Developing a Successful Service Plan (The Successful LIS Professional Series)

Brian M. Hall (Senior Lecturer in Library Management, School of Information Studies, University of Central England, Birmingham)

Library Management

ISSN: 0143-5124

Article publication date: 1 February 2001

95

Keywords

Citation

Hall, B.M. (2001), "Developing a Successful Service Plan (The Successful LIS Professional Series)", Library Management, Vol. 22 No. 1/2, pp. 103-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/lm.2001.22.1_2.103.6

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited


One of the most difficult aspects of being a manager, especially in medium to small information units, is finding time to actually manage. The bottom line for all information professionals is inevitably service delivery and few managers find the time to stand back and review what is happening with their service. Good management needs to be worked at consciously. It does not happen by accident but it can be a problem trying to keep in mind all the different features of how a service is to be run and all the different aspects of what being a manager is all about.

This title, the latest in the LA’s splendid Successful LIS Professional Series, is a most useful guide to service planning a business plan for information services. It covers all the key areas that need to be thought about, planned and initiated. From the range of services to be provided, to publications acquisitions, equipment, costing, publicity and marketing through to monitoring and evaluation, performance measures and so on.

The structure of the contents is very logical and helpful with checklists of key points representing an eminently common sense approach to management. It also contains a good bibliography arranged chapter by chapter, a most helpful service plan template, and a useful glossary.

For busy managers this guide should prove to be an invaluable aide‐mémoire to all the management issues they should be considering in a systematic way.

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