It's All About Student Learning: Managing Community and Other College Libraries in the 21st Century (review)

This is an excellent, well-researched, well-written collection of 25 essays; however, do not be misled into thinking it is about student learning. The trick is to pay attention to the subtitle: Managing Community and Other College Libraries in the 21st Century and to read David Dowell's introduction to the unique teaching mission of community and baccalaureate colleges. The title does have meaning for community college librarians, but It's All About Student Learning is only occasionally about student learning and more about guiding the new community college and small college library manager through the multiple responsibilities of budgets, strategic planning, buildings, human resource management, organization charts, and marketing to your students and to your boss. Once you establish what the book is about, it is a fine collection of essays written by experienced, respected librarians in the field. I wish I had it by my side when I stumbled into the surprisingly rewarding job of a community college library director three years ago.

There is a small body of book-length studies that the new community college or college manager can read such as Gerald McCabe's similar collection of essays by library administrators entitled The Smaller Academic Library: A Management Handbook (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988) and Roseanne Kalick's Community College Libraries (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1992). There are also several guides by the Community and Junior Library Section of the American Association of College and Research Libraries. What makes this work unique is that it gives the library manager information from three perspectives: reference and collection management librarians on the front line; professional experts from the outside fields of human resource management and marketing; and experienced directors and deans. Especially useful are the numerous essays by community college library administrators all brought together in a convenient single volume. For the new library manager, these three different perspectives are all useful.

The essays written by the practicing reference librarian or bibliographer give the manager a much-needed perspective from the front lines on virtual reference, Web design, distance learning, and collection evaluation. The outside consultants give the manager a fresh look from other disciplines on the challenges of human resources management, building design, and marketing. Essays by experienced library deans and directors help the new manager on the day-to-day responsibilities of budgeting, marketing, building design, policies, student demographics, strategic planning, and assessment. Very few library directors or deans have been groomed into their new roles, and these responsibilities are often handed to them on day one with the strange assumption on the part of their vice presidents or provosts that their new managers have a clue.

One of my favorite essays is by Mary Carr entitled "Alphabet Soup." It arms the new manager with one of the most comprehensive lists of acronyms for library-related organizations that I have ever seen. The new manager is thereby afforded an opportunity to nod knowingly while attending cocktail parties at the American Library Association conferences. Some of the collection's library directors or deans—David Dowell, Michael Rusk, Gerald McCabe, Mary Carr, and Christine Godin—go way back. They give a wonderful historical perspective on issues that a new community college library manager will face today.

The book ends with a unique collection of what the editors call "short subjects." Absent the footnotes and bibliographies of the main essays, these little mini-articles include the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) position statement on Library and Learning Resource Center Programs, with which every library director worth his or her salt should be familiar, and a very nifty planning chart at the end by David Dowell. The book is well indexed with a short biography on each of the 25 essayists. In summary, the collection brings together administrators, consultants, and practitioners that give useful, cogent information and...