kinkus.indd


     

       
         

       
         

  

  

        

    
    

   
     

     
       

     
      

       
       

    
       

      
      
      

    
     

    

         
     

      
        
    

       
     

     
     
       

        
       
       
         

     
     

Project Management Skills: A Literature 
Review and Content Analysis of 
Librarian Position Announcements 

Jane Kinkus 

Project management is pervasive in the literature and practice of many 
industries, including finance, IT, engineering, and biotechnology. The 
recent rapid proliferation of complex library services such as virtual 
reference and digital repositories suggests that the role of librarians is 
becoming increasingly project-oriented.This article presents an overview 
of professional project management and a literature review from the 
library science and management literatures. A content analysis of librar-
ian position announcements was conducted, and indicates that project 
management skills are in demand for librarians. However, it is unclear 
whether current library science literature and education adequately ad-
dress project management skills or other traditionally “extra-librarian” 
leadership qualities now needed to effectively manage project based 
initiatives in libraries. 

re project management skills 
in demand for librarians? 
Winston and Hoffman ob-
serve that the coverage of proj-

ect management techniques in libraries 
has been scant,1 although the term “project 
management” can be found increasingly 
frequently in the literature of library sci-
ence. For example, a search for articles 
from 2005 in the Wilson Library Literature 
and Information Science database re-
turned 23 articles with the term “project 
management” in the subject field, over 
half of which were peer-reviewed. Articles 
with titles like “Project Management and 
Libraries,” “Managing Your Library’s 
Technology Projects,” “Pace’s Maxims for 
Homegrown Library Projects,” and “Un-

der Budget, on Time, and in Sync: How to 
Stage Successful Rollouts,” indicate that 
librarians are interested in what project 
management is and how to do it. Library 
involvement with project management 
is also supported by the Association of 
Research Libraries’ Office of Management 
and Leadership Services, which began 
offering a Library Project Management 
Institute in 1999 for anyone involved with 
project work in any capacity. Is being a 
good project manager simply a ma er of 
being organized and able to tell people 
what to do, or is there more to it? 

Background on Project Management 
Librarians who work within the sub-
ject areas of business management, IT, 

Jane Kinkus is Mathematical Sciences Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Science in the Purdue 
University Library; e-mail: jkinkus@purdue.edu. 

352 

mailto:jkinkus@purdue.edu


   

    

    
 

     

 
 

      

      
     

     
      

   
     

      
       

    
      

     
     

      
    

        
       

       
      

       
     

     
     

       
        

      
      

    
      

     
    

      
        

         
     

       
       

      
        

       
      

     
     

      
        

     
    

    
     

     

     
      

    
 

 
       

       

    
     

     
     
     

    
     

     

      
     

    

Project Management Skills 353 

pharmaceuticals, or civil engineering 
are already aware that project manage-
ment in these industries is a well-defined 
discipline, and that “project manager” 
(PM) is a specific job title for many pro-
fessionals. In the formal sense, a project 
is an endeavor with definite starting and 
ending points that is undertaken to pres-
ent a unique new product or service to 
customers. Project management can be 
defined as “The art of directing and coor-
dinating human and material resources to 
achieve stated objectives within limits of 
time, budget, and stakeholders’ satisfac-
tion.”2 Features of a project include cost, 
schedule, and technical parameters, and 
project results are o en seen as building 
blocks in the execution of the strategic 
initiatives for an enterprise.3 

In addition to the US-based Project 
Management Institute (PMI), which has 
100,000 members from 125 countries,4 
there are at present several international 
project management professional asso-
ciations in existence. The UK’s Associa-
tion for Project Management has 13,500 
members from the UK and Europe, and 
the International Project Management As-
sociation in the Netherlands is composed 
of over 30 national associations repre-
senting over 20,000 project management 
professionals.5 There are at least fi een 
project management journals in publica-
tion, several of which have started up in 
the past five years. Over thirty graduate 
schools in the United States offer master’s 
degrees in or with concentrations in proj-
ect management; both the PMI and the 
American Academy of Project Managers 
(AAPM) offer accreditation for academic 
programs in project management.6 For 
project managers who did not plan their 
PM career far enough in advance to earn 
a graduate degree before garnering their 
job title, several organizations offer project 
management certification, including the 
PMI, the AAPM, and the International 
Association of Project and Program Man-
agement.7 These organizations usually 
require applicants to have worked already 
as a project manager for a certain number 

of hours or years to be eligible to apply 
for certification. Certification also requires 
successful completion of a rigorous test or 
series of tests. Although certification or a 
graduate degree in project management is 
generally not required for a person to work 
as a project manager in most industries, 
certification is valuable because it provides 
evidence of both knowledge and experi-
ence. Demand for project management 
training and certification is growing, not 
least of all because the result of inadequate 
project management can have severe finan-
cial impact on the participants. 

