Innovation and the Library - The Adoption of New Ideas in Public Libraries

Today's rapidly evolving information-based society demands that public libraries implement planned, proactive, and innovative change to meet patron needs. Rapid, widespread, and substantive change and innovation in public librarianship depends on the ability of public librarians to share in the exchange of new ideas, regardless of the size of their communities. This book explores how managerial innovations are generated and disseminated among public librarians.

To examine how new ideas are created and spread among public librarians, the volume focuses on the case of the dissemination of a particular innovation, a set of techniques developed and promoted by a national professional association, which allows public librarians to engage in user-oriented planning, community-specific role setting, and self-evaluation of library performance. This case study is placed within a larger context of classical models of the diffusion process and the literature on organizational change and innovation. Drawing on her findings, the author offers suggestions to facilitate public library change.

List of contents

Preface
Public Libraries, Change, and Innovation
Public Libraries and Organizational Change: An Overview
Diffusion and Adoption of Innovations
Evolutionary Change in Public Libraries: 1920-1965
Life History of a Public Library Innovation
Prelude to Innovation: 1966-1979
Development and Dissemination of the Innovation
PLDP: The Modified Innovation
Toward a Model of Public Library Innovation
Diffusion Among Smaller Libraries: 1980-1990
Patterns of Implementation in Smaller Libraries
Fitting the Public Library Experience to the Models
Facilitating Innovation in Public Libraries
References
Index

About the author

VERNA L. PUNGITORE is Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University, Bloomington. Her articles on information science and library management have appeared in professional journals.

Summary

This work explores how managerial innovations are generated and disseminated among public librarians. It provides a case study of the dissemination of an innovation which allows librarians to engage in user-oriented planning, community-specific role setting and self-evaluation of performance.

Product details

• Authors: Verna Pungitore, Verna L Pungitore, Verna L. Pungitore
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 7 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 31.12.2019
• EAN: 9780313286735
• ISBN: 978-0-313-28673-5
• No. of pages: 208
• Weight: 510 g
• Series: Contributions in Librarianship; Contributions in Librarianship; Contributions in Librarianship & Information Science; Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > Book trade, library system; BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Management, Management & management techniques, Library & information services, Library and information services, Management and management techniques, Library, archive and information management, Library, Archive & Information Management, Librarianship: Philosophy, Values, and Issues