Conclusion

Toxic leadership does in fact exist in academic libraries, but fortunately not in most (although some academic librarians would declare that it has manifested in too many). What to do with this? The issue of toxic leadership in academic libraries, while it is a reality, has yet to take over the majority of academic libraries; hence the sooner academic libraries accept that ignoring this problem aids in the shuffling of these toxic library leaders, the sooner the real work of stopping it can start. Academic librarians at all types of institutions need to accept that the problem exists. It is not yet fully known how big the problem actually is. The study upon which this book is based on revealed that approximately two-thirds (65.4%) of the librarians who participated had either witnessed or experienced toxic leadership in their careers as academic librarians. The effects of negative, bad, ineffective, and even (in some circumstances) incompetent leadership provide an opportunity for toxic leadership to propagate and have deleterious consequences in the academic library. Problems such as toxic leadership are only solved based on the quality of the leadership trying to ameliorate it. Toxic leadership has long-lasting effects because by the time it is acknowledged it has usually permeated every level of the library. Thus far the effects have been more noticeable in smaller libraries and if it has been permitted to occur for more than 5 years.

Many academic librarians believe that it is time to deal with the repercussions of the poor preparation library schools undertake to teach about leadership and management. The lack of training and mentoring opportunities for mid-career and older librarians is also a continual problem. These more experienced librarians should be the focus of attention because these are the librarians who will potentially become the next library directors, meaning the new leaders and advocates academic libraries desperately need. Mentoring continues to be heavily focused on new librarians, which, although helpful, does a disservice to more experienced librarians, when they are all of a sudden put in positions of power simply because they are good at their jobs and not because they can actually lead or manage. Library schools and professional library associations can and should do more.

Academic librarians are an intelligent and hardworking group of people. They can do more, but they deserve better leadership overall. Librarians can only do so much on their own if they are not natural leaders, which is why mentoring competent librarians with leadership potential, at all levels, is important. For a true positive impact in the academic library, library leaders who want to make a positive change and who want to advocate for libraries are seriously needed. Toxic leadership, as already mentioned, does not happen in a vacuum. Permissive conditions have to already exist at institutions of higher education in order to enable toxic leaders to flourish, and the same is true for positive change. All academic librarians deserve to work in a healthy library work environment where they can perform their duties and engage in their passions, their calling, without having to worry about being punished for doing their jobs.

Librarians would not have “hung in there” if they did not believe their libraries could improve. This is why library leaders and institutions of higher education need to demonstrate they care by providing oversight, as well as providing adequate funding and strong positive leadership to guarantee that if toxic leadership were to manifest itself again it would be excised immediately. This is an easier task if basic policies and protocols that protect academic librarians are already in place. Toxic leadership in academic libraries does not need to be tolerated more than it already has been, and the work to eradicate it will be easier once librarians are taken seriously and start to be included in the process.