Comparative studies in information and library science published in the past ten years have reflected a broad spectrum of backgrounds, interests, and issues, but until now services between different countries, Asian nations in particular, have never been gathered or organized into a single source. As demand from researchers, students, directors, and practitioners for pertinent literature continues to grow, there is a definite and increasing need for a focused guide to international and comparative librarianship. International and Comparative Studies in Information and Library Science: A Focus on the United States and Asian Countries consists of eighteen previously published articles divided into seven categories that address issues such as research methodologies; information policy; professional education; information organization; and school, academic, and public libraries. It also features a comprehensive bibliography of related articles, books, proceedings, and other publications in both English and Chinese and four appendixes that list curricula, journal titles, conferences, and websites relating to International and comparative librarianship available at the time of publication. With this important compilation, Yan Quan Liu and Xiaojun Cheng fill an important and previously unmet need. Book jacket.

In The Demise of the Library School, Richard J. Cox places the present and future of professional education for librarianship in the debate on the modern corporate university. The book is a series of meditations on critical themes relating to the education of librarians, archivists, and other information professionals, playing off of other commentators analyzing the nature of higher education and its problems and promises.

This book, first published in 1993, features the perspectives of library practitioners as well as other higher education professionals on using innovative management techniques. The book includes practical discussions of Total Quality Management, team management, the impact of gender differences, managing an older work force, and educational needs. Through this valuable book, library administrators will find the best methods for adapting management strategies to the major political upheaval, economic reprioritizing, and organizational restructuring that has been characteristic of this decade. They will benefit from the case studies and practical overview from professionals who have already experienced change in their own libraries. Some of the important topics covered by the contributors include: fostering the democratization of the workplace and the development of the staff through empowerment; proactive, assertive, and collaborative roles of libraries in the scholarly communication process; library management education that prepares professionals both to anticipate change and to bring about change in their institutions in response to societal needs and shifts; managing the academic library through teamwork; the possible impacts and implications of female leadership on the library profession; organizational change in research libraries; older workers in technical services; and using the budget as a planning tool.