Managing Change: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians.

Abstract

Susan Curzon, dean of the University Library at California State University, Northridge, has written Managing Change: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians. Curzon also has experience in both public and corporate libraries. She has written a book to assist library managers in becoming more skilled at successfully managing the constantly changing environment in which they must work. In the foreword, Michael Gorman says: “Almost all library administrators reach their position because they are good at something other than administration. Very few become administrators when near in time to any academic training (in a LIS school or elsewhere) in the arts of administration …Given that environment and the librarian's natural tendency to seek knowledge and information in texts, what could be a bigger boon than a book such as this?” (p. vii). This revised edition of the 1989 Managing Change: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Change in Libraries [1] is divided into two sections. “Part I: Managing Change Successfully” contains nine chapters on the change process with a tenth chapter summarizing the fifteen key points of successful change management. The new “Part II: Practicing Change Management” provides fifteen change scenarios. A chart located in the front of the book summarizes the process of managing change and lists the chapters and numbered steps contained therein. The first nine chapters in part I include topics such as: “How to Conceptualize Change,” “How to Prepare the Organization for Change,” “How to Plan the Change,” “How to Implement the Change,” and “How to Evaluate the Change.” Each chapter contains a short introduction to the purpose of that chapter and is then organized in a series of numbered steps in a question-and-answer format. The questions ask if a certain thing has happened or has been done. A short conclusion summarizes the concepts in that chapter. A Quick Check section follows each chapter. These sections again list the steps from the chapter, along with questions that can be asked by a library manager about each step to ensure that the recommended process has been followed correctly and in its entirety. The chapters in part II vary from “Adjusting to the Budget Cut” to “Removing the Homeless from the Doorway.” Each chapter's scenario also contains an assignment and questions to guide its use as a practice case. The writing is clear, concise, and amazingly free of the dense text and management jargon that often seems to plague more theoretical cousins of this book [2]. It is also presented in a far more useful and generic format than the typical “how-we-done-it-good” article or monograph [3]. While some of the scenarios may appear to be less than useful in specific types of libraries, they are meant for practice and not as an exhaustive source of advice on handling every conceivable problem a library manager might face. One argument against recommending purchase of the book is that it does not specifically address health sciences libraries. However, the concepts of change management are generally independent of the physical environment, so that should not be a factor in deciding whether to acquire it. For those without a copy of the previous edition, Managing Change: A How-To-Do-It Manual for Librarians would be equally valuable as an addition to a library and information science (LIS) program's collection or to any self-improvement-minded library administrator's personal collection. This recommendation is made despite Gorman's statement above on temporal distance from administrative training and the somewhat high price for a relatively slim volume.

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