The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries

Citation

Maloney, J. (2006), "The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries", Library Management, Vol. 27 No. 9, pp. 653-653. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120610715545

This book provides an excellent guide for one person librarians, to useful resources and areas for action, as well as alerts to broader issues in professional development.

In the work style that defines the OPL, this sourcebook covers it all. Part 1, includes a great deal of information that is both useful for the management of our libraries and of professional interest to the one person librarian, as well as to others in the library and information profession. Part 2, edited by John Welford, offers a guide to resources, including web sites, books and organisations arranged in useful subject listings.

Chapter one sets out who we are, our libraries and our qualities, values and skills, picking up on trends and new positions for information professionals in technology and research in the “OPL renaissance” (xxiii), and as “infopreneurs” (p. 21). The author offers examples of the creative solutions one person librarians need to use not just to meet the challenge of working as a solo, but also because the positions of many OPLs are created due to downsizing in their organisations.

The following chapters are full of discovery, of good ideas and suggestions for action to take in work activities and library management areas, such as budgeting, planning, and marketing, and are offered with a great deal of encouragement for flexible, proactive and problem‐solving approaches. In reading the section on collection development policy (p. 123), it was almost as though the author was there with me saying, “this is a good time to write down those intuitive guidelines you've been operating under”. And it became easy to do just that. I have come to value this sourcebook as colleague and sounding board, adviser and alert!

The resource section of the book does not seek to be exhaustive. The subject arrangement directs the reader to very useful resources from across the globe. All the web references were confirmed to be active sites in early 2006, but in the very practical style of this sourcebook, the author reminds us that if you find a site that is no longer active, you'll now know to go looking for a similar site.

The new OPL sourcebook is a welcome addition to the literature that helps to fill the gaps of professional peers to network with, and to share ideas and vision.