Managing Suppliers and Partners for the Academic Library

Citation

Calvert, P. (2005), "Managing Suppliers and Partners for the Academic Library", Online Information Review, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 439-439. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520510618009

Library management has come on apace over the last few decades. Whereas we used to refer to the “chief librarian”, we are now accustomed to saying “the library manager”. It is simply a reflection of the very different roles now being expected of senior library staff, and in the rapid increase in the managerial functions that they perform. I would observe that many elements of library management have improved enormously – planning, budgeting, HRM, and so on, are all well understood. One aspect of library management that still seems underdeveloped is the management of outsourcing, and of library partners. The trend towards working with other organizations seems unstoppable in what Castells has called the “Internet galaxy”, so library managers should no longer ignore this aspect of their work, or their libraries will suffer as a result.

That is why David Ball's book is so useful. It does not just make the point that library managers must acquire new skills in this area; the book is full of detailed examples of just how to go about it. Ball's focus is on the acquisition of materials and changes in the publication supply chain. In some cases he describes outsourcing of the selection of publications; and in some the whole selection, cataloguing and processing of materials. When dealing with journals, he firmly puts the open source argument into its place as a nice idea that probably will not go far. He then focuses on the rapid change in periodical purchase and access. Usually libraries now deal with aggregators rather than traditional suppliers; hence the methods used to select the companies we deal with, the ways we work with them, and the measures we use to evaluate their performance have all changed. Ball provides a great deal of useful information on this new development in library management, right down to suggestions for forms to use in evaluation.

Most of Ball's examples describe changes in materials acquisition, and this is an essential aspect of library work that warrants attention. I would have liked to see more on managing outsourcing ITC services in the library – but this is perhaps a topic for another book?

It has to be said that this publication gives heavy emphasis to the situation in the UK. Some of the chapters are so densely packed with British acronyms and organizations that readers from outside the UK may wonder at the relevance of it all. Indeed, it takes some effort to untangle the principles from the detail, but it is worth it. The book has a decent bibliography and acceptable index. I recommend it to all UK library managers, to library managers outside the UK who recognize the need to manage outsourcing, and also to LIS lecturers who are teaching management or electronic publishing.