25th IATUL Conference Report
| Date | 01 September 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050410567281 |
| Pages | 4-7 |
| Published date | 01 September 2004 |
| Author | Alice Trussell,Jay Bhatt |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
25th IATUL Conference Report
Alice Trussell and Jay Bhatt
4LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 8 2004, pp. 4-7, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050410567281
``Library management in a changing
environment'' was the theme of the
25th conference of the International
Association of Technical University
Libraries (IATUL) in Krakow, Poland,
May 30-June 3, 2004. The host
institution was Cracow University of
Technology Library (www.biblos.pk.
edu/pl).
The world has experienced a
tremendous amount of change in the
last 40 years. Technology has exploded,
and political/economic shifts have
directly impacted institutions and
individuals worldwide. Within that
framework, the IATUL chose to focus
the conference presentations on library
management in a changingenvironment.
The location of the conference in
Krakow, Poland was a vivid reminder
that the world situation has changed
enormously within the last 15 years.
The four themes of the conference
were:
(1) Elements of library management.
(2) Traditional collection and e-resources
± policy dilemma.
(3) Public relations: user-oriented
services.
(4) Regional library cooperation.
In addition IATUL always builds in
a ``study-tour'' day on Wednesday of
the conference week. A library different
from the host institution is visited and
then a tour of interesting places in the
host country is followed. The first stop
on the study tour day was a visit to the
Jagiellonian University Institute for
Information and Librarianship. It was
exciting to hear about and see the nearly
500 students studying library and
information science in Poland. The
remainder of the day was spent
traveling to the Pieniny Mountains,
rafting on the Dunajec River, touring
Neidzica Castle and Museum, and
having a traditional dinner in Zacopane,
a ski-resort area in the mountains of
southern Poland.
The opening session began with a
focus on the first theme: ``Elements of
library management''. The majority of
presentations in the conference focused
on this theme.
The keynote speaker, Dr Henryk
Hollender, head of the Warsaw
University Library in Warsaw Poland,
spoke on ``Radical management and the
modern information world''. Hollender
assessed where libraries of the world
are and where they need to go
additional information about him is
available at http://ebib.oss.wroc.pl/
Frankfurt/hollender.html
After initially affirming that although
libraries are performing well and being
successful, he indicated that libraries
need to perform better. This makes us
take a second look at how they are
managed. Across the world, libraries are
not given equal chances because of
funding. This can be seen if you look at
the funding in traditional European Union
countries in contrast to the European
Union Accession countries who are
joining after the end of the cold war.
At the same time, we realize the
users are using search engine. If
commercial vendors tailor their
services to individual users, libraries
may become invisible and unimportant.
The added value of libraries is
actually in the premises. We need
physical libraries for people to meet and
find information: we must have physical
libraries for physical people. It is
difficult to provide and manage a
physical space, and libraries are fighting
the stereotypes that libraries are boring
and difficult to use. Look at bookstores
± there are many successful bookstores
providing physical places for physical
people. What are the bookstores doing
differently than the libraries?
Every manager needs to look around
and consider what is seen. What things
do we delegate? Every manager must
select priorities. Setting the sequencing
of priorities is tremendously important,
so the menu of tasks must be prioritized
carefully. Primarily, we have to prioritize
these factors: automation, cataloging,
digital projects, collection building and
access services. How do we harmonize
the technical and the social, the physical
place forthe physical person?
Tools to accomplish this are found
through total quality management
(TQM) as pioneered by W. Edwards
Deming. The techniques of scientific
management may be counter to the
personal experiences of many librarians.
The scientific techniques may lead us to
putting things int o boxes and creatin g
flowcharts to see whatwe are doing and
how we are doing it.Two other books on
management are highly recommended:
Management, by Stoner et al. (1995),
which has becomea widely used classic;
and Radical Management, by Culbert
and McDonough (1985), which is not a
how-to book,but it is very helpful.
Variations on radical management
that we can use in the management of
libraries are:
.Understand your organization. Find
methods to decode its external and
internal process.
.See the tiniest detail. Harmonize
all the details.
.Forget the detail and think big!
.Accept your organization. Change
profoundly the unacceptable.
.Accept your customer.
.Always consider what you are
actually responsible for.
The second speaker was Egbert
Gerryts of the University of Pretoria,
South Africa, on ``Using a three-year-
rolling-development plan (3 Y RDP) to
lead and manage library transformation''.
In order to lead the library through the
changes needed to manage transformation,
a broader view of the external
environment is imperative. By the
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