Imagine Your Library's Future: Scenario Planning for Libraries and information Organisations (Chandos Information Professional Series) - Softcover

O’Connor, Steve; Sidorko, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843346001 ISBN 13: 9781843346005

Publisher: Chandos Publishing, 2010

Synopsis

In this information age it is widely recognised that, in order to maintain relevance and to gain a competitive edge, libraries and other organisations in the business of information must continuously assess their roles, collections, services and perhaps most importantly, their business practices. Scenarios are a way of predicting and describing a future three to five years away while strongly engaging one’s community in choosing the future which is preferable. The horizon in which assessments about future roles change is growing shorter and shorter. While it is almost clichéd to state that change is the only constant, differing scenarios of what libraries might be allow all of us to contemplate futures we might otherwise not allow. Drawing on extensive experience in libraries in different parts of the globe, the authors provide a rich analysis of planning, managing and implementing change in information organisations through scenario planning. Through extensive practical applications, both actual and theoretical, the authors provide a strong background understanding and direct the reader through a planning process that is both readily applicable and innovative for all information organisations, irrespective of their size or client base.

• Extensive exploration of what it means to ‘shape our futures’ rather than having our future shaped for us
• Valuable techniques for understanding futures and creating different scenarios
• Practical applications are illustrated through examples and real life experience

About this title

About the Authors

Steve O’Connor is a University Librarian in Hong Kong. He has also been the CEO of a Library consortium and worked as a consultant and trainer extensively in different parts of the world, including the United States and the United Kingdom. He has written and talked extensively on issues relating to libraries, librarians and how they can not only survive but should thrive and position themselves for the benefit of their communities. He is currently working at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is also the Editor of Library Management and created Library Management China (in Chinese).

Peter Sidorko is the Deputy University Librarian at the University of Hong Kong. He has extensive senior management experience in academic libraries in Australia and Hong Kong. In addition to initiating, directing and managing change, from incremental to transformational, in the libraries in which he has worked, Peter has also provided consultancies on organisational change for other libraries. He has written extensively, and speaks regularly, on management issues in libraries with particular emphasis on organisational change. Peter also lectures on topics such as organisational change, contemporary library management, information in organisations and information policy in the information science courses taught at the University of Hong Kong.

Edition details

• Publisher: Chandos Publishing
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843346001
• ISBN 13: 9781843346005
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240