Libraries In A World Of Cultural Change

A study of libraries and the role they play in both inner city areas and dispersed rural communities. It examines the library as a cultural institution, considering its spatial and symbolic presence and exploring its public service remit. The book is intended for undergraduates and postgraduates on library and information science courses and as supplementary reading for cultural and communications studies, tourism and recreation, human geography and sociology - as well as for public and academic librarians.

Examination of the British public library network in terms of its history, development, declared aims and success or otherwise in adapting to a world of cultural change.

"In Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries, Pateman draws on the ideas of Marx and Maslow to present an ambitious 'analytical framework', which, he says, can be used to create bold public-library strategies, structures, and systems. Pateman argues for radical--but sustainable--transformations in public libraries. In particular, he envisions: - Strategies that are focused on users with the greatest needs, and that have social justice at their core. Public libraries can be converted, Pateman says, from institutions of social control into agencies of social change. - Non-hierarchical staff structures, or 'holocracies' in which organizational positions are matched to individual strengths, talents, and skills. - Service structures which are flexible and are able to respond quickly and creatively to changing community needs. - Systems which are 'enabling' with policies, processes, and procedures which permit community needs to be identified and met. Prescriptive manuals will be superseded by parameters to encourage innovation and creativity. - Evaluation and assessment of library services which no longer rely on 'one-dimensional and misleading metrics' such as circulation, membership, and visits but, rather, depend on a more qualitative approach. Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries will be of particular interest to advanced students, practitioners, and policymakers working in Library and Information Science. It offers hope of a world where 'every section of the community will be fully involved and engaged in the planning, design, delivery, and evaluation of library services' and of 'libraries which are inclusive and truly open to all'"--

The advent of globally networked information is a historic change. Educational, commercial and industrial institutions depend on its effective exploitation for their success, but cultural and human factors are the biggest obstacles. This book looks at the roots of these problems and how they may be overcome, through understanding recent developments in technical services, the difference between service and technical orientation, organizational culture, the role of subject expertise and the cultural heritage of the information profession. The book provides guidance and outlines best practice in: managing converging technologies; supporting change with organizational models; using cultural audits; the role of focus groups in implementing change; characterizing a learning organization; succeeding as a change agent, and managing change through technical services. Several chapters discuss the Electronic Libraries programme and the TAPin (Training and Awareness Programme in networks) model as examples of how cultural change takes place, particularly in the academic environment; one chapter concentrates exclusively on the characteristics of special libraries. This illuminating insight into the evolution of information cultures and how they do or don’t adapt to networked services will help information and library managers to achieve change with deeper understanding, and will provide useful advice for senior managers restructuring IT and information departments. The book is core reading for students of Information Studies.

Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries argues that changes to library Strategies and Systems can lead to transformations in library Structures that can, in turn, shape and determine Organisational Culture. Drawing on Management theories, as well as the ideas of Marx and Maslow, the authors present an ambitious Analytical Framework that can be used to better understand, support and enable cultural change in public libraries. The volume argues for radical – but sustainable – transformations in public libraries that require significant changes to Strategies, Structures, Systems and, most importantly, Organisational Culture. These changes will enable Traditional Libraries to reach out beyond their current active patrons to engage with new customer groups and will also enable Traditional Libraries to evolve into Community-Led Libraries, and Community-Led Libraries to become Needs-Based Libraries. Public libraries must be meaningful and relevant to the communities they serve. For this to happen, the authors argue, all sections of the local community must be actively involved in the planning, design, delivery and evaluation of library services. This book demonstrates how to make these changes happen, acting as a blueprint and road map for organisational change and putting ideas into action through a series of case studies. Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries will be of particular interest to academics and advanced students engaged in the study of library and information science. It should also be essential reading for practitioners and policymakers and all those who believe that communities should be involved and engaged in the planning, design, delivery, and evaluation of library services.

For the first hundred years or so of their history, public libraries in Britain were built in an array of revivalist architectural styles. This backward-looking tradition was decisively broken in the 1960s as many new libraries were erected up and down the country. In this new Routledge book, Alistair Black argues that the architectural modernism of the post-war years was symptomatic of the age’s spirit of renewal. In the 1960s, public libraries truly became ‘libraries of light’, and Black further explains how this phrase not only describes the shining new library designs – with their open-plan, decluttered, Scandinavian-inspired designs – but also serves as a metaphor for the public library’s role as a beacon of social egalitarianism and cultural universalism. A sequel to Books, Buildings and Social Engineering (2009), Black's new book takes his fascinating story of the design of British public libraries into the era of architectural modernism.

Inherent Strategies in Library Management describes general and specific strategies for libraries based on core library values, and does so through concrete research. Many strategic management books for libraries introduce concepts of business management to the library world, but often neglect traditional library culture and core values. This book reexamines management through the lens of libraries themselves, rather than relying on strategies borrowed from the business world, in an attempt to bring to light the factors and decision-making processes behind how librarians have run their libraries over the past fifty decades. In other words, their decisions can be regarded as inherent management, born naturally from the core foundations, considerations, and operations of libraries. In addition, this book investigates the broad influences of business management theories on libraries, including a discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of their use. Presents management strategies for libraries based on core library values Provides detailed analysis on the effects of business management theories on libraries Lays down the fundamental rules for managing libraries Explains various management analysis methods Bridges the gap between library core values and business efficiency