Beyond Survival

Academic libraries must change! This message appears in print regularly, usually accompanied by dire warnings of doom if change does not happen quickly. A similar message is found here, but this new book, coauthored by Wood, Rush Miller, and Amy Knapp, also provides lots of helpful advice on what kind of change is needed and how that change might be accomplished. They devote the first three chapters to background details on the need for change, along with an overview of managing change, including strategic planning, organizational development, marketing, and team-based organizations. The next four chapters describe organizational change at the University of Arizona and University of Pittsburgh libraries (Miller was the architect of Pitt's transformation), showing how various management concepts were applied to transform these organizations successfully. The final two chapters address assessment….Recommended for graduate and professional collections. * Library Journal *
As technology developes and user needs evolve, many academic libraries discover themselves in a position either adapting and embracing new technology or remaining unchanged and stagnant….A welcome book, then, is Beyond Survival: Managing Academic Libraries in Transition, a companion guide for academic libraries in transition….In it, the authors detail why change is necessary for libraries, stating that refusal by libraries to change will condemn them to marginalization. The authors also provide a theoretical foundation useful for transitioning academic libraries and detailed, real-world examples of how certain academic libraries are evolving to meet new challenges in the 21st century. * College & Research Libraries *
Wood, Miller, and Knapp have produced an extremely useful volume that has something in it for most academic librarians….A careful study of the information presented in this book will help librarians chart that new course and continue to add quality to the educational experience. In fact, I am going to read this one again! * Technical Services Quarterly *
In recent years, libraries have heard that they are potentially an endangered species in their current incarnations. In Beyond Survival, the authors provide guidance and inspiration to academic libraries wanting to move past the status quo….[w]ell thought out and presented and is an excellent guide to academic libraries looking to embrace change. * Reference & User Services Quarterly *
[W]e need to fully embrace change, and adapt successful business models like strategic planning and organizational development in order to turn change into an opportunity. In addition to theory, authors Elizabeth J. Wood, Rush Miller and Amy Knapp provide detailed case studies on how libraries at the University of Arizona and the University of Pittsburgh managed the kind of transformative change needed to position the academic library for a vibrant future. * American Libraries *
Although this book is written for librarians at large universities, it contains information useful to the many college librarians who are also experiencing the fallout and opportunities created by institutional, instructional, economic, technological, and social changes across higher education and culture in general. The authors provide a good discussion of the meanings and results of change in theory and practice, and they provide examples of how change has been managed at specific libraries. Readers will find cautions as well as possible actions to take to maintain the library and the position of the librarian within the educational enterprise as changes occur. The desired outcome is not just to survive but to enhance librarians' contributions to the institutions where they work. * Booklist/Professional Reading *
Three library science scholars with business experience from U. of Michigan and U. of Pittsburgh borrow techniques from the business world to offer advice to managers of academic libraries undergoing changes compelled by both internal and external factors. Supported by case studies of two university libraries, chapters discuss the reasons for change, short term vs. long term solutions, the theoretical underpinnings of change, strategies for embedding and perpetuating alterations, the pros and cons of using teams, how to stand up to scrutiny and plan for the future, and barriers to change, among other topics. * Reference & Research Book News *