Publisher's Synopsis
Technologically driven change has had a significant impact on the field of library and information science during the past two decades. Strategies for responding to general shifts in information use have been reflected in all types of library settings. Academic libraries, for example, have developed a variety of new services alongside their users changing ways of interacting with information. The implementation of an information commons has many implications for the general management of the library. The new entity has to fit within both the existing internal and external environments of the library. Such concerns as budgets, arrangement of space, marketing, and equipment acquisition are often handled in conjunction with other university departments involved in the project, but one internal managerial concern is at the very heart of the library itself: Human Resources. The information profession is a service industry, and it cannot function without staff to manage information and serve the consumers of that information. Therefore, a successful information commons is dependent on the staff that implements and carries out the service. The creation of an information commons, then, requires a variety of decisions in the management of human resources. This book contains issues in human resource management and development and a variety of ideas and practices for developing staff at all levels in libraries. This text will prove to be an essential reference book for library science and allied disciplines. -
