Creating the Agile Library: : A Management Guide for Librarians

Citation

Higgins, S.E. (1999), "Creating the Agile Library: : A Management Guide for Librarians", Asian Libraries, Vol. 8 No. 11, pp. 436-438. https://doi.org/10.1108/al.1999.8.11.436.3

In the preface of this work the editors state that use of technology has produced a paradigm shift in academia. Curricular structure change, remote access change and instructional delivery change have all caused solemn debate regarding the role of teaching in the future. These shifts indicate the need to restructure higher education. Walt Crawford and Michael Gorman believe that in the future the library will remain central to human society. They see that the values of service so inculcated in librarianship are timeless ones. The premise is thus put forth that the traditional values and mission of academic libraries should be the basis for meeting the paradigm shift head on. User‐centred services themselves are not enough, although they continue to be central. Today’s academic library must enable creativity and free enterprise to take place within and without the walls of the building. It must create an environment supportive of individuality and “risk taking”. This is where the tools of technology can find powerful interpretation and result in providing the user with a positive experience.

Each chapter of this highly scholarly work features references as well as an annotated bibliography that adds very useful dimensions for application of the ideas put forth. In Chapter 1 Fred Heath introduces the concept of the agile organisation and how this concept grew out of the decline of American industry. In Chapter 2 Rebecca Martin proposes several steps for managers contemplating transition in their own jobs or those they supervise. New roles for leaders, greater empowerment for staff and altered organisational structures will be indicative of such transition. Lusher gives a model of a topological technology map and charts a basic information technology infrastructure in Chapter 3. This map can greatly assist a library plan for hardware allocation and provides a multilayered view of the library’s technology infrastucture.

Chapter 4, by Foster and Bell, presents case studies which examine solutions to information delivery problems. A critical information technology decision for positioning the future library is how to delivery information wirelessly. The authors advise on how to make technology decisions through evaluating comparable technologies. The bibliography provided here gives the reader a selective overview of management issues and practical applications of wireless data communications. The emerging virtual library requires novel thinking, and some of the aspects that transcend such an environment are user‐centred outcome measures. Thomas Peters explains some possible ways in which to measure the benefits of the virtual library in Chapter 5. “The liberating aspects of a fully computerized, networked and hypertexted information environment” are discussed. In the final chapter, Lorraine Haricombe defines the way in which higher education institutions are accommodating older, non‐traditional students, many of whom are unfamiliar with information technology tools. The importance of the library’s centrality in creating support structures for distance education is seen in the light of a personalised economy. The significance and relevance of new learning communities and new learning environments is emphasised.

Creating the Agile Library deserves first place in the professional literature of academic librarianship. It has value both in theoretical and practical implications for management and technology, and would be an asset to information studies educators as well as interdisciplinary scholars. The selection is an uplifting one and defines the challenges of today’s academic libraries in a holistic and “liberating” manner.