Managing 21st Century Libraries

Citation

Smith, K. (2008), "Managing 21st Century Libraries", Library Management, Vol. 29 No. 8/9, pp. 804-805. https://doi.org/10.1108/01435120810917495

Pugh is of the view that there needs to be a revolution in the ways in which libraries are managed. He is probably right though it would not surprise me if there are a number of senior library managers trying out some of the concepts he suggests. It is well recorded that libraries are mostly managed as bureaucracies. The types of technical services that have to be undertaken, particularly in larger libraries, lend themselves to this approach. Pugh acknowledges this as a reliance on precedents of the past and extols library managers to bring their organizations into the twenty‐fist century. His own research and published articles support his thinking.

What is the way forward? It seems to me that Pugh's suggestions contain considerable common sense. For those libraries that are now heavily under the influence of the electronic domain, there is room to be experimental in library management practices. Pugh sees this as an opportunity to create circumstances in which employees can use their talents to the full. Today's libraries are more complex and require a variety of management techniques to make them work successfully. Our libraries need to move away from existing structures and at the same time avoid the pressures of technological determinism which distorts the role of those who are not technologists. His view, and one not shared by me, is that because of the influx on “non‐information service professionals…(i)t can no longer be said that librarianship is based on a discrete set of skills and a distinctive body of knowledge and expertise – if indeed it was ever conclusively so” (p. 17). If I had not been caught up in a professional debate on this exact issue when I read Pugh's book, I might have overlooked this statement, particularly as the author acknowledges the continued need for the “conventional skills” of librarians and that new employee talents and strengths should be looked upon as opportunities and not threats (p. 17). However, he does later acknowledge that there is still debate regarding the level and balance of traditional library skills and technological emphasis.

While it might be “deceptively easy…to specify the skills needed to make today's libraries work” (p. 77) the author advises that in practice this is a complicated task.

As we read in the general management literature, issues of uncertainty and unpredictability should be greeted as challenges. Pugh gathers relevant components of today's management thinking and adapts them to suit the library he sees emerging today. Leadership rates a chapter on its own as does the concept, played out in the financial sector where there has been a shift to anti‐managerialism, of the “player manager”. Interestingly, the characteristics belonging to such a manager reminded me of my time – some time ago – as a special librarian: agility and adaptability; flexibility, multitalented, multifaceted, and others. Presumably, time for some managers has not moved so quickly. This is Pugh's preferred managerial model.

This is a useful book for those library managers who wish to emerge from practices of the past. For those who are willing to take the managerial plunge, it offers useful situations that can be identified and acted upon.