The importance of good supervision is obvious, so this paper will concentrate
instead on the meaning of good supervision and some of the
problems of supervision in libraries. In the general personnel management
of libraries, supervision is an extremely difficult and sensitive subject
and is becoming more so every day. In fact, the direct supervision of
experienced professionals probably runs counter to the best ideals of
the profession of librarianship. Once a professional librarian has passed
a kind of probationary period, one in which the theory, skills and attitudes
formed in the library school are modified by the demands of actual
practice, and the librarian's abilities have been judged to be at least adequate
for general performance, there shouldn't need to be any more
direct day-to-day supervision. Since our profession is in transition, the
difference between theory and practice in library supervision is substantial.
It is best here, however, to discuss problems of supervision from a
positive viewpoint.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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