Managing Library Services for Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook

Citation

Turner, R. (1999), "Managing Library Services for Children and Young People: A Practical Handbook", New Library World, Vol. 100 No. 7, pp. 319-321. https://doi.org/10.1108/nlw.1999.100.7.319.4

The concept of the provision of library services for “children and young people” is one which I have always found to be mind‐boggling in the resource demands and service levels it encompasses. The client group is aged birth to 17 by most definitions, which covers pre‐reading picture books to general material aimed at all ages.

Working in a secondary school which only caters for the 11‐16 age group is daunting enough as, for example, the fiction has to range from picture books, Goosebumps and support for special needs pupils right through to providing a service for children who will take Austen, Le Carre and Graham Greene and return them within days read, digested and understood. Non‐fiction demands range from year 7 pupils wanting five facts about France to GCSE level in‐depth demands .for multi‐source information on the Great Depression.

The idea of one department trying to address the information needs of babies to 17‐years‐olds seems at best to be challenging and at worst simply misguided.

However, the author of this work is obviously a lot more comfortable with the breadth of the remit, as she is head of Leeds Library and Information Services, a division of Leeds Leisure Services. The book is really about managing change in the provision of services for young people, with the emphasis on SWOT and STEP analysis. Because of the difficulties of having such a wide remit the work emphasises the importance of a thorough understanding of the service provided – and its strengths and weaknesses; grouping and appreciating library users and their needs; and managing the service and its performance by strategic management.

Blanshard is obviously a person who has attended lots of management courses and has read all the latest techniques – and is trying to apply them to the world of librarianship for young people. The work is often a quagmire of management jargon and techniques, which does not make for the most entertaining or interesting reads for those responsible for point of contact service delivery.

This is not to say that there is not an understanding of practical current issues such as literacy, children’s reading habits, children’s activities in general, reading challenges, stock issues, promoting the service and IT resources and issues. It is just that these seem to play a distinct second fiddle to organisational theory.

This is certainly a management book and its use of unnecessary jargon to express obvious and simple concepts is an obstacle to its stated aim of being a “practical handbook”. If the Library Association wishes to produce “practical handbooks”, it might also like to review prices such as £37.50.