Reengineering the Library: Issues in Electronic Resources Management (An ALCTS Monograph).

摘要

This is one of those books whose subtitle is essential to understanding what the book is about. In fact, Reengineering the Library is a somewhat misleading title, implying a wider scope than the volume possesses. Topics such as circulation and reference services are covered only peripherally. This book is a collection of 15 invited articles discussing, as the subtitle indicates, a variety of issues concerning the changes libraries must make in response to the sea change, whereby collections are predominantly electronic. And the greater part of a library's acquisitions budget is spent on electronic books, journals and other resources and the tools required to acquire and access them, As the editor points out in the introduction, the day of the single electronic resources librarian is over. The time when libraries adopted electronic resources and tools merely as a faster way to do what they've always done has passed. Libraries must indeed reengineer themselves, not only to adapt to the online world, but also to thrive in the face of financial pressures and to meet user expectations. Reengineering the Library may sound like a how-to-do-it manual, but it is not. Nor is it a book for beginners. Nearly every contributor assumes a certain familiarity with the topic and its vocabulary. Of course, the reader can always pop over to a search engine and look up unfamiliar terms, but it would be quicker to flip to a glossary at the back of the book. Unfortunately, the editor has not provided one. The book also lacks an obvious organizational structure and an orderly progression from the general to the specific. The introduction is little more than an annotated list of the chapters. Contributors introduce their chapters, describing the transition to electronic and its impact on the library. As a result, there is considerable repetition in the book.