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Innovation and the Library The Adoption of New Ideas in Public Libraries
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By Verna L. Pungitore
ISBN: 0-313-28673-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-28673-5
208 pages, figures
Greenwood Press
Publication: 7/30/1995
List Price: $101.95 (UK Sterling Price: £57.95)
Availability:
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 X 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • This book is worthwhile to library students and public libraries for its PLA history.
    —
    Journal of the American Society for Information Science
  • The primary purpose of this work is to use the planning process as an example to trace the development and diffusion of an innovation and to draw from this to develop a model for future dissemination of change...a substantial contribution to the profession.
    —Library & Information Science Research
  • The book's value lies in the lessons it provides about instituting change by persuasion: commitment on the part of key people, a complex web of linkages among them, a long-term commitment by PLA and its elected officers, the need to involve helpers such as the state library agencies, and the need for strong training and educational components to get community librarians involved. As PLA has now begine to reevaluate these innovations in preparation for a new or revisde set of techniques for the 21st century, the lessons learned about the diffusion of innovations as described in this book will prove highly useful.
    —Collection Management
  • This book is recommended for public library administrators, trustee leaders, and libraries where 'planning meets resistance.'
    —RQ
Description: Today's rapidly evolving information-based society demands that public libraries implement planned, proactive, and innovative change to meet patron needs. Rapid, widespread, and substantive change and innovation in public librarianship depends on the ability of public librarians to share in the exchange of new ideas, regardless of the size of their communities. This book explores how managerial innovations are generated and disseminated among public librarians. To examine how new ideas are created and spread among public librarians, the volume focuses on the case of the dissemination of a particular innovation, a set of techniques developed and promoted by a national professional association, which allows public librarians to engage in user-oriented planning, community-specific role setting, and self-evaluation of library performance. This case study is placed within a larger context of classical models of the diffusion process and the literature on organizational change and innovation. Drawing on her findings, the author offers suggestions to facilitate public library change.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Public Libraries, Change, and Innovation
  • Public Libraries and Organizational Change: An Overview
  • Diffusion and Adoption of Innovations
  • Evolutionary Change in Public Libraries: 1920-1965
  • Life History of a Public Library Innovation
  • Prelude to Innovation: 1966-1979
  • Development and Dissemination of the Innovation
  • PLDP: The Modified Innovation
  • Toward a Model of Public Library Innovation
  • Diffusion Among Smaller Libraries: 1980-1990
  • Patterns of Implementation in Smaller Libraries
  • Fitting the Public Library Experience to the Models
  • Facilitating Innovation in Public Libraries
  • References
  • Index
LC Card Number: 95-3808
LCC Class: Z731
Dewey Class: 037.473
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