Library Manual: : A Practical Approach to Management (2nd rev. ed.)

Citation

Satija, M.P. (1999), "Library Manual: : A Practical Approach to Management (2nd rev. ed.)", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 9, pp. 365-365. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.9.365.11

First published in 1996, this new edition reprints current government documents relevant to management and includes an additional chapter on the Internet besides those already contributed on library automation and the Internet.

It is a manual of procedures for running a small library. There are 13 chapters in all, including an eleventh chapter consisting solely of “seven important documents regarding librarians and libraries”, without comment, from government ministries and commissions in India. The documents cover pay, qualifications, promotion rules, recruitment procedures, stock verification rules applicable to government libraries, etc.

The remainder of the book is devoted to internal organisation, staff nomenclature and duties, sources of book selection, ordering procedures, processing of acquired material for shelving and circulation. A chapter on non‐book materials, their sources and handling, is quite useful for Indian librarians. There is a separate chapter on procedures and problems of serials management. Chapters on binding and the preservation of reading materials suggest solutions to common problems faced in Indian libraries. The chapter on library automation provides an overview of automation procedures and provides tips for selecting library software. Nirmal Jain’s chapter on the Internet has been written from viewpoint of its usefulness in libraries. Shanker Singh’s chapter on the Internet, though repetitive, is a lucid and concise explanation of its structure, functions and services.

The book is indeed a how‐to‐do‐it manual, profusely illustrated with administrative notes, letter specimens, model rules and diagrams. Penned by an experienced library manager steeped in library routines and procedures, the book is purely practical. This manual is highly recommended to new librarians, untrained library managers and to library science students in India. The book deserves to be translated into Hindi and other Indian languages in order to reach a wider audience.