It's a job, not a reward! / Gayle Hornaday -- Stepping right into the middle of ... / Anne C. Barnhart -- Testing the waters : creative role playing for management success / Amanda Lea Folk -- Learning the ropes : LIS and professional training is not enough / Amanda Lea Folk -- Is an MBA a good choice for middle management librarians? / Elizabeth O'Brien -- Expertise, influence, and magical thinking : interviews with middle managers / Melissa Laning and Neal Nixon -- Business books for the library middle manager : an annotated bibliography / Joe C. Clark -- Rethinking interpersonal communication for managers / Marie L. Radford -- The middle in the middle : maintaining your sanity while mediating conflict / Amanda Lea Folk -- Horizontal communication : social networking in the middle / Nancy J. Kress -- Feeling good in the middle : emotional intelligence at work / Robert Farrell -- Top communication rules for effective library management / Louis Howley, Kathryn Bock Plunkett, and Nicole Sump-Crethar -- Formal and informal communication in meetings / Robin L. Ewing -- The power of un / Maureen Diana Sasso -- Checklist for productivity / Samantha Hines -- Procrastination and willpower / Samantha Hines -- The critical path for middle managers : a project management technique for librarians / Dorothy A. Mays -- Firm, but fair : dealing with problem employees / C.J. de Jong -- Supervision / Debbie Schachter -- Performance management : making difficult conversations easy and managing soft skills / Robert Barr -- Performance improvement : an overview for middle managers / Barbara Petersohn -- Consult me first : building consultative relationships between top-level and mid-level library managers / Jeffrey Franks -- Managing perceptions / Liza Weisbrod -- Surviving layoffs / Curt Friehs -- The poor administrator and you : survival tips for the mid-level manager / Jeffrey Franks -- Tips for managing bad bosses -- Interview with Sally Decker Smith -- The self-determined middle manager / Kristine Condic -- Leadership / Debbie Schachter -- Followership / Debbie Schachter -- Being an entrepreneurial leader / Jennifer Rowley -- Managing change : a reading guide for today's middle manager / Keith Phelan Gorman and Joe M. Williams -- The need for middle managers : turning today's new librarians into tomorrow's leaders / Bernadine Goldman -- Building strong middle manager/paralibrarian relationships : middle managers as mentors / Allison Sloan -- Moving up the ranks and back again : lessons learned as an interim library director / Elisabeth Tappeiner -- Working with the plateaued employee / Janet Butler Munch -- Interview with John Lubans: Taking risks and letting go, creating and coaching teams.