Annotated List of Books and Articles
Gothberg, H. (1991). Time Management in Public Libraries: A Study of Public Libraries. Public Libraries, 30(6), 350–377.
The author of this article discusses various procedures, established in public libraries. This study shows how public administrators can make the work of public libraries more time-efficient.
Kinnell, M., & MacDougall, J. (1992). Marketing Public Library Services – Opportunities For Change. Library Management, 13(4), 22–32.
This study explains the role of the marketing strategies in public libraries. Furthermore, it shows how the administrators of these organizations can make their services more attractive to the readers.
Nichols, J. (2005). PILOT payments: a potential revenue source for public libraries. The Bottom Line, 18(4), 163–166.
In this article Jerry Nichols identifies the sources of revenue for public libraries. He also proposes strategies which can make public libraries more independent of government funding.
Nitecki, D. (1996). Changing the concept and measure of service quality in academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 181–190.
The key argument, advanced by Danuta Nitecki, is that public libraries should pay more attention to the assessment of service quality. The scholar believes that the library administrators should look at this problem from readers’ point of view since this is the best way of identifying the defects in the organizational structure.
Mullins, J., & Linehan, M. (2006). Are public libraries led or managed? Library Review, 55(3), 237–248.
The authors of this article discuss the common difficulties, faced by modern public libraries. In particular, they focus on lack of motivation and leadership skills, slow decision-making, and poor teamwork; moreover, the researchers attempt to uncover the underlying cause of these difficulties.
Park, C. (2005). Harris County Public Library: Creating a design paradigm for twenty-first century libraries. The Bottom Line, 18(4), 167–174.
Catherine Park proposes a model which can make public more oriented to the needs of readers. Furthermore, the author shows how time management in these institutions can be improved.
Proctor, R., & Simmons, S. (2000). Public library closures: The management of hard decisions. Library Management, 25–30.
This article explains how the reasons why many public libraries are closed by the government. The scholars argue that in many cases, they can be explained by poor quality of services and subsequent refusal of readers to use the services of this organization.
Usherwood, R. C. (2007). Professional values in a bureaucratic structure. Library Review, 666–673.
Robert Usherwood discusses the impact of bureaucratic culture of the professional skills of a librarian. He believes that it does not promote the improvement of library services and slows down the functioning of such institutions.
Ward, R. (2007). The outsourcing of public library management: An analysis of the application of new public management theories from the principal-agent perspective. Administration & Society, 38(6), 627–635.
This study shows how modern management theories can be applied in the context of a public library. The author of this article tries to map out strategies that can make public libraries more self-sufficient.
White, N. (2009). Customer acquisition costs: The costs of growing business in public libraries. The Bottom Line, 22(3), 69–75.
This article explains how the library can attract new customers and shows the administrators can reduce the cost of customer acquisition.
Annotated List of Websites
Library Philosophy and Practice. (2010). Community information services through public libraries in Bangladesh: Problems and proposals. Web.
This website is beneficial to that extent that it provides references to numerous studies, examining the management of both public and academic libraries. This information can greatly assist those students, who want to learn more about the structure of this organizations and their common difficulties.
Public Library Association. (2010). The Official Website.
This website provides information about the innovations in the field of library management. It is oriented toward the needs of professional librarians who want to bring their knowledge up-to-date and improve their professional skills.