So, what is taught, and what type of 
knowledge is being tested, by the avail-
able sources of project management 
education and certification? One of the 
most widely used project management re-
sources in current circulation is the PMI’s 
Project Management Body of Knowledge (aka 
PMBOK), a book that outlines the nine 
areas of competency considered essential 
for project management in any se ing.8 
In addition to the time management and 
cost management aspects of a project, the 
PMBOK includes seven other knowledge 
areas that are key to project success. Scope 
management, which pertains to the defi-
nition of a project and sets boundaries for 
what problems will (and will not) be ad-
dressed by the project, is fundamentally 
intertwined with the project’s timeline 
and budget. Risk management is an 
integral factor of the project planning 
process, and identified risk factors require 
constant monitoring throughout the life of 
the project. Human resource management 
reflects the project manager’s ability to 
identify and acquire needed staff and to 
develop a productive team. Communica-
tions management refers not only to the 
project manager’s competence in sharing 
information and feedback with the project 
team, but also in reporting progress and 
performance issues to key stakeholders. 
Procurement management, which is the 
ability to identify, solicit, and hire subcon-
tractors for specific project segments, and 
quality management, which entails plan-
ning the standards of implementation 



 

    
     

      
   

   

       

      
      

    

    

     

    

    
     

     
     
    

   

      

 

   

       
 

     

   
 

     
      

     

      
     

       

 

     

  
       

      

    
    

     
        

     

      
   

   

      
     

    
     

    
  

    
    

354 College & Research Libraries July 2007 

and stakeholder satisfaction that must 
be achieved, comprise the most visible 
parts of project realization. The final stage 
of project implementation, integration 
management, includes final acceptance 
of the project, and absorption of the proj-
ect results (that is, the new product or 
service) into the normal functions of the 
parent organization. 

Literature Review 
In some industries, the path to becom-
ing a project manager is well defined, 
encompassing courses studied at the 
undergraduate or graduate level, on-the-
job training, and even certification. It is 
widely acknowledged that good workers 
are o en promoted to a managerial posi-
tion based on their good performance in 
a nonmanagerial role. For example, in 
IT, programmers are o en promoted to a 
managerial or supervisory position based 
on their performance as a programmer, 
o en without receiving adequate training 
in the quite different responsibilities of 
a manager. Similarly, many new project 
managers find their way to PM responsi-
bilities almost inadvertently. In a survey 
conducted by Greer, 100% of manag-
ers who were questioned agreed with 
the statement, “In today’s downsizing 
companies, more middle management 
positions are being eliminated and more 
task specialists are being asked to manage 
specific projects on a part-time basis (or 
in addition to their current task special-
ties).”9 The “instant” project manager is 
thus defined as “a manager whose skill 
set and main interest, prior to acquiring 
project management responsibilities, is 
that of a specialist in a particular field,” 
and is someone who has been thrust into 
a role that requires taking charge of a 
project with li le or no formal training.10 
Greer proceeds to present a simplified 
summary of key project manager actions 
and their results as an industry-neutral, 
easy-to-understand guide for “instant” 
project managers in any field.11 

While competency in specific knowl-
edge areas, gained formally or on the fly, 

can imply that a project manager is well 
versed in practices that have become 
accepted as standard by the PM com-
munity, use of these tools and techniques 
alone is not sufficient to ensure success. 
Salah El-Sabaa, a professor of project 
management at the University of Cairo, 
conducted a study in which 85 project 
managers from a variety of organiza-
tions and industries were asked to list the 
personal characteristics, traits, and skills 
of the best project managers they knew.12 
The survey answers were analyzed, and 
from them the researchers were able 
to identify 18 major skill items that fell 
into three main categories: human skills, 
conceptual and organizational skills, and 
technical skills. In the second phase of the 
study, 126 project managers were asked 
to rank the 18 skill items in importance. 
The most important types of skills as 
identified by the project managers in the 
study were human skills, which include 
the project manager’s ability to motivate 
staff; listen to, understand, and persuade 
others; delegate authority; and exhibit 
political sensitivity. Conceptual and or-
ganizational skills (which include skills 
of planning and organizing, the ability 
to see the project as a whole, and the 
ability to visualize the project in relation 
to the organization and the industry) 
ranked slightly lower than human skills. 
And technical skills, such as specialized 
knowledge of tools or techniques in the 
industry, were ranked lowest in impor-
tance. Further, the project managers in the 
study consistently ranked human skills 
as highest in importance, and technical 
skills as lowest, regardless of the specific 
industry or sector they represented. 

The importance of so  skills is dis-
cussed widely in the management lit-
erature. For example, while outlining 
the skills and practices of successful 
managers, Bolton asserts: “The emphasis 
of the future has to be in the leadership 
and interpersonal skills that ensure 
sound project-management practices. 
Projects fail because relationships and 
expectations fail.”13 Taylor’s A Survival 

http:field.11
http:training.10


 

 
     

    
     

    
     

      
    

     

     

        

    

   
     

    

     
    

     

      
     

      
      

     

    
     

   
   

   
   
  

       
     

     
      

   
    

 
     

     
     

      

     

      
   

     

     
      

    
     
     

      

   
    

     

    
     

    
    

    

     

      

