Who does the work? Observing library activities

Who does what is a deceptively simple question with which to begin an analysis of library operations. An answering comment on a questionnaire I used recently was that ‘some people seem to do just as they like, and for all an analyst's delight in identifying and labelling systems, sub‐systems, procedures, activities, tasks etcetera and so forth, I suspect basically, in the library context, as in other organizations, many people do more or less just as they like.’ In spite of systems studies, O & M, MbO, PPBS, OD and other snappy or not so snappy acronyms for management anxiety about organizational effectiveness, each newly labelled technique includes hints about the difficulty of actually implementing the recommendations made. There is always the ‘human factor’ that can make or mar the most elegantly designed system.