THE BOOK…THE BOOK

My book is published! I just love the sound of that! One more time. My book is published!

So a little over a year ago, I received an email from the British publisher Chandos asking if I would be interested in writing a book for librarians. Of course I said yes and after asking Erika if she would be interested in co-authoring, we found a topic, and came up with a wickedly cool title (it’s always about the title): “The Machiavellian Librarian: Winning Allies, Combating Budget Cuts, and Influencing Stakeholders”. Then we went through the process of finding librarians to write chapters for the book, editing the chapters, writing the introduction, creating the index (never again! worst job ever), etc. Poor Erika! I am sure she got tired of me muttering and starting emails with the sentence: “Those damn librarians. Why the hell can’t they APA correctly. They teach it!” And now the book is published! All the pain and stress that goes with editing is slowly becoming a distant memory. I have come to realize that you can do two things in life: 1) be a slacker author and turn in your articles/book reviews/chapters late or 2) be an editor and try to get your slacker authors to turn in their work on time. It’s much more fun and a lot less stress to be the slacker author, than the crazed editor. We were also very fortunate in that Chandos has really good people working for them and helped us create a fantastic book (we even got to pick the cover).

What is the book about you are asking? Here is the blurb from the Chandos website: http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=3248&ChandosTitle=1

“Do librarians ‘rock the boat’? Do they challenge those around them to win influence and advantage? Why is it that librarians are little found on the ‘influence’ grid of personality assessment tests? The Machiavellian Librarian offers real life examples of librarians who use their knowledge and skill to project influence, and turn the tide in their, and their library’s, favour. Authors offer first hand and clear examples to help librarians learn to use their influence effectively, for the betterment of their library and their career. Opening chapters cover visualizing data, as well as networking and strategic alignment. Following chapters discuss influence without authority-making fierce allies, communicating results in accessible language and user-centred planning. Closing chapters address using accreditation and regulation reporting to better position the library, as well as political positioning and outcome assessment.”

1. Introduction / Melissa Aho & Erika Bennett
Introduction
Pt 1 Character and behavior for princes
2. One Machiavellian librarian’s path toward leadership / Christopher Shaffer
3. Weasels and honey badgers: networking for librarians / Andre J. Nault
4. Influence without authority: making fierce allies / Kacy L. Allgood
5. Prince or plebe?: success at all levels of the library hierarchy / Megan Hodge
6. Princely planning in a political environment / Maggie Farrell
7. Be an ironman at work: work with your strengths / Kristen Mastel
Pt 2 New principalities
8. Mixed monarchies: expandind the library’s sphere of influence to help student-athletes / Laura Francabandera
9. “To mold a new reality”: strategies for leading change (and getting away with it) / Donna M. Braquet
10. Infiltrating the curriculum / Ken Bolton
11. Visualizing library space for constituents: a 3D representation of space changes in the Christopher Center Library at Valparaiso University / Bradford Lee Eden
12. A game of loans: promoting interlibrary loans / Joanne Percy
13. Certifiable: going rogue with non-library certifications / Kim Glover
14. Ambition, innovation, and tenacity / Leslie L. Morgan
Pt 3 Types of armies
15. Communicating with the “prince” to win the war / Scott Shieldlower
16. Absens haeres non erit: being in the right place at the right time / Anne C. Barnhart
17. Taming the bureaucratic beast or: how we learned to stop stressing and take control of accreditation / Carolyn L. Burrell and Scott W. Lee
18. An army of one: the one in which the strength of school libraries ought to be measured / Tia Esposito and Anna Martinez
19. Breaking the mold: winning allies via self-discovery / Bern Mulligan and Benjamin Andrus
20. A Machiavellian metaphor for communication: using the Social Style Model to craft organizational messages / Jesse Leraas
21. Rather a prince than a magistrate be: a regional librarian’s dilemma / Jorge Brown
Pt 4 Political situation
22. Know yourself and your patron: process mapping and needs assessment / Todd Fenton
23. The accidental Machiavellian: strategic alignment between the university library and the teaching center / Cara Bradley
24. Slybrarianship: building alliances through user engagement and outreach
25. Leveraging acceditation to quell the two fears / Amy Pajewski
26. Political positioning / Eric Owen.

Readership: This book will be important for librarians of all areas and levels, particularly those involved in management, who are interested in projecting influence for the benefit of career and library” (http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=3248&ChandosTitle=1).

So the book is now published in the UK (amazon.co.uk tells us that it was published on October 23, 2013) and you can purchase it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Machiavellian-Librarian-Stakeholders-Professional/dp/1843347555 for £48.80.

You can also order it directly from Chandos (via the Woodhead Publishing- the parent company website) at http://www.woodheadpublishing.com/en/book.aspx?bookID=3248&ChandosTitle=1 for £52.50 / US$90.00 / €65.00 (they are currently having a Halloween sale. So order soon).

Or you can wait for it to arrive in the US and order it from amazon.com on November 28, 2013 http://www.amazon.com/The-Machiavellian-Librarian-stakeholders-Professional/dp/1843347555/ for $76.83.

Or you can wait until your local library has it and ILL it (the record is up in WorldCat).

There might also be a e-book version of the book, but as you know, e-books are a bit hard to autograph, so I recommend buying the paper version.