Project Management Skills 355 

Guide for Project Managers addresses the 
human skills needed for successful proj-
ect management to at least the same, if 
not greater, degree than technical tools.14 
Taylor states that project managers do 
not have to be specialists in the project’s 
technology, in part because generalists 
have a be er chance of understanding 
a project holistically without getting 
bogged down by technical details; subject 
experts are more prone to holding a nar-
rower point of view.15 Further, increase in 
global competition and the extraordinary 
growth in information technology have 
created other problems for project manag-
ers—problems that have more to do with 
human relations than with technical skills. 
Now there is much more demand on the 
project manager’s interpersonal and ne-
gotiating skills than there was just a few 
years ago. One of the reasons is that many 
organizations, including many libraries, 
have a matrix organizational structure 
in which project teams function within a 
more traditional hierarchical management 
structure. Instead of team members’ being 
completely dedicated to a project for its 
duration, project teams in a matrix orga-
nization are composed of members from 
various departments who maintain other 
outside (that is, nonproject) responsibili-
ties in addition to the project. Therefore, 
the project manager may not have func-
tional authority over every team member, 
necessitating the use of interpersonal 
skills not only to build teams and morale, 
but also to get buy-in and to finesse sup-
port from other managers who are not 
stakeholders in the project but whose 
staff are involved. Taylor also reports on 
research done by Posner to learn what 
factors were most likely to cause problems 
for project managers during a project, 
and what personal characteristics make 
for above-average project managers.16 
The eight major categories of problems 
were inadequate resources, unrealistic 
schedules, unclear goals, uncommi ed 
team members, inadequate planning, 
communications breakdowns, goal and 
resource changes, and interdepartmental 

conflicts. Of the skills that make a superior 
project manager, six categories of skills 
were compiled from the respondents’ 
answers. Five of the six categories deal 
with interpersonal skills: communication 
skills, organizational skills, team building 
skills, leadership skills, and coping skills. 
Similar to El-Sabaa’s study, technical skills 
ranked lowest in importance. Posner also 
correlated the problems encountered by 
project managers to the skills needed 
for success, implying that most project 
problems are caused at least in part by 
a deficiency in an interpersonal skill.17 
Taylor goes on to declare that the most 
important skill a project manager can 
exhibit is the ability to communicate ef-
fectively with others, not only because a 
project manager is a contact point among 
team members, other managers, custom-
ers, vendors, and others, but also because 
communication skills underpin other 
important skills, such as team building 
and leadership skills.18 

Frank Cervone, a librarian at North-
western University, has wri en a series of 
project management articles for librarians. 
Cervone states, “Project management is a 
challenge for many digital library projects 
because many librarians do not come from 
a background that accepts and embraces 
project management concepts.”19 While 
Cervone’s first article presents some 
general project management techniques 
tailored to library se ings, his subsequent 
two articles focus on the human side of 
project management. The second article 
introduces a methodology for project 
managers to lead their project teams 
through the decision-making process.20 
At first glance, Cervone’s decision-making 
methodology can be seen as a simple set 
of steps that help a project team define a 
problem, identify and evaluate options, 
and implement a decision. However, 
upon subsequent reading, it can be seen 
that the reason project managers may 
require a decision-making methodology 
is that they need to navigate the sea of 
feelings and fears that team members and 
other stakeholders may feel when faced 

http:process.20
http:skills.18
http:skill.17
http:managers.16
http:tools.14


 

    
     

    
      

      

    
     

 
    

      

     
      

   

     
 

   

      

      
    

    

    

 
   

      

     
 

  
      

      
     

         
      

      
      

       
         

  
      

        
    

     
     

     
       

       
      

      
       

     
     

      
      

     
      
      

      
      

       
       

     
      

       
      

     
      

       

356 College & Research Libraries July 2007 

with a situation that requires a decision 
to be made. As a template for the process 
of continual communication between the 
project manager and team members, as 
well as between the project manager and 
stakeholders, and the recursive give and 
take of ideas and information among the 
team, Cervone’s seven steps ultimately 
help the project manager allay doubt 
among key players by systematically 
making sure that all opinions are listened 
to and that all issues, both technical and 
emotional, are addressed before a deci-
sion is made. 

In a third article on project manage-
ment in libraries, Cervone highlights the 
importance of the project manager’s skill 
at influencing others, especially when 
the use of a sound decision-making 
methodology fails to end in consensus.21 
Influencing means getting one’s way 
in an unobtrusive manner and is o en 
done indirectly and subtly. While direct 
methods of persuasion may seem to 
be more aboveboard, the use of more 
understated influencing techniques can 
help a project manager establish a long-
lasting good rapport with key players by 
asking questions, listening actively while 
suspending judgment, stressing benefits 
from the other ’s perspective, and con-
tinually working toward a decision.22 In 
addition to outlining specific techniques 
of influencing, Cervone also stresses the 
importance of recognizing personality 
type and understanding the communica-
tion strengths and weaknesses of the pre-
dominant personality types as important 
tools in the good manager’s communica-
tions toolbox. With regard to the most 
difficult aspect of project management, 
Cervone states, “Many people think 
technology is the issue, but the complex-
ity is more typically in the relationships 
between the various people involved in 
the project. You can be a more effective 
project manager by continuously using 
and developing behaviors that enhance 
your ability to influence others.”23 

