Rediscovering public library management

Abstract

Current changes in the structure and style of local government have been greatly influenced by the policies of the Thatcher and Major administrations. In addition, many ideas have been imported from the United States. As a result, the users of public services are treated in much the same way as the customers of private business and staff are encouraged to adopt commercial role models. Such attitudes when put into practice can present a challenge to the established public service ethic. This book examines the appropriateness of such techniques to the delivery of public library services and challenges the conventional wisdoms of the new managerialism. The text makes use of research data, the perceptions of library professionals and a wide range of ideas to ask What is the bottom line when there is no bottom line? and How do we put the public back into public library management?.

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