Digital dilemmas & solutions for today's libraries

Paperback  200pp  ISBN 1843340399      £39.00

Hardback  200pp  ISBN 1843340402      £55.00

Librarians face daunting challenges posed by recent trends in technology, publishing and education as the impact of a globalising information economy forces a rethink of both library strategic directions and everyday library operations. This book brings together the current main issues and dilemmas facing libraries; the book clearly shows how to deal with them, and provides a best-practice guide to solutions based on the most up-to-date thinking.

Key Features

• Provides analysis of recent trends and relevant and viable solutions to problems facing all librarians
• Draws on the author's international and practical experience in libraries

Readership

The book will be useful for: staff at all managerial and supervisory levels within library and information services; students and staff in library/information studies courses (undergraduate and postgraduate); educationalists; publishers; and all people interested in recent information and digital trends.

Contents

The impact on libraries of a globalising information economy - trends in technology, publishing, and education; changes in the form and delivery of information; changes in the nature of library operations

The information game - how to locate, acquire, present and manage information in the Internet age; how to manage print versus electronic formats; access versus ownership: resolving the dilemma in the short and long term

Digital presentation and preservation - how best to apply digital technologies in library operations; how best to make available e-information: text, data-sets, and audiovisual; digital preservation: advantages and disadvantages; publish or perish?; a guide to digital publishing for the librarian

User perspectives - attracting users to the library: physically and virtually; how best to teach users to exploit and evaluate the new library; what reference and technical services users now want and how to provide them

Financial constrains and solutions - escalating material budgets: digital solutions and illusions; staff and overhead costs: using digital applications for win-win solutions; cooperation versus competition

Professional and workplace challenges - coping with constant change; the technical and reference divide in the digital age; avoiding information overkill; balancing specialist and generalist skills among librarians

Resolving ethical and legal dilemmas To find similar publications, click on a keyword below:
Chandos Publishing (Oxford) : Summer 2004 : business & management