Garstang emphasizes practices the 
project manager can adopt to help the 

team members enjoy working on the 
project.24 While few PM articles discuss 
the importance of having fun in project 
management, Garstang encourages 
project managers to find ways to make 
teamwork enjoyable as a way to increase 
morale, which in turn can precipitate in-
creased levels of creativity, productivity, 
and quality. Being a fun (and effective) 
project manager can also ensure that 
team members are more willing to work 
with the project manager on subsequent 
projects.25 

Motivation 
In early 2003, a group of PUL staff and 
faculty began implementing a new digital 
reference service, a goal that supported 
both the libraries’ and the university’s 
strategic goals. The group and its work 
were ad hoc in nature, and the new digital 
reference service had to be rolled out on 
a tight four-month deadline. The team 
was not given a monetary budget, but the 
libraries administration had purchased 
a digital reference software package 
that had been recommended through 
preliminary team work, and additional 
costs of the implementation in the form 
of libraries staff labor were absorbed by 
the organization. The team’s leader, a 
librarian who had been involved in previ-
ous project work in a corporate se ing, 
recognized that her responsibilities as 
team leader implicitly included project 
management skills. She also knew that 
professionals in other industries are o en 
trained in project management before be-
ing assigned to manage a complex techni-
cal project like the digital reference imple-
mentation. Her thoughts on this subject 
led to conversations with other members 
of the team. The librarians involved with 
the project could not recall learning about 
project management when they earned 
their MLS degrees. A consensus among 
the group was that the work undertaken 
in modern academic libraries seems to 
becoming more project-based, and while 
everyone had already been involved in 
at least one project-based effort at PUL, 

http:projects.25
http:project.24
http:decision.22
http:consensus.21


       
     

       
 

     
       

      

       
       

      
     

       
     

      
      

    
 

     

     

    
      
      

    

   

    
 

    
   
      

    
    

     
     
    

    

      
       

      
      

      
     

      
      

    
        

     
        

    
     

    
       
       

       
        

       
      
        

     
      

       
     

        
     

     
       

     
     

      
      

       
 

     
     

     
     

        
      

     
     

     
      

        
      

      
      

      

Project Management Skills 357 

nobody in the group had received any on-
the-job training in project management. 
While in search of validation from the li-
brary science literature that librarian jobs 
are becoming more project-oriented, the 
author discovered a 2002 article by Karen 
Croneis and Pat Henderson of the Uni-
versity of Alabama. Croneis and Hender-
son performed a content analysis of job 
titles as advertised in College & Research 
Libraries News between January 1990 and 
December 2000.26 Their research revealed 
that there was a dramatic increase in 
the number of position announcements 
with the word “electronic” or “digital” 
in the title during this eleven-year period. 
They also reported that, as libraries and 
librarians acquire more experience with 
electronic resources and digital projects, 
more functional areas throughout the 
institution are involved.27 Therefore, not 
only does the progression of technology 
seem to be introducing more opportuni-
ties for project-based work in libraries, 
but the increased complexity caused by a 
project’s need for expertise from multiple 
departments leads to an increased need 
for project management skills in modern 
librarian jobs. Croneis and Henderson 
state further that, while jobs with the 
word “electronic” in the title tend to 
be more traditional and user-centered, 
jobs with “digital” in the title tend to be 
“primarily responsible for administration 
and project management with emphases 
on securing funding and overseeing 
production.”28 

Conversations among the digital refer-
ence implementation team, punctuated 
with anecdotal evidence as well as journal 
articles, gave rise to two primary ques-
tions. First, is the profession of librarian-
ship really experiencing an increased 
demand for project management skills 
as evident through, for example, required 
qualifications listed in librarian job an-
nouncements? And second, assuming that 
project management skills are important 
for librarians, is project management 
currently being taught in library science 
master’s degree programs? 

In fall 2003, the digital reference imple-
mentation team leader and the author, also 
a team member, prepared a presentation 
about project management skills for the 
Virtual Reference Desk conference. A brief 
survey was e-mailed to 47 ALA-accred-
ited master’s degree programs, asking if 
project management was addressed in the 
institution’s library science curriculum. 
Of the 26 replies that were received, 21 
library science programs reported that 
at least one course in their library science 
master ’s curriculum addressed project 
management. One institution reported that 
several courses included project manage-
ment, and one institution reported that one 
course was entirely dedicated to the topic, 
although the course was not mandatory for 
the MLS. In follow-up to the brief e-mail 
survey, the librarians visited the Web sites 
of each institution that reported offering 
at least one course in the master’s degree 
curriculum that touched upon project 
management. From these Web sites, it 
was found that only one course actually 
included the term “project management” 
in either the course title or the course 
description, which suggested that project 
management was not necessarily the pri-
mary focus of the courses. One institution 
additionally indicated that its curriculum 
commi ee was currently investigating the 
degree of coverage of project management 
in its library science curriculum, further 
supporting that this topic was of timely 
relevance. Similarly, Winston and Hoff-
man formally surveyed online information 
about curriculum and courses for ALA-
accredited MLIS programs.29 They found 
that project management courses were in-
cluded in the curricula of only 3.7 percent 
of the LIS programs surveyed. However, 
many project management skills are ad-
dressed by general management courses, 
or within specialized management courses 
such as human resources or financial man-
agement, so it is difficult to compute the 
exact level of project management training 
in MLIS curricula. Winston and Hoffman 
conclude that, even if libraries never imple-
ment full-scale project management at the 

http:programs.29
http:involved.27


 

