Academic Libraries and Toxic Leadership examines a phenomenon that has yet to be seriously explored. While other so-called feminized professions, such as nursing, have been studied for their tendency to create toxic leadership environments, thus far academic librarianship has not. This book focuses on how to identify a toxic leader in an academic library setting, how to address toxic leadership, and how to work toward eradicating it from the organization. In addition, it discusses which steps can be used to prevent libraries from hiring toxic leaders.
In a time when libraries have to face constant change, this book provides examples and advises on how to lead when change is needed (for example, when quality management is implemented or when libraries have to merge or to relocate). Engaging with how constant change affects leadership in libraries and how leaders in libraries act in times of change, this book is aimed at practitioners and students of Library and Information Science (LIS) alike, and is based on both theory and expert interviews from leaders in academic and public libraries that are in the midst, or are now coming out of a process of change.