership skills discussed, particularly those focused around ‘political awareness and sensitivity’. It is suggested, however, that these skills are becoming ever more vital as libraries need to prove their worth to funders in increasingly difficult financial circumstances for publicly funded institutions.

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