Library effectiveness: the search for a social context

Abstract

The literature of librarianship and information science rarely, if ever, deals with the social and political environment in which libraries oper ate and which shapes the services provided. Society provides the justi fication for libraries' existence and without society there would be no context in which to measure library effectiveness. Uses the example of the prevailing political philosophy in New Zealand to consider the way in which the separation of the client from the contractor makes it desir able for librarians to become part of the political consensus on library effectiveness. Describes a project, car ried out at the behest of the New Zealand Library Association as part of their quest for a set of public library standards incorporating performance measures, which studied performance measures applied to New Zealand public libraries using the Van House and Childers methodology and their multiple constituencies model of organizational effectiveness. Results from 3 groups: librarians; local gov ernment councillors; and users showed great similarities in percep tions of library effectiveness.

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