This compilation of business library management experiences is edited by Tim Wales, head of the London Business School. His stated aims for this volume are to provide a resource for business school library managers, to fill a gap in the literature and to provide a snapshot of the current state of practice. This book meets all three of his goals.
A range of experienced academic librarians who manage business school libraries have supplied the chapters of this book. Both more abstract discussion of the challenges facing these libraries and detailed real-life case studies in library management are provided to the reader. Topics covered in the chapters include issues related to organizational design, the design of physical space, change management, technological challenges, a description of a cross-institutional open archive in France and the challenges related to providing evidence of return on investment to stakeholders of the library.
A weakness of this volume is the predilection of its authors for the heavy use of acronyms. Although a list of abbreviations is provided at the start of the volume, it is not exhaustive and some are missing from the list. By the end of some chapters the reader is forced to wonder why the full terms were not used in the text, as the excessive use of many abbreviations may become a genuine block to comprehension. An additional weakness, as is common in edited books with multiple authors, is that there is some variation in the quality and potential usefulness of the chapters.
Although this book was developed for a very narrow audience, the case studies and the discussion of the issues facing the academic business library should be valuable to any academic librarian seeking to better understand the current management challenges facing academic libraries. While questions are raised about the future of the library, some possible solutions are also proposed, chiefly by demonstrating through the case studies how business library managers have confronted common problems and successfully addressed them.
Those case studies distinguish this book from other more general resources and handbooks on library management. The editor and authors should also be commended for including some thoughtful discussion regarding issues of performance measurement. The thorny problem of how to represent value to library stakeholders is a vital topic that in this reviewer’s mind is not often enough addressed in discussions of how to shape the future role of the library, but is included here.
The book is recommended to not just business school librarians but also academic librarians and library managers generally.