    
     

      
        

 

    

      

    

       
        

        
     

    

    
      

     

        
    

     

      

    
       

      

    

    
    

 
     

      

    
      

        
       

       
        

     

      
   

      
        

        
       

        
     

       
     

      
        
       

      
       

      
       

      
     

        
      

          
       

      
       

      
     

     
     

        
    
       

     

358 College & Research Libraries July 2007 

organizational level, project management 
principles are important for librarians, 
and libraries must provide an appropriate 
level of support for those who have project 
management responsibilities.30 

Methodology 
To determine whether project manage-
ment skills are in demand for librarians, 
the author decided to conduct a content 
analysis of several years of library job 
ads, and compare the numbers of times 
project management skills were included 
as required or desired qualifications. At 
first it seemed that the easiest way to 
conduct an analysis of job ads would be to 
use or obtain data from an online site that 
contained several years’ worth of data, 
such as the University of Texas School of 
Information’s iSchool JobWeb.31 The most 
obvious benefit of using such a site is the 
ease of keyword searchability, especially 
when compared with reading printed 
job ads. UT’s JobWeb includes a search 
interface that allows for easy keyword 
searching, as well as the ability to limit 
results by criteria such as type of library or 
geographical location. However, this type 
of online site can tend to be a portal for 
regional jobs rather than representative of 
the industry, and online job sites usually 
do not maintain archives beyond a year 
or two into the past, since both job seek-
ers and employers have a time-sensitive 
need for the site. Further, the methods by 
which online job sites obtain job ads can 
be inconsistent. For example, many of the 
position announcements on the JobWeb 
site arrive unsolicited from employers: 
that is, there is no guarantee that employ-
ers are consistent in their use of the site. 
Another problem with online LIS job sites 
is that it can be hard to separate the job 
announcements for librarians from the 
job announcements for IT professionals. 
Therefore, College and Research Libraries 
News (C&RLN) was eventually selected 
as the source for data collection. C&RLN 
is a well-established journal and has 
reached a level of credibility and reader-
ship such that academic libraries submit 

job announcements to C&RLN as a ma er 
of routine. It would have been ideal if an 
archive of librarian position announce-
ments in electronic format had been avail-
able from C&RLN, but an examination of 
C&RL New’s Web site produced only the 
most recent three months of job ads, and a 
phone call to C&RL News verified that job 
ads are not archived in electronic format. 
Therefore, print copies from the journal 
were used for data collection. To allevi-
ate eyestrain and the tedium of reading 
through the hard copy of hundreds of job 
ads, three years of job ads (1993, 2003, and 
2004) were scanned, and optical character 
recognition was performed on the page 
images. In this manner, 440 pages and 
1,180 librarian position announcements 
were converted from hard copy into key-
word-searchable electronic text. 

An issue that arose quickly while ex-
amining job ads is that because the skills 
of a project manager are o en hard to 
distinguish from the skills of a general 
manager, or at least overlap to a great 
degree, the requirement for project man-
agement skills could be hidden within a 
job announcement’s wording. To avoid 
relying on the subjective interpretation of 
job skills, it was decided to examine only 
job ads that included “project” in their 
text. Therefore, the content analysis was 
conducted by using the “find” feature in 
Microso  Word to identify all occurrences 
of the word “project” in the position an-
nouncements. Each instance of the word 
was highlighted, and the corresponding 
job ads were copied and pasted into a 
separate document for each year to sepa-
rate them from the rest of the ads. Then the 
three files of project-related job ads were 
printed out for more detailed examination. 
A er several scans of the “project” job 
ads, two main levels of project manage-
ment for librarians emerged: direct re-
sponsibility for project management, and 
project involvement in a nonleadership 
role. A job ad was determined to indicate 
direct responsibility for project manage-
ment if it included the phrase “project 
management” or “project manager,” or 

http:JobWeb.31
http:responsibilities.30


        
     

       
     

     
        

     
    
   

     
       

     
      
     

   
       

    
     

    
  

       

    

    
    

     
     

   
    

    
      

 

   
    

   

    

   

   

 
 

Project Management Skills 359 

if it included a strong indication that the 
position was responsible for managing 
projects in the absence of these phrases. 
Strong indication of project management 
was inferred from the nonadjacent occur-
rence in a sentence of the word “project” 
and at least one management-related 
word such as “management,” “leader-
ship,” “coordination,” “organization,” 
or “implementation.” A job was consid-
ered to include project involvement in a 
nonleadership role if its responsibilities 
included items such as “works on depart-
mentwide special projects” or “participate 
in innovative library projects.” 

