Strategic Management for Today\'s Libraries

Contents: Preface. Introduction to strategic management. I. Trend Analysis: 1. Trends challenging the library: technological, economic, social, political. 2. The future of the public library. 3. The future revisited. II. Political context: 4.  The politics of cooperation. 5. The politics of information. 6. The fortune cookie: socio-political impact of information technology. 7. Washington update. 8. Politics and the public library: a management guide. III. Innovation: 9. Managing innovation. IV. Economic issues: 10. User fees I: The Economic Argument. 11. User Fees II: The library response. V. The impact of technology: 12. Library automation: the next wave. 13. Sex, kids, and the public library. 14. Reference revolutions. 15. Educational programming in the digital era. 16. The Yin and Yang of knowing. VI. Literacy: 17. Libraries, literacy and the future. VII. What "Global" means for libraries: 18. Is there a global for metropolitan city libraries? VIII. The library of Congress: 19. More than a library for Congress: making LC the Nation\'s library. IX. Personal style: 20. Five women. X. Measuring success: Index.

"Libraries do not exist in a vacuum. They are regularly affected by external changes and trends outside of their control. The political climate, demographics, the economic state of the union, and technological change can all affect the library adversely. Or these changes can be seen as challenges and opportunities to move in the right direction - and always forward. How well librarians respond to and manage change will determine the level of success in achieving the library mission.

Strategic management arms librarians with the ability to work proactively with external changes to achieve the library\'s mission. Marilyn Gell Mason outlines the different forces affecting libraries and explains how and why librarians must manage external changes just as they manage internal resources. Among the external factors are:

• Political context.
  
• The impact of technology.
  
• Innovation.
  
• Intellectual freedom.
  
• Economic issues.

Mason then explains how librarians can transform external forces into positive outcomes for the library, their patrons, and themselves. She maintains strategic management can spell the difference between a positive role for libraries in their communities and a library unable to keep up with the forces affecting it." (jacket)