Managing Information Services

Library management is concerned with managing collections, people, services, resources, information and finance, but managers also need to work beyond the confines of the library. They need to understand and influence their environment, to respond to the power and politics of a situation, to contribute to strategic direction in arenas related to knowledge management, learning and information, and to promote their own careers. Librarians, archivists, and other information professionals work to collect, organize, preserve, and make accessible information in all formats. As research and scholarship move increasingly into the digital arena, the processes and organizations involved in the publication of this work must evolve as well. The changing landscape of libraries, publishers, and scholarly societies; university views on tenure and digital scholarship; the emerging role of search engines; and the continuing development of information technology have created a need for radical rethinking of the roles of the major players in scholarly communication. We need to understand how users create, discover, and evaluate information, as well as the real and virtual environments in which they do their academic work, in order to plan our scholarly communication and e-publishing strategies for the future. One of the key players in the changing information landscape is the research library and its professional staff. With their deep understanding of how to organize, store, and deliver information, the tools and functionality that add value to digital content, and the changing habits of users, librarians have the potential to play a leading role in moving forward with new models of scholarly communication. Managing Information Services addresses the integration of information services including librarianship, records management and ICT. Essential reading for information students, this book also serves as a comprehensive and detailed reference on the key management topics for information service managers and practitioners. In particular it should prepare them for their first posts as library managers, and alert them to the challenges and rewards of management. Practising library managers will also benefit from revisiting some of the topics covered in the book.