All job ads for all three years, including 
the ads requiring project management 
skills, were also analyzed according to 
their job type. The job type categories in-
cluded technical services, public services, 
information technology, administrative, 
archives/special collections, and other. 

Results 
There were 482 job ads in 1993. Most 
of these job ads (46.5%) were for public 
services positions, followed by technical 
services (23%), administrative (13.9%), ar-
chives/special collections (8%), and other 

positions (2%). (See figure 1.) Twenty of 
1993’s job ads (4.1%) contained evidence 
that project management skills were 
required of the successful candidate, 
including five ads that included “project 
management” or “project manager,” and 
fi een ads that contained strong evidence 
that the job required project management 
skills without the use of the term “project 
management/manager ” as a required 
or desired qualification. An additional 
twenty-three job ads (4.8%) suggested 
that the positions would likely be in-
volved in project work. 

There were 338 C&RLN job announce-
ments in 2003. Public services positions 
again ranked first with 43.8% of job ads, 
followed by administrative positions 
(19.8%), technical services (18.6%), IT 
(9.5%), archives/special collections (6.8%), 
and other positions (1.5%). Of 2003’s job 
ads, 11.2% included requirements for 
project management skills, including 19 
ads that used the term “project manage-
ment” or “project manager,” and 19 ads 
that included wording strongly suggest-
ing a need for such skills without using 
the term “project manager/management.” 
An additional 17 ads (5%) suggested that 

FIGURE 1 
All Job Ads by Type 

0.00% 

10.00% 

20.00% 

30.00% 

40.00% 

50.00% 

60.00% 

1993 2003 2004 
Year 

ALL job ads % 

Tech Svcx 
Pub Svcs 
IT 
Admin 
Archiv/SC 
Other 



 

 

    

    

    

    

      

     
     

   
     

       

   
   

   
     

   

     

       
      

  
    

     

      

         

 
 

360 College & Research Libraries July 2007 

FIGURE 2 
PM Job Ads by Type 

0.00% 

5.00% 

10.00% 

15.00% 

20.00% 

25.00% 

30.00% 

35.00% 

40.00% 

1993 PM ads 2003 PM ads 2004 PM ads ALL PM job ads 

Tech Svc 
Pub Svcs 
IT 
Admin 
Archiv/SC 

the position in question would likely be 
involved in some project work. 

A total of 360 job ads from 2004 were 
also analyzed. Of these ads, 49.7% rep-
resented public services jobs, 18.9% 
administrative, 17.2% technical services, 
6.9% IT, 4.4% archives/special collections, 
and 2.78% other. Seven of 2004’s job ads 
used the term “project management” or 
“project manager,” and ten ads provided 
strong evidence that project management 
skills were required, for a total of 4.7% 
of the ads. Nineteen of the ads, or 5.3%, 
provided evidence that some involvement 
in project work would be expected. 

While the highest number of job ads 
for each year related to public services 
positions, job type categories for second 
and third places shi ed between 1993 
and 2003–2004. In 1993, technical services 
trailed public services, but a decade later 
administrative positions replaced tech-
nical services jobs, which had dropped 
5%–6%, as the second largest portion of 
overall job ads. Further, IT jobs, which had 
ranked fi h in 1993 a er fourth-place ar-
chives/special collections, gained slightly 
to overtake archives/special collections 
jobs, which in turn had dropped in the 
intervening decade. 

Project management–related job ads 
differed markedly from overall job ads 
with regard to job type. While a majority 
of all job ads corresponded to public ser-
vices jobs, the largest percentage of total 
project management jobs corresponded 
to IT positions. (See figure 2.) In 1993, IT 
jobs comprised 35% of project manage-
ment job ads, followed by administra-
tive (20%), and technical services, public 
services, and archives/special collections 
jobs at 15% each. This pa ern was roughly 
repeated in 2003, with 34.2% of project 
management jobs coming from IT posi-
tions, followed by public services (21%), 
administrative and archives/special 
collections (15.8% each), and technical 
services (13.2%). However, in 2004 public 
services jobs required more project man-
agement skills, with 35.3% of the project 
management job ads. IT dropped to sec-
ond place in 2004, tying technical services 
jobs at 23.5% of PM job ads, followed by 
administrative (11.8%) and archives/spe-
cial collections positions (5.9%). 

Discussion 
The total number of job ads decreased in 
the decade between 1993 and 2003. Total 
job ads per year fell from 482 in 1993 to 



     

      

     
     

       

     
      

       

     

   

       

    
    

    

    
    

       

     

    
   

     

    
    

  

     
   

      

     
     

      

    

    

   

 
     

    
    
    

     
    

    

      

    

     

     
     

   

Project Management Skills 361 

338 in 2003, a decrease of 30%. The count 
for total job ads in 2004 was 360, a drop 
of 25% from 1993. Possible causes of the 
decline include fewer jobs available, as 
well as possible migration to online-only 
job ads for some organizations. 

