Developing an IT Strategy for Your Library

Citation

Muirhead, G. (1998), "Developing an IT Strategy for Your Library", Library Review, Vol. 47 No. 1, pp. 61-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1998.47.1.61.22

It is not overstating things to say that developing an IT strategy is one of the most important tasks for the senior management of any library and information service. IT systems now form the foundation for most front‐line services as well as for the administrative and management functions. There are huge direct and indirect costs associated with acquiring, running and replacing IT systems. It would be irresponsible to allow IT to develop in an ad hoc and unco‐ordinated way, as has often happened in the past. There is a sense, therefore, in which this was a book waiting to be written. It fills an enormous gap, and I am pleased to see a library manager from the public sector providing us with a lead here (the author, Alec Gallimore, is Central Library Manager for Manchester City Council’s Libraries and Theatres Department). In fact, Gallimore’s local government background may well be one of the reasons why he has dealt with this important subject so well.

In terms of structure and presentation, the book is logical and clear. Chapters 1 and 2 begin in fairly general terms by reiterating the importance of IT in libraries, the need for an IT strategy, and the benefits that such a strategy brings. These chapters also provide a useful review of current initiatives to produce IT strategies in a range of organisations regionally, nationally, and internationally. Chapter 3 gives a basic outline of the strategy process, and subsequent chapters expand on the stages of this process in detail ‐ the aims and scope of the strategy, the internal audit, the external context, the physical infrastructure, policy and management considerations, implementing the strategy, and developing procedures to monitor and review the outcomes. In the final chapter, which deals with the future of IT and libraries, Gallimore sensibly avoids predictions, but underlines the need to be aware of trends and adaptable to change.

The text is divided into short sections with clear headings and bulleted lists, so it could easily be scanned or read at speed. However, there is very little superfluous material or padding in the book and a more detailed read would certainly pay dividends. Experience is a good teacher, and the author’s practical involvement in IT is stamped on almost every page: the margins of my review copy of the book are marked throughout with pencilled ticks of agreement and recognition. The principal message of the book is that an IT strategy “must be seamlessly linked to the overall strategic aims of the library service” and the parent organisation. Gallimore stresses the value of an IT strategy document not just as an outline of future intentions but as a working document, and, importantly, his model is a dynamic one in which the IT strategy is not a one‐off exercise but an evolutionary process.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice asks the Cheshire Cat: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?”. “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to”, replies the cat. An IT strategy is a vital component in moving an organisation forward in a meaningful direction. I would strongly recommend this book to library managers about to produce an IS/IT strategy or information strategy for the first time and to those in the process of reviewing an existing document.