Should academic libraries, as increasingly technology-based institutions, require that its administrators have a baseline of hands-on technical skills? It's an idea worth considering.

I was just reviewing a list of preferred skills for ARL library directors included in the 2001 article by Hernon, Powell and Young, "University Library Directors in the Association of Research Libraries: Part 1" (College & Research Libraries Vol. 62 No. 2: 116-145). The skills list was presented in the chart, "Attributes Mentioned in Classifed Job Advertisements."

• Analytic and problem solving
• Consensus building
• Interpersonal
• Leadership
• Organizational
• Oral/written communication
• Public relations

Is there anything on this list that doesn't also apply to a front-line academic librarian? Besides, these are not skills in the technical sense. So I took a look at the list under preferred "Areas of Knowledge."

• Digital libraries
• Higher education
• Information literacy
• Publishing
• Scholarly communication
• Technology
• User expectations/information needs

This isn't any more helpful, especially since knowledge and skills are not the same thing. So I moved on and found an item that emerged from interviews the authors conducted with library administrators. This was an advocacy for directors to have "Broad knowledge and varied experiences (e.g., with technology)."

Again, not very helpful.

Finally, I took a look at the recommended skills list that emerged from these interviews. It was longer than the skills list above, but technology was not mentioned.

I'm not saying that the possession of technical skills guarantees effective performance. Obviously not. But I would argue that a certain level of hands-on technical expertise should be a prominent part of what administrators bring to the table as libraries become technological institutions.

I'm choosing to be fuzzy about the exact skill set that administrators might need to have. I've got a few ideas, but no well-thought-out configuration yet. The skills would be relevant to the ability to create and manage networked content, and an engagement with tools that are integral to the information culture of the library's constituencies.

I know that there are directors and assistant directors out there who come from technical backgrounds. I also know that a number of libraries have merged with their campus IT units. But what happens if few or none of your upper level adminstrators have much in the way of hands-on technical skills that are relevant to library operations?

Not all technology initiatives can come from the bottom-up. Inspiration from above can be a beautiful thing. And front-line librarians need administrators to endorse their plans. Who wouldn't prefer to work in a library in which administrators are a knowing sounding board for strategies to incorporate users' information culture into library services?

It's not enough to read about something, to hear about it from colleagues or at a conference, or even to observe it. There's something about having skills that can lead to a knowing confidence that, in my view, can help open up prospects for positive change. I truly don't understand the long-standing interest in technology skill sets for front line staff but not, generally, for administrators.

I'm sure there are many of you who will say that a strong, experienced, visionary administrator with exemplary leadership skills can guide a library into the digital future without hands-on skills. I can buy this notion, but with some reluctance, because this doesn't look like an ideal situation to me. And I reject the notion that technical skills are unrelated to scholarly endeavor, or that there is a disjunction between scholar-administrators and techies. Nowadays? Eh? The longer we entertain such notions, the farther we'll fall behind.