The Levy Library Blog

New Year, New Reads: Levy Library’s Business & Leadership Collection

By Chelsea Gizzi

It's January again, and like Janus (the double-faced Roman figure traditionally associated with the first month of the year¹) many of us find ourselves looking forward to the coming months as well as reflecting on the last year. This new year--more than ever--is a time of change and transition.

Our collection at the Levy Library includes a number of special topics that sometimes fall outside the scope of a typical medical library because the library team wants to make a wide variety of titles available to our patrons. Business & Leadership is one of our most recent collections and has some exciting and useful titles on skills in the workplace that can help you make the most of 2021. Whether you manage a team or not, anyone can benefit from maximizing their team- or co-working abilities and developing or refreshing their soft skills. The collection includes a selection of classic leadership texts like the motivational A Leader’s Legacy but also includes more recent titles whose authors are conscious of a rapidly-evolving world increasingly driven by technological advances. This includes books like:

Evolving Digital Leadership -- As the digital world is ever-evolving, it’s important to keep abreast of the myriad changes that technology brings to our lives in and outside of the workplace. This book reflects on the unique challenges of being a digital leader, particularly during times of change.

Collaborative Leadership: How to Succeed in an Interconnected World -- Similarly, this title reminds us that technology has made communication both easier and more complicated than ever (for example, many of us are now very familiar with the idiosyncrasies of the virtual meeting). The ability to make strong connections across a variety of boundaries, whether they be technological, cultural, or institutional, is an important part of our work lives.

Other titles in this collection focus more on the individual. To get into that "new year, new you" mindset, check out titles like: 

Your Brain at Work -- David Rock, MD’s book explores methods for maximizing our capacity to focus, a skill equally valuable at work and at home. Other sections include discussions on collaborating effectively and on how to make decisions pragmatically and with a cool head.

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change -- The new year is always a time of reflection and refocusing, a time of transition, and this book includes strategies for minimizing disruptions caused by workplace change that are applicable outside the workplace, too. The publisher’s synopsis from 2009 when this book first appeared notes that the book is “an invaluable managerial tool for navigating these tumultuous, uncertain times,”²  making it an especially relevant read.

Finally, the Levy Library’s Business & Leadership collection would not be complete without a selection of titles that relate specifically to clinical professionals. One of the most useful of these titles is Management and Leadership: A Guide for Clinical Professionals. Today there is no shortage of books about leadership or about modern management styles, so a title written in the context of healthcare organizations stands out as especially valuable for the Mount Sinai community.

To view more highlights from this collection, check out our LibGuide. Or, check out the full list of titles in the library’s Discovery System. E-Book titles are always available online. Print titles are currently available to borrow -- to learn how to place a title on hold using our book pickup service, visit our updated guide to using the library during COVID-19.

¹ Janus [Internet]. 2019 Nov 20 [cited 2021 Jan 13] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Janus-Roman-god

² Rock D. Your Brain at Work. New York: Harper Collins; 2009.