I am thoroughly enjoying Rick Anderson’s new book, a collection of his essays and writings from the last few years. Don’t miss this one, especially if you are involved in leadership, the shifting nature of collections, and managing change within organizations of learning.
CHICAGO — A creative thinker on topics related to library collections and scholarly publishing, Rick Anderson does not back away from controversy. “Whenever we, as members of an organization like a library, are forced to choose between good things, we may start by trying to figure out some way to have both things,” he writes in the preface to “Libraries, Leadership, and Scholarly Communication: Essays by Rick Anderson,” his new book. “But in many cases, that will turn out to be impossible and we’ll have to decide which good thing is going to take priority over the other. We can’t make that decision without invoking values, and the moment we start invoking values is when the conversation can take a really difficult and interesting turn.” Published by ALA Editions, this collection of essays, articles, white papers, and blog posts provides food for thought and conversation starters for brainstorming sessions and strategic discussions. Anderson offers engaging, persuasive arguments on a range of timely topics, such as:
- the decline of print;
- patron-driven acquisitions;
- Open Access (OA);
- blacklisting publishers and relations with publishers’ sales reps;
- patron privacy;
- symptoms of zealotry;
- unintended consequences of the print-on-demand model; and
- how to define library value.
Anderson is associate dean for collections and scholarly communication in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. He serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards, is a regular contributor to The Scholarly Kitchen, and has been a regular contributor to Library Journal’s Academic Newswire. His book “Buying and Contracting for Resources and Services: A How-to-Do-It Manual for Librarians” was published in 2004 by Neal-Schuman. A former Library Journal “Mover & Shaker,” he is a past president of the North American Serials Interest Group. In 2013, he was the recipient of the HARRASSOWITZ Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award. He was elected president of the Society for Scholarly Publishing in 2015. He is a popular speaker on subjects related to the future of scholarly communication and research libraries.
