Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries

"In Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries, Pateman draws on the ideas of Marx and Maslow to present an ambitious 'analytical framework', which, he says, can be used to create bold public-library strategies, structures, and systems. Pateman argues for radical--but sustainable--transformations in public libraries. In particular, he envisions: - Strategies that are focused on users with the greatest needs, and that have social justice at their core. Public libraries can be converted, Pateman says, from institutions of social control into agencies of social change. - Non-hierarchical staff structures, or 'holocracies' in which organizational positions are matched to individual strengths, talents, and skills. - Service structures which are flexible and are able to respond quickly and creatively to changing community needs. - Systems which are 'enabling' with policies, processes, and procedures which permit community needs to be identified and met. Prescriptive manuals will be superseded by parameters to encourage innovation and creativity. - Evaluation and assessment of library services which no longer rely on 'one-dimensional and misleading metrics' such as circulation, membersh