Managing the Electronic Library: A Practical Guide for Information Professionals

Citation

James, S. (1999), "Managing the Electronic Library: A Practical Guide for Information Professionals", Library Review, Vol. 48 No. 8, pp. 413-424. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1999.48.8.413.10

My only quibble with this valuable book is its title, which really ought to carry the words “university” or “higher education”; other types of library (including major special libraries, quite apart from public libraries) are notable only by their complete absence. While that reflects the fact that many major advances towards the electronic library have taken place in the UK higher education community, it does also ignore potentially valuable case studies from elsewhere. In fact it seems likely that the contents were written and put together too early to be able to include, or refer to, the New Library: The People’s Network report, the National Grid for Learning, or Project Earl. Lifelong learning is mentioned, but only in a higher education context, thereby making implicitly a very dangerous assumption: there is no certainty that higher education libraries will have a major role in many lifelong learning initiatives, or any role at all in some key ones. Competiton (or collaboration) will come not only from the public library sector but, more significantly, from private providers of education and training.

That said, what we have here is a completely authoritative and largely comprehensive review of the state of the art in electronic library developments in UK higher education, obviously much affected by, but not relying solely on, E‐lib projects. A total of 38 contributions, each of useful length to allow adequate detail and discussion, cover the whole field of development to date: campus‐level management issues, managing change, resourcing and budgeting, management information, managing the just‐in‐time library, managing reference and information services, managing user education and training, managing technical services, managing library systems and technical support, managing specific electronic services. The constant repetition of the word “managing” in the section headings has its own relevance, both to the modern higher education library and to this collection. All except the last two sections (“Managing specific electronic services” and “General case studies”) comprise overview papers and up to three case studies each; Section 5, Management Information, comprises an overview paper only. All is preceded by a general overview introduction by Marilyn Deegan.

The overview papers are written by acknowledged experts (Lynne Brindley, Derek Law, Joan Day and Catherine Edwards, Tom Graham, Peter Brophy, John Blagden, Terry Hanson, Margaret Watson, Will Wakeling and Robin Yeates) and the case studies by those responsible for the projects or services discussed from a wide cross‐section of university libraries, old and new. There are too many to detail in a review and it would be invidious to pick out individual papers from a collection of such wide ranging and consistent value. But all the obvious candidates are included (I had thought of introducing this review with “arrest the usual suspects”), and some refreshingly less obvious. Without exception both overviews and case studies are full of practical comment.

If I have commented on the lack of other categories of library included, I also note the traditional approach to the nature of the university. Distance learning and open learning are mentioned, but not developed as concepts with a significant bearing on the electronic library, nor is the concept of the community university discussed. Cross‐sectoral collaboration hardly features either. But this book sets out to discuss the management issues of the electronic library in a particular (UK higher education) context, and does that thoroughly, clearly and authoritatively. It is an unrivalled statement of the nature of the electronic library in UK university libraries to date. For its combination of managerial approach and practical advice and examples, it is outstanding, and well succeeds in showing what libraries have to cope with, and how they are managing to cope, in constantly changing circumstances. This will also prove of value to librarians not in the university sector who wish (need) to learn from examples of success (and failure) in higher education libraries.