The Small Library Manager’s Handbook

Citation

Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam (2015), "The Small Library Manager’s Handbook", Library Review, Vol. 64 No. 6/7, pp. 509-510. https://doi.org/10.1108/LR-04-2015-0035

Small libraries, and the professionals who staff them, are frequently hidden from public view in city skyscrapers, industrial parks, museum basements, and courthouse nooks. Often their public access is limited. Small libraries and the librarians who run them may be hidden, but it is those very professionals who are responsible for keeping their libraries alive, relevant, and critical to the larger organization (p. 1).

So says editor Alice Graves, who in this book has collected expertise, experience and knowledge of librarians working in small academic, public and special libraries. The book deals with managerial topics, collection management and cataloguing, marketing, reference services, and best practices generally for how a small library can be more properly run.

The handbook includes 28 chapters distributed under five foundational parts, written by more than 30 contributors. Part I, Administration (seven chapters), with a relatively comprehensive eye on many factors affecting good governance of the library, covers various administrative issues: management, leadership, staff (human resources), work and time management, planning, communication (cf. Hull, 2011), space and rebuilding a neglected library; attention to these can help managers and librarians govern their libraries more successfully. Part II, Finance and budgeting (two chapters), discusses how to cope with declining budgets through developing fund-raising plans, as well as grant proposals, as a step towards alleviating economic pressures.

Part III, Cataloguing and managing the collection (ten chapters), focuses on acquisition, collection development, maintenance, electronic resources, integrated library systems (ILS), cataloguing in theory and practice, inter-library loan and weeding. Part IV, Marketing and outreach (six chapters), examines various strategies on how such libraries can have better performance. These include “building” library advocates, subscribing to scientific databases, developing higher quality services and building relationships within the wider organization. Finally, Part V, Using technology (three chapters) concentrating on the virtual library, technological best practices, and library websites, is a response to the all-inclusive penetration of emerging information and communications technologies (ICTs) into library work which does influence the triangle of “information resources”, “information users” and “library and information services”.

Overall, this well-written, easy-to-read and educational handbook provides a logical sequence. It is a valuable addition to the related literature and the real world of managing small libraries. In my opinion, “The small library manager’s handbook” is in line with Deming’s saying, “It’s not enough to do your best, you must know how to do your best” in the context of Library and Information Science. Everyone who is interested in devoting energy to how a win-win outcome for small libraries and their parent organizations can be reached is invited to read it.