Academic Library Centrality: User Success Through Service, Access, and Tradition (ACRL Publications in Librarianship)

Analyzes the traditional metaphor of the library as the heart of institutions of higher learning drawing on organizational theory and on interviews with a cohort of leaders in higher education to learn their expectations for the role of the academic library. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portlan

Finding the familiar "heart of the university" metaphor wanting, Grimes focuses on the concept of centrality, as it has been used in organization theory and higher education and applies it to the academic library. She interviewed 12 top nonlibrary administrators at seven universities and developed an extensive list of indicators of library centrality. She concludes that it is primarily through user success that the academic library demonstrates its centrality to the university's mission. She also proposes the "crossroads community" as a new metaphor for the academic library. Grimes's book, based on her doctoral dissertation, is well organized and clearly written. Academic librarians will find the interview responses of particular interest?not only for what university administrators considered important but also for what they did not (e.g., faculty status of librarians).?Thomas F. O'Connor, Manhattan Coll. Libs., Bronx, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.