Current Practices in Public Libraries

Citation

McNicol, S. (2008), "Current Practices in Public Libraries", New Library World, Vol. 109 No. 9/10, pp. 488-489. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800810910531

This collection of essays is very much a mixed bag in every sense; the fifteen articles differ considerably in content, style and quality. This book, which is published concurrently as an edition of Public Library Quarterly, includes reports of research, case studies and more reflective pieces. In their introduction, the editor say, “the articles in this collection show the range of interests of public librarians and those who study public libraries today” and this gives a good indication of the diversity of the essays.

I found it difficult to understand why it was decided to publish this particular edition of Public Library Quarterly in book format. There is no overarching theme other than the fact that articles deal with public libraries in the United States. The topics addressed include: advocacy, ethics, outreach, marketing, mentoring, literacy training, funding, computer and internet access, branch closures, small business support, collection development, leadership and independent libraries. For most people, it is unlikely that all these articles will be of sufficient interest to justify purchasing the book. In fact, it is difficult to determine the audience for this collection; some essays are more academic, whilst others are more informal and practical in nature. Overall, the volume is likely to be of greater interest to librarians and library researchers in the United States than those elsewhere.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the volume fails to hang together as a book. For example, several essays deal with advocacy, but there is repetition and articles fail to build on those preceding; there is little coherence to the volume overall. Furthermore, a number of the articles are fairly short and underdeveloped, especially some reports of quantitative research in which data are presented in a relatively raw format, with little in the way of analysis.

Nevertheless, there are a number of interesting pieces in this volume. Kathleen de la Pena McCook and Katharine J Phenix write about USA public libraries and human rights. Although their article is short, it does include many useful references for anyone interested in this area. In a piece entitled “Swimming upstream”, Linda J Mielke writes candidly about dealing with budget cuts as a new CEO and Leslie A Acevedo reports on a fascinating project at Flint Public Library to develop an outreach programme based on freedom songs.

Overall, I would recommend having a look at the contents list (www.haworthpress.com/store/PDFFiles/ForReps/Miller‐Current.pdf) and requesting individual articles which might be of interest from the journal version.