Mergers and Alliances: The Wider View; The Operational View and Cases (Advances in Librarianship, Volumes 36 and 37)

Citation

Alireza Isfandyari-Moghaddam (2015), "Mergers and Alliances: The Wider View; The Operational View and Cases (Advances in Librarianship, Volumes 36 and 37)", Library Review, Vol. 64 No. 3, pp. 264-265. https://doi.org/10.1108/LR-01-2015-0003

Despite the wide-ranging developments and advancements in the world of librarianship during the past years, the titanic challenges and big problems still surrounding various aspects of it are undeniable, including economic pressures, lack of human resources and good infrastructures, ever-changing conditions, managers and companies that prefer to work in isolation and so on. Big problems need big solutions. One of the strategic solutions to alleviating such challenges and so turning threats into opportunities is mergers and collaborations. These two books in the series “Advances in Librarianship” (Volumes 36 and 37) are a good response to the current situation the science and profession of librarianship are experiencing.

In the context of globalization, economic integration and digital revolution, Volume 36 (10 chapters contributed by more than 20 authors) justifies the need for the partnerships, collaboration, synergies and mergers in the for-profit sector and thus explains the need for similar efforts for information and library centres. Taking a global view of collaborative initiatives, plans and attempts undertaken to manage new environments affecting librarianship, the book presents lessons revolving primarily around information technology management; user education programmes; the potential of the new digital environment for learning, teaching and research; library consortia; international and inter-institutional collaboration for MLIS programmes; restructuring academic libraries and their services; and information delivery services.

Its companion, Volume 37 (12 chapters contributed by more than 20 authors), provides readers with cases that show how different intra- and inter-agency alliances as well as mergers can improve the situation for libraries and information centres. Theoretical and practical topics are presented in the first part: “Collaborations”. They include a college and community collaborative venture to preserve the important facets of Oregon’s history; community engagement through public libraries as a community space; building an image database via a cross-campus collaboration between the School of Art and the Department of Classics at the University of Georgia; the role of academic libraries in providing services to a master’s degree programme in public health, inter-institutionally performed among three American universities; different aspects of Collaborative Virtual Reference Services (CVRS) as reflected in the literature; implementing a boutique services model which has built a relationship between the Policy Sciences & Economics Library of Texas A&M University and its customers; and reinventing academic libraries services and spaces to collaboratively involve in creating a unique integrated service point for their audience. The second part, “Mergers”, deals with the implementation of a “one desk” model, merging the circulation and reference desks at a large academic library as a way to utilize library staff more efficiently and effectively; designing shared services between the National Library of Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland; merging two academic libraries at Utah State in the form of one working library; joint academic libraries in Finland; and the feasibility of establishing a consortium for the sharing of electronic resources in Jamaica.

These well-structured volumes are informative and inspiring. In addition to including different types of original, literature review, case study and conceptual papers written about different quantitative and qualitative research methods, the main theme of them is admirable. From what I have understood from the chronicles concerning the win-win decision-makings, intra- and inter-organization collaboration strategies and models, approaches that helped various libraries are financially managed, the administrative policies to cope with existing shortcomings and the creative ways of maximizing available resources discussed in these titles, in my opinion, the library and information science society can be theoretically and practically benefitted from reading them.