Contemporary library managers face the need to make difficult choices regarding resource allocation in the modern business environment. How Libraries Make Tough Choices in Difficult Times is a practical guide for library managers, offering techniques to analyze existing and potential services, implement best practices for maximizing existing resources, and utilize pressing financial scenarios in order to justify making difficult reallocation decisions. The book begins by asking the fundamental questions of why, what, and how, moving on to look at how to manage expectations and report to both administration and faculty. The book then considers the four 'D's of Do, Delegate, Delay and Drop, before covering project management, and how to understand the mission and objectives of your organisation. The book then focuses on: service quality improvement analyses; identifying underlying issues; reviewing resources; identifying best practice; managing feedback and expectations; and looking at decision making skills and implications. - Introduces both philosophies and techniques for decision-making that will help inexperienced library managers - Provides resources for a practical orientation to new Service Quality Improvement and Project Management approaches as library managers address a wide range of resource allocation considerations - Written by a highly experienced practitioner in the field

Public libraries are keystone public institutions for any thriving community, and as such can be leaders in making cities better places to work, play, and live. Here, Dudley shows how public libraries can contribute to 'placemaking', or the creation and nurturing of vital and unique communities for their residents.

Ideal for practitioners looking to advance their careers and for use in LIS programs, this "comprehensive overview" (Journal of Access Services) has been thoroughly revised and updated to provide a timely exploration of the characteristics of academic librarianship and its place in the ever-changing environment of higher education. Evans and new coauthor Greenwell guide readers towards understanding what is required to have a successful career in academic librarianship, explaining why academic libraries are distinct from other types of libraries and lending practical insight into their unique political and operational characteristics. The text offers comprehensive coverage of such key issues as teaching faculty roles and the status of the academic librarian;governance and the growing tension on some campuses between faculty and administration;curriculum, with a discussion of the balance between general education requirements and applied courses;the student body;collections, data management, digitization, and metadata;scholarly communication, plus alternative models such as open educational resources (OERs);providing quality service, and the role of user experience (UX) in assessment;ACRL's Information Literacy Framework;funding, including how and where to find detailed higher education expenditure data;classrooms, common learning spaces, and other facilities;staffing and professional development;technology and IT support;career development, with advice on preparing a vita and undergoing a successful interview; andthe future of academic librarianship. This updated edition enables readers to understand how academic libraries deliver information, offer services, and provide learning spaces in new ways to better meet the needs of today's students, faculty, and other communities of academic library users.

Information professionals are under constant stress. Libraries are ushering in sweeping changes that involve the closing of branches and reference desks, wholesale dumping of print, disappearing space, and employment of non-professional staff to fill what have traditionally been the roles of librarians. Increasing workloads, constant interruptions, ceaseless change, continual downsizing, budget cuts, repetitive work, and the pressures of public services have caused burnout in many information professionals.Managing Burnout in the Workplace concentrates on the problem of burnout, what it is and how it differs from chronic stress, low morale, and depression. The book addresses burnout from psychological, legal, and human resources perspectives. Chapters also cover how burnout is defined, symptom recognition, managing and overcoming burnout, and how to avoid career derailment while coping with burnout. - Focuses on burnout in relation to information professionals and their work - Explores how burnout is identified and diagnosed and how it is measured in the workplace - Provides an overview of interdisciplinary research on burnout, incorporating studies from various areas

Strategic planning, collaboration, continual stewardship, best practices, and re-engineering can provide librarians with a toolkit of innovative strategies that meets the worst of economic times with bold, persistent experimentation. This book covers the implications for libraries of a broad range of technological and economic challenges. These challenges include the fallout from the global economic crisis, the positioning of usage statistics, the advent of open access scholarship, database management, responding to budgetary constrictions and general access to serials. Taken as a whole, this collection provides practitioners in the library sector and in higher education with a wide variety of insights on the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities involved with serials collection management in recessionary times, written by academic librarians, vendors, publishers, fundraisers, and higher education professionals. This book was published as a special issue of The Serials Librarian.

Going Digital: Strategies for Access, Preservation, and Conversion of Collections to a Digital Format offers you succinct and analytic views of the problems and benefits of digital resources in the traditional academic library. Library administrators, collection managers, and librarians will learn the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and digital collections and the costs of providing local access or implementing remote access to digital collections. Originally presented at a series of five symposiums sponsored by the Research Libraries Group, the articles inGoing Digital will help you decide upon a cost-effective collection method that will meet the needs of your library, your patrons, and your budget. The chapters in this text are written by the nation’s leading librarians who pose and answer questions about hardware and software needed for digital libraries, the costs involved, establishing and maintaining access to digital collections, copyright concerns, and long-term preservation problems. Going Digital gives you insight into factors that will help you decide what will best meet the goals of your library, such as: the advantages and disadvantages of preserving microfilm and digital conversion choosing the correct hardware and software for your digital preservation program the changes required from librarians when shifting from collection development to digital resources examining the selection process for collections from perspectives of access, public service, technological requirements, and preservation ways to improve access to traditional collections cost comparisons between digital and hard copy resources devising a technical plan for successful digital conversion of projects involving the user’s wants when selecting collections for digital conversion and recognizing the central parts patrons play in the selection process In light of the changing ways we receive and keep our information, Going Digital discusses new collection preservation criteria and suggests that access and informational values, not just deterioration, should be equal factors in selecting materials to be converted to digital form. Proving that digital collections are changing every facet of library operations, Going Digital shows you the most cost-effective way to begin a digital collection and how to choose what materials to digitize in order to provide your patrons with the information they want and need.

Technology has broadened learning opportunities for students in the modern age. No longer limited by proximity and location, learners can utilize online education environments to attain their advanced degrees. Optimizing Open and Distance Learning in Higher Education Institutions is a pivotal reference source for the latest scholarly material on the development of e-learning programs and other technologies in university settings. Highlighting numerous topics such as quality assurance, learning measurement, and skill training, this book is ideally designed for administrators, teachers, academics, researchers, and professionals interested in emerging trends for open and distance education.