1. The year is 1957. Mary Jones is a recent library school graduate in her first job in a large academic library. Mary works in cataloging where her orders are given to her by the department head, who receives his own orders from the library director. Each day, Mary does the work she is assigned. She has little contact with employees outside her own department and no input into decisions that are made concerning her job. Libraries of that time are like other organizations of the same era: managed from the top down with the director making almost all decisions.50 Flash forward to the present . . .
Mary’s grandson, Ben, received an MLIS degree last year and also has gone to work in an academic library. The environment he works in as a beginning librarian is vastly different from the one that his grandmother encountered.
Ben frequently works on committees and teams with people outside of his department.
He expects to have some input into decision making. He spends time in meetings in which he learns about overall library issues and contributes his knowledge and efforts to many activities outside of his department.
Mary and Ben each worked in libraries that reflect the managerial philosophy of their time. What problems would Ben encounter if he had to work in his grandmother’s library? Would an employee of Mary’s era have problems adjusting to Ben’s library?