Academic libraries and estates strategy: a library leadership perspective

This chapter draws and reflects on the author’s academic library leadership experiences at five different institutions. Valuable insight is shared for the emerging generation of library leaders on the pros and cons of various leadership styles, influencing and negotiating skills when decisions are being made by senior institutional management on investment in their library estate. The author adopts a matrix approach to identify the key surface and/or latent institutional and external variables that will determine the impact of an Estates Strategy on a refurbishment or new build library project – these include formal customer feedback, senior management perceptions, institutional space constraints, structural surveys etc.