J. E. Rowley

A informática modificou fundamentalmente a maneira como se organizam e administram as bibliotecas e demais serviços que se dedicam a atividades de processamento, recuperação e disseminação de informações. Os sistemas informatizados de gerenciamento de bibliotecas lidam com a manutenção de registros necessários à administração adequada e eficiente dessas organizações. No setor de recuperação da informação, a informática abrange os sistemas de gerenciamento de informações de natureza textual, o CD-ROM e o acesso em linha a bases de dados externas. O livro divide-se em três partes. A primeira contem uma breve introdução sobre os principais elementos que constituem um sistema informatizado, com explicações indispensáveis sobre a configuração básica do computador, linguagens de programação e estrutura de bases de dados. A segunda parte examina aplicações da informática ao campo da recuperação da informação, e a terceira examina os sistemas de gerenciamento de bibliotecas… (lisätietoja)

While in school I read a textbook on library management and administration. And while it was dry, it offered much more by way of the intricacies of running a library than this one does. However, that is sort of the beauty of Leadership: The Challenge for the Information Profession. It’s concise yet clear, offers a fair amount of anecdotal evidence, and provides some tools for practical applications. Each chapter focuses on an aspect of leadership. There are questions for reflection scattered throughout each chapter, lots of tables and figures that give clarity and break down concepts nicely, and review and challenge questions at the end. Also included in each chapter are case studies – mainly interviews with people in leadership positions. I would have preferred that the case studies were in the form of problems posed within contexts so that I could examine them and pontificate on the best ways to handle them.

Truly, I don’t believe that any book is going to give you an absolute picture of leadership because the concept is so intangible. What’s nice about this book is that the authors acknowledge this gap and go on to explain why approaches to delivering information about leadership are complex due to the complexity of the topic. It’s not just you as a leader, it’s also who is following and what context you are all working in. The part of the book I got the most out of was the emphasis on self-reflection. The authors strive to get the reader to think critically about their own styles of learning and leading. As a textbook, I think it is lacking in some basics that a person new to the profession might appreciate learning, but it works wonderfully as a follow-up or a reading in conjunction with a more comprehensive work.… (lisätietoja)