Though libraries and businesses may differ in their ultimate objectives, libraries can benefit from adapting some business practices to suit their environments. This article…
Abstract
Though libraries and businesses may differ in their ultimate objectives, libraries can benefit from adapting some business practices to suit their environments. This article describes library values which bring uniqueness to the library as an institution, and details ways in which libraries can adopt and benefit from three current business trends: creating organizations in which innovation can flourish, creating organizations that prepare and live by strategic plans, and creating organizations that participate in the national political arena.
The majority of the articles reviewed this time deal with ILL and public libraries in one way or another. The review begins by looking at school libraries and their ability to…
Abstract
The majority of the articles reviewed this time deal with ILL and public libraries in one way or another. The review begins by looking at school libraries and their ability to handle ILL requests satisfactorily amongst themselves and then examines several papers critical of networking in public libraries. There is an argument that public libraries hardly need ILL at all because of the nature of their users and their needs. ILL is an expensive operation and the issue of fees and charges is much debated; the discussion examined here includes the suggestion that users can travel to consult materials and public libraries might ration ILL requests per user including children. The idea of using ILL as a revenue earner, or at least paying for itself, is questioned and a study of commercial document supply services is examined which pays special attention to the performance of the many sources available. A paper on ILL costing almost nothing is criticized as not taking account of all factors. Time, as well as money, is important and a study of supply time to the user shows that more could be done by requesting libraries to speed supply to the end‐user. The impact of network membership on ILL is considered and shows that net borrowers can soon become net lenders and vice‐versa. The reorganization of document supply from the US National Library of Medicine had considerable impact on the use of NLM which is analysed. Finally a note on the political aspects of ILL in southern Africa is noticed as dealing with an issue of potential significance.
Libraries are businesses. Two issues ago, The Bottom Line (TBL) included an article by American Library Association president‐elect Betty Turock, entitled “Three business trends…
Abstract
Libraries are businesses. Two issues ago, The Bottom Line (TBL) included an article by American Library Association president‐elect Betty Turock, entitled “Three business trends that strengthen library operations”. These trends involved: creating organizations in which innovation can flourish, creating organizations which prepare and live by strategic plans, and creating organizations which participate in the national political arena. In her article, Turock asked two critical questions: “How do we position our organizations to thrive, not merely survive?” and “How do we cope with the inevitable barrage of changes that confront us and still keep our organizations viable?”
Some would have us believe that tieing librarians' salaries to teachers' salaries does not help librarians (see Betty Turock's editorial in The Bottom Line 1/1). She contends that…
Abstract
Some would have us believe that tieing librarians' salaries to teachers' salaries does not help librarians (see Betty Turock's editorial in The Bottom Line 1/1). She contends that since both professions are gender‐typed, with salary standards influenced not only by market forces but by the culturally determined patterns of unequal compensation found in occupations where women predominate, we would be better off forgetting teachers' salaries as benchmarks in our salary negotiations.
Barbara Simpson Darden and Betty K. Turock
For over two decades, we have known from melding fertility and immigration data, that the population of the United States would become steadily more diverse. Throughout the 1990s…
Abstract
For over two decades, we have known from melding fertility and immigration data, that the population of the United States would become steadily more diverse. Throughout the 1990s it was reported that one in four persons in the nation was a minority. By the time we entered the new millennium, that figure increased to one in three. Now it is predicted that in the year 2030, the emerging majority of Americans will be people of color. No matter the type of library or information agency, in this century all will face the challenge of providing service to population within the context of an entirely new order of pluralism.
In 1990, when the bill was introduced in Congress to create the National Research and Education Network (NREN), a proposed high‐capacity electronic highway of interconnected…
Abstract
In 1990, when the bill was introduced in Congress to create the National Research and Education Network (NREN), a proposed high‐capacity electronic highway of interconnected networks, linkages for all kinds of libraries were missing. This was hard to understand, since the library community has been assisted and encouraged in its networking efforts by the federal government since 1960.
From July 9–13 in the oppressive heat and humidity of a Washington summer, more than 700 delegates and close to 300 alternates from all over the United States met in Washington…
Abstract
From July 9–13 in the oppressive heat and humidity of a Washington summer, more than 700 delegates and close to 300 alternates from all over the United States met in Washington for the Second White House Conference on Library and Information Services. They filled the quotas set by law—25 percent from the profession, 25 percent from the general public, 25 percent from government, and 25 percent from library supporters. Delegates at‐large offset any imbalance in representation. Occasionally, honorary delegates—like Members of Congress with an interest in libraries—were also seen in the corridors where a good deal of the negotiations were conducted.
A “gloomy career” is how the July 1986 issue of Working Woman describes librarianship, citing it as one of the 10 worst careers for women in 1986. Over 100 years ago, women were…
Abstract
A “gloomy career” is how the July 1986 issue of Working Woman describes librarianship, citing it as one of the 10 worst careers for women in 1986. Over 100 years ago, women were encouraged to enter the library profession as a source of plentiful, educated, cheap labor. Half a century ago, Library Journal first chronicled the issue of competitive salaries. Today, we are still facing the dilemma of how to recruit and retain library professionals given the depressed salaries paid to MLS graduates.
Since the breakup of AT&T, policy debates on the provision of information services—including broadband telecommunications and electronic information—has made news. For librarians…
Abstract
Since the breakup of AT&T, policy debates on the provision of information services—including broadband telecommunications and electronic information—has made news. For librarians, the issues have come closer to home in this decade, as court decisions and pending legislation have put the spotlight on whether regional phone companies should be allowed to supply information services directly. Now librarians are trying to develop a position that would favor library interests.
Q: John, as a representative from the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and as the Chair of the Task Force on Federal‐State Cooperative System…
Abstract
Q: John, as a representative from the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) and as the Chair of the Task Force on Federal‐State Cooperative System for Public Library Data (FSCS), and, Larry, as Coordinator of the Library Statistics Program at the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES), you have both played major roles in the creation of the new national database of up‐to‐date, comparable statistics on public libraries. The idea has been around for a long time. What do you think brought it to fruition now?