Library managers

Today for a research project we had a meeting with the director of LIS at LSBU university. I just realised that the guy was really uptodate and if i didn't know what his job is i would think that he is a researcher or auniversity professor. But in fact most of the directors of Libaray and information services of Universities inUK are like this. They study the LIS journals and are informed about the progresses in library technologies and services. Many of them have publication in the field. This is one of the reasons that UK universities are usually pionior in providing library and information services. And that's why there is a relatively good relation between service providers (libraries), LIS researchers and the industry section.