Library performance and service competition: developing strategic responses
July 23, 2009
I chose to review Library performance and service competition: developing strategic responses by Larry Nash White as I recognise that ever tightening budgets and changes in service provision within the NHS in Scotland make it more important than ever for us to identify relevant performance measures that justify our existence as Information Services. It is also crucial that we look at what our users need and want, and consider whether we can change to meet their demands more efficiently. I was hoping to get some practical pointers on how to do this by reading the book.
The opening chapter, How long have we been counting things?, looks at the history of performance measurement and makes an important point, that library assessment has traditionally been largely internal, measuring “easy to count” indicators such as book issues or footfall. Historically, no one thought to ask service users about what was important to them and attempt to measure the library’s success in meeting these needs. The book goes on to look at the assessment process and how it can be improved to ensure that we count, or measure, the right things – and how we identify what these things are.
The second aspect – the “service competition” of the title also intrigued me. We don’t always think of our services as having competitors. Chapter 3 looks at how we are indeed in competition with other information providers for our users. Bookshops, other libraries, the internet (as we all know, you just need Google these days…) are all places that our users may turn to if we are not meeting their needs in terms of resources, convenience, price and service levels. Again, the point about including users is made – who better to ask about who our competitors for their custom are?
Unfortunately, while I found the ideas expressed in the book of great interest, I started to get bogged down at the point where principles were being put into practice. Perhaps the author has deliberately kept his language and examples general in order that they should apply to the greatest range of services, however the continual repetition of lengthy phrases within a paragraph and heavy use of what might be called management-speak would make the Campaign for Plain English wince. It made it impossible to skim through looking for specific ideas and I frequently felt my attention wandering. I felt that the book would have greatly benefited from the use of case studies and concrete examples to illustrate the theory. While the book includes diagrams, I didn’t feel that they greatly illuminated me.
By the time I got to chapters 4 and 5 which deal with ”knowns” about customers and competitors I could only think of Donald Rumsfeld and his famous “known unknowns” and I was pretty much lost.
This is another title in the Chandos Information Professionals Series which professes to deliver “easy-to-read and (most importantly) practical coverage of topics that are of interest to librarians...” (1). While Dr Nash’s book with close, careful and repeated reading would, I’m sure, have given me the information and ideas I was looking for, it was not a particularly readable introduction. However, it has a useful bibliography and sample forms and questions for those wishing to look at their own service’s performance and develop strategic responses. I often feel like the “bear of very little brain” when reading management theory – maybe others will find it less opaque.
1. White LN. Library performance and service competition: developing strategic responses. Oxford: Chandos Publishing; 2008. p. ii.
- Author
- Larry Nash White
- ISBN
- 9781843343141
- Publisher
- Chandos
- Publisher's website
- http://www.chandospublishing.com