The number of job ads explicitly requir-
ing project management skills increased 
greatly between 1993 and 2003, from 
4.1% to 11.2%. However, project manage-
ment–related librarian jobs fell again in 
2004, back to 4.7%. Therefore, it is difficult 
to determine if there is a greater demand 
for project management skills now as 
compared with several years ago, or if 
2003 was an abnormally rich year for job 
seekers with project management skills. 
One difference between the job ads of 1993 
and those of 2003–2004 is the proportion 
of ads using the terms “project manage-
ment” or “project manager” to the num-
ber of ads describing project management 
skills without these terms. For example, 
in 1993, five job ads used either “project 
management” or “project manager,” 
compared to fi een job ads with phrases 
such as “provide leadership in planning, 
developing, and implementing ongoing 
activities and special projects within the 
department” that imply project manage-
ment. By 2003 there was a one-to-one cor-
respondence, with 19 ads using “project 
management” or “project manager” and 
19 ads implying project management 
through other terminology. In 2004, 
this ratio was 7:10, indicating that, even 
though the percentage of jobs requiring 
project management skills was roughly 
the same as in 1993, libraries were using 
the terms “project management” and 
“project manager” with greater frequency 
than eleven years before. 

Conclusions 
Based on surveys of both librarian job ads 
and MLIS curricula, it is clear that project 
management in libraries is here to stay. 
The technological aspect of most librarian 
jobs continues to grow, and technology-
based projects in libraries can no longer 
be performed by an individual or a few 

staff members in one department—imple-
mentation of technology-based projects 
requires expertise from across the library. 
While it may seem unlikely that library 
organizational structures will evolve to 
support programs of multiple concurrent 
projects to the same extent as other pre-
dominantly project-oriented industries, 
such as construction, so ware develop-
ment, or pharmaceuticals, the increased 
interdependence across multiple library 
units that is required for successful 
implementation of diverse initiatives 
ensures that librarians and other staff 
will continue to come together on project 
teams to get things done. The prediction 
that project management is and will 
remain an important aspect of library 
management is supported not only by the 
increasing body of literature concerning 
project management in libraries, but also 
by the training and continuing education 
sessions offered by library professional 
associations. 

Both the Association of Research 
Libraries (ARL) and the Library Admin-
istration and Management Association 
offer regional institutes on project man-
agement, and ARL has published a 2005 
SPEC Kit on managing large projects. 
The Special Libraries Association has 
supported PM education through articles 
published in Information Outlook, seminars 
offered through its Virtual Seminar Series 
and Click University, and continuing 
education coursed offered at the annual 
conferences. Clearly, the visionaries of 
the profession have noticed the growing 
importance of project management and 
are taking steps to help make librarians 
be er project managers. 

The results of this research have impli-
cations for library science graduate stu-
dents, library administrators, and practic-
ing librarians. First, librarians in training 
may find that their MLS/MLIS curriculum 
offers a course, and possibly courses, in 
project management. If PM courses are 
not offered by their home department, 
interested students can seek out project 
management training by cross-registering 



 

       

      

     

       
      

     

      
      

      
      

      
      

    
     

         
        
       

     
     
      

         
      

     
       

        
         

     
    

     
       

       
       

    
    

   

     

     

    
    

    
        
        
       

       
       
      

      
       
       

         
     

       
      

     
       

        
      

      
        

      
     
     

     

      

       
       

      
    

             

  

362 College & Research Libraries July 2007 

in a department that offers PM, such as 
the information science or management 
department, or by proposing a course 
of independent study. If taking a project 
management course proves to be too 
impractical, library science students can 
take solace in the fact that strong general 
management skills underpin project man-
agement skills, and most ALA-accredited 
MLIS curricula require at least one gen-
eral management course. 

Library administrators must think care-
fully about whom to appoint to manage a 
new project. The right person for the job 
may not be the “obvious” choice. A librar-
ian who is creative and enthusiastic may 
lack the requisite organizational skills of a 
good project manager, while another who 
is highly organized and productive may 
need to improve interpersonal skills. It is 
likely that any good candidate will need 
remediation in at least a few of the key 
competency areas. And since most librar-
ians have not received formal training in 
project management, it is incumbent upon 
administrators to make PM training avail-
able to potential leaders, either by bringing 
in a PM specialist or regional institute for 
staff development or by sending potential 
project managers out for training. Finally, 
if the failure of a particular project would 
result in a substantial negative impact, eco-
nomic or otherwise, library administrators 
should seriously consider hiring a profes-
sional project manager for the job. 

Practicing librarians o en find them-
selves members of a project team, and 
eventually some are expected to step into 
the role of project manager. To prepare for 
such a duty, librarians can rely on numer-
ous resources. First, the body of literature 
about desirable project management skills 
is quite rich, reflecting the fact that many 
project managers learn their jobs by do-
ing, rather than through formal training. 

In addition to reading, interested librar-
ians should also avail themselves of any 
available training and, if necessary, sug-
gest to their administration that a series of 
training sessions on project management 
could be cost effective, especially if a 
major systemwide project is looming on 
the horizon. At any rate, librarians who 
enjoy a good challenge and a chance to 
step outside their comfort zone should 
find ample opportunities for both by ex-
pressing interest in managing a project. A 
job well done will benefit the organization 
and may well chart the fledgling project 
manager on a fascinating new career 
course in librarianship. 

