Library Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness: Essays in Honor of Wernest R. Deporspo

by Charles C. Curran (Editor), F. William Summers (Editor)

Overview

This volume is the most comprehensive compilation of ideas related to library performance yet assembled. It brings together noted researchers and successful library directors and educators who have extended the landmark findings and efforts of their mentor and friend, Ernest DeProsp. The editors give a historical account of contemporary measurement activities; suggest methodologies for measuring performance; offer viewpoints on planning, goal-setting and validity; and comment on problems associated with planning, one of the major tools of measurement. Readers of the book will develop informed opinions about planning, a practice that when entered into unaware can enslave an organization in endless data gathering routines and tax their endurance beyond reasonable points. Thought-provoking comments on the directions taken, and not taken, by library thinkers challenge the reader to speculate about current library-think.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780893915971
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/01/1990
Series:	Contemporary Studies in Information Management, Policies, and Services Series
Pages:	1
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

rran /f Charles /i C.

mers /f F. /i William

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Measurement of Library Output: How is it Related to Research?
Reflections on Performance Measures Fifteen Years Later
Integrating Performance Measures into the Planning Process: Moving toward Decision Support Systems
Aspects of Validity in Unobtrusive Studies
Do Library Systems Make a Difference?
Public Libraries: Flexibility and Political Action
Accountability of Library Services for Youth: A Planning, Measurement, and Evaluation Model
The Accountability of Public Organizations for Educational Projects Supported by Grant-Making Agencies
Accountability in the Classroom
Staff Development and Organizational Change
Applying Nontraditional Perspectives to Traditional Library Research: Critical Theory as Method
Roads Not Taken: Some Thoughts about Librarianship
A Biographical Sketch of Ernest R. DeProspo, Jr.
Planning: The Key to Performance, Accountability, and Responsiveness and a Future for Libraries
Epilogue
Author Index
Subject Index

Editorial Reviews

A collection of essays giving an historical account of contemporary measurement activities; suggesting methodologies; and offering viewpoints on planning, goal-setting and validity. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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