To meet the challenges of societal change, technological development, and economic retrenchment, libraries must develop problem-solving strategies such as marketing which can help libraries serve their clients more effectively. Marketing components are presented in the context of a customer orientation. (AEF)

Expanded resource sharing will be a feature of twenty-first century libraries. Discusses and illustrates, with reference to OhioLINK, steps to expanding resource sharing: joining a consortium, integrating intellectual access (catalogs and circulation), providing for physical and electronic delivery of materials, and integrating the collection…

Proposes a new transitional budget model to help make libraries adept at and comfortable with change during the transition to an increasingly electronic knowledge environment, emphasizing staff education and training, new service opportunities, user responsiveness, teamwork, fiscal empowerment, and more effective management systems. (Contains nine…

A library director and a university professor of English, who has also served as acting director of the library, engage in a dialogue about the role of the interim or acting director. Although they bring quite different perspectives to the discussion, they agree on the fundamental role and responsibilities of the interim director. (Author)

Discusses issues of quality in public libraries in light of changes in services resulting from social and economic changes. Highlights include quality strategies, the customer service revolution, anticipating new markets, defining library values and missions, information technology, training staff for the future, funding, partnerships, and…

Discusses advancements in information technology and their impact on library services and library management. Highlights include the relationship of libraries and computer centers; online catalogs; organizational changes; planning strategies; document delivery services; the use of CD-ROM; problems with adopting new technologies; and possible…

Libraries need to adapt their systems for the collection, preservation, organization, and distribution of information to take advantage of new technology and communication tools. Libraries that successfully adapt these systems will become a more central institution in the community served. (AEF)

Selection of electronic resources--CD-ROMs, dial access databases, electronic journals, and World Wide Web products--requires a more extensive set of criteria than do print resources. Discusses two factors influencing collection development of electronic products: technology options and licensing issues, and outlines how traditional selection…

For libraries to succeed, a clear understanding of what services are in demand is necessary. The SWOT analysis technique for evaluating an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is examined, and barriers to effective diagnosis are discussed. (AEF)

Discusses radically transformed library organizations and the characteristics of the library leaders who will create them. The development of posthierarchical libraries, reasons for reeingineering traditional libraries, characteristics and roles of posthierarchical library leaders, critical leadership strategies, and impediments to transforming…

Considers strategies for the implementation of quality improvement in libraries. Highlights include structured quality improvement, especially Total Quality Management; organizational change; customer focus; continuous improvement; data-based decision making; systems thinking; employee involvement in decision making; diffusion of innovation;…