Leadership and Management Principles in Libraries in Developing Countries (review)

This volume presents 20 essays by authors from 15 developing countries in Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central America on leadership and management principles. The essays offer authentic observations and rich experience through the eyes of the authors, providing first-hand descriptions of how they put their leadership and management principles to work in challenging settings.

While the settings may be unfamiliar, the major library issues discussed in this volume demonstrate that these librarians have much in common with their counterparts in more developed countries: lack of adequate funding, lagging technology infrastructure (hardware and software), inadequate staff training, institutional bureaucracy, increasing user expectations, and the like. It is the tackling of these issues in environments that pose the more unfamiliar challenges that will give the reader a better understanding of the library operations and practices in these developing countries.

One of the themes illustrated in this volume is that the pace of library development varies among the developing countries. Some libraries, for instance, have transformed from a traditional library into a hybrid library, as described by Jagdish Arora. Other libraries are struggling with library buildings, computers, LAN infrastructure, and trained experts in information technology, as evidenced in an essay by Wang Fang. Still others, according to Widharto, need continual funding from external sources for sustained library services, collections, and other resources. The reader will be impressed by some of the practical methods that the authors employed to improve library services for their users under these very difficult working conditions. To some of them, heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer for their libraries are luxuries, not to mention basic library and information facilities.

Another theme this volume presents is that library services in these developing countries are considered the backbone for local and national economic development. Shivanthi Weerasinghe's essay on development of a Web site for a commercial bank corporate library in Sri Lanka, Michael Kasusse's essay on providing palliative care to people living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, and Muzhgan Nazarova's essay on librarianship in Azerbaijan are some examples illustrating that these individuals are able to exercise leadership roles to make a meaningful difference for their countries.

Despite the difficulties facing libraries in these developing countries, technology and its applications in library services are constant themes in this volume. Several essays provide examples of how technological programs and initiatives were implemented to improve library services (e.g., essays by V. K. J. Jeevan, Subbiah Arunachalam, and Paiki Muswazi).

The leadership techniques exercised by the authors are appropriate within their specific culture and circumstances. Nonetheless, those techniques can be tracked from leadership roots in the developed world. For instance, Muhammad Yaqub Chaudhary and Muhammad Umar Farooq's "retreat but never surrender" and "service without asking" (p. 27); Grete Pasch's "cautious but decisive" (p. 171); and Imo J. Akpan's "lead by examples" (p. 100) all speak to the commonalities of leadership experience. It is beneficial for readers to see how these leadership techniques were employed in situations with which they may not be familiar.

The editors of this volume are to be commended for their efforts in coordinating with more than 20 authors from different continents to complete this volume. They point out that this volume represents a body of practical experience, problems, lessons, and techniques that can be shared and tried by others in developing countries. Though the discussions, observations, and cases presented in this volume are within the context of the library operations in the developing countries, the leadership and management principles illustrated are valuable for readers elsewhere who will be able to gain much understanding of library services in these countries.