The creativity of selected library directors at private liberal arts colleges in the United States

The study focused on the library manager as a creative individual rather than on the organizational structure. The relationship between creativity and various personal and professional characteristics (demographics, interests, journal reading, association memberships, career history) was considered and comparisons made between the creativity of library directors and other types of managers.;The highest scores of the total group of library directors of private selective liberal arts colleges in the creativity dimensions were in artistic interest and autonomy, with male directors scoring significantly stronger on ideational spontaneity than other managers and females significantly higher on autonomy than the executive norm. Male library directors were significantly lower on the independence dimension than other managers and females were significantly lower on the pressure dimension. Other significant positive relationships were found, notably between creativity and number of academic library positions held, number of library association memberships, number of library professional journals read, number of years in middle management positions. Noteworthy negative relationships were found between creativity and number of non-library positions held and creativity and number of special library positions held.;Ethnic group membership and childhood language was not diversified enough to study here. No significant difference was found for the age variable. More study is needed on the creativity of library directors, investigating the causes of strengths and weaknesses and ways to improve the weakness and share knowledge about the strengths. The relationship of creativity to publication rate, non-academic library positions (especially special library positions), technical versus public service experience, ethnic group, childhood language, and gender are food for further thought and study. Further consideration needs to be given to whether the Cree Questionnaire and other creativity instruments are valid in the library domain and possible other measures created specifically for the library domain. Correlating creativity scores to actual creative behavior, performance, management styles, organizational structure, and climate of the library and parent institutions could be fruitful. The relationship of creativity to other personality factors and social phenomenon could shed further light on this pioneering branch of study within the library field. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).