This paper examines the impact of process mapping on the management of change in an academic library in a UK higher education institution. Book ordering has been highlighted by a group of subject librarians as being time-consuming and inefficient, detracting from their ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities. An action research…

Bent on improving the teaching and learning experience, enhancing the productivity of researchers, and increasing the visibility of research outputs, libraries are redistributing staff, reallocating resources, and reorganizing internal structures, all to better partner campus-wide. Nowhere is the impact of this push for service innovation and user…

This article explores recent developments in national policy for academic libraries. It considers the shift from traditional to managerial academic librarianship; the move to "social space" and multi-use systems; changes in the balance between meeting teaching and research needs and in public funding priorities; the difficulty of making…

Provides a case study of the acquisitions processes that were necessary when Cardiff University's School of Engineering made a decision to subscribe to electronic-only versions of journals where such subscriptions were less expensive than the print equivalent. In doing so, addresses issues of electronic subscriptions management in UK academic…

Reflects on implications of phases one and two in the United Kingdom's Electronic Libraries Program (eLib). Discusses the four components of the third phase which includes the merging of print and electronic resources in the hybrid library. Discusses managerial lessons learned. (AEF)

This paper discusses the impact national initiatives have had on individual higher education libraries in the United Kingdom (UK). Written from the perspective of an institutional library manager, the paper examines the interface between local electronic library provision and national developments. Individual institutions have been active in…

Purpose: To share the experiences and challenges faced by the Open University Library (OUL) in developing a content management (CM) system for its subject guides. Design/methodology/approach: A summary of multi-format subject guide production at the OUL is provided to justify the decision to develop a new system for their production using a…