The research presented in this paper 
analyzed only three years of librarian 
job ads. To more accurately document 
trends in project management skills or 
other job responsibilities for librarians, a 
more detailed study of librarian position 
announcements should be performed. 
Multiple data sources could be consid-
ered, as well as a greater number of years 
of data. One impediment to such a study 
is the amount of time required for scan-
ning journal pages, performing optical 
character recognition, and searching the 
resulting files for keywords and phrases. 
To this end, it would be useful if reputable 
library science journals such as C&RLN 
and American Libraries maintained an 
archive of electronic job ads for research 
purposes. Content analysis of job ads is a 
tool that can be used in diverse ways to 
characterize our profession and inform 
decisions about MLIS curriculum plan-
ning, on-the-job training needs, and hu-
man resources issues. It would be fi ing 
if the leading professional journals of our 
field took steps to facilitate research about 
librarianship by electronically archiving 
librarian position announcements in ad-
dition to other content. 

Notes 

1. Mark D. Winston and Tara Hoffman, “Project Management and Libraries,” Journal of Library 
Administration 42, no. 1 (Feb. 2005): 51–61. 

2. Wideman Comparative Glossary of Project Management Terms v.3.1, Project Management 



 

          

          
     

          

  
    

  
     

  

  

  

 
 
 

             

  

 
               

              

 
 
 

 

            

 
 
          

 
  

 

 
 
 
 
            

 

Project Management Skills 363 

(updated Dec. 19, 2002). Available online from h p://maxwideman.com/pmglossary/PMG_P12. 
htm. [Accessed 25 January 2005]. 

3. David I. Cleland, Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation, 3rd ed. (New 
York: McGraw-Hill, 1999). 

4. Project Management Institute, About PM. Available online from h p://www.pmi.org/info/ 
AP_IntroOverview.asp?nav=0201.  [Accessed 27 January 2006.] 

5. Association for Project Management, About Us. Available from h p://www.apm.org. 
uk/page.asp?categoryID=1&subCategoryID=11&pageID=0. [Accessed 27 January 2006.] In-
ternational Project Management Association, About Us. Available online from h p://www.ipma. 
ch/asp/default.asp?p=89. [Accessed 27 January 2006.] 

6. Project Management Institute, New Accreditation Policy for Degrees in Project Management. 
Available online from h p://www.pmi.org/info/PDC_AccreditationOverview.asp?nav=0407. 
[Accessed 27 January 2006.] American Academy of Project Management, Certification. Available 
online from h p://www.projectmanagementcertification.org/certification.html. [Accessed 27 
January 2006.] 

7. International Association of Project and Program Management, CPM Certification. Avail-
able online from h p://www.iappm.org/cpm.htm.  [Accessed 27 January 2006.] 

8. Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 3rd ed. 
(Newtown Square, Pa.: Project Management Institute, Inc., 2004). 

9. Michael Greer, “Essential Skills for Today’s ‘Instant’ Project Managers,” Performance Im-
provement (Feb. 1998), 24–29. 

10. Ibid. 
11. Ibid. 
12. S. El-Sabaa, “The Skills and Career Path of an Effective Project Manager,” International 

Journal of Project Management 19 (2001), 1–7. 
13. Bart Bolton, “10 Tips for Becoming a Successful Manager,” InformationWeek, no. 1025 (2005), 

64. 
14. James Taylor, A Survival Guide for Project Managers (New York: American Management 

Association, 1998). 
15. Ibid., 15. 
16. Barry Z. Posner, “What It Takes to Be a Good Project Manager,” Project Management Journal 

(March 1987). Quoted in James Taylor, A Survival Guide for Project Managers (New York: American 
Management Association, 1998), 11–16. 

17. Ibid., 12–13. 
18. Taylor, 18. 
19. H. Frank Cervone, “How Not to Run a Digital Library Project,” OCLC Systems & Services 

20, no. 4 (2004): 162–66. 
20. H. Frank Cervone, “Making Decisions: Methods for Digital Library Project Teams,” OCLC 

Systems & Services 21, no. 1 (2005): 30–35. 
21. H. Frank Cervone, “Influencing: A Critical Skill for Managing Digital Library Project 

Teams,” OCLC Systems & Services 21, no. 2 (2005). 
22. Ibid., 106. 
23. Ibid., 109. 
24. Marlene Garstang, “Checklists for Training Project Management: The Team’s Perspective,” 

Journal of Instruction Delivery Systems (Winter 1994): 29–33. 
25. Ibid., 29. 
26. Karen Croneis and Pat Henderson, “Electronic and Digital Librarian Positions: A Content 

Analysis of Announcements from 1990 through 2000,” Journal of Academic Librarianship 28, no. 4 
(July 2002): 232–37. 

27. Ibid., 234–35. 
28. Ibid., 235. 
29. Mark Winston and Tara Hoffman, Project Management in Libraries. 
30. Ibid., 60. 
31. University of Texas School of Information, JobWeb. Available online at h p://www.ischool. 

utexas.edu/jobweb/.  [Accessed 27 January 2006.] 

http:h�p://www.apm.org