Hey Librarians, Publishing Opportunity! We invite proposals for case studies to be published in a forthcoming ALA Editions book Abandon all Fear: Assessing, Evaluating and Letting Go of Legacy Services, an edited collection of case studies examining how librarians in all types of organizations are responding and adapting to cataclysmic budgetary and programming changes.
Have you had to plan to abandon, change, or adapt spaces or programs in the past decade? Did you use strategies, tactics and methods that other librarians could learn from? We’re looking for case studies focusing on how libraries of all types are changing and adapting service models to let go of obsolete or less useful programs.Given the current economic climate, libraries can no longer afford to maintain the status quo. But instead of reacting in a panicked fashion to budgetary and staffing challenges, librarians can choose a measured, proactive response. If you think you’ve found a new means of being relevant to your users, please share your story.
While our initial proposal has three sections, we’re open to other ideas:
Section One: Public Services Case Studies
Section Two: Technical Services & Collections Case Studies
Section Three: Facilities and Systems Case Studies
We welcome proposals from librarians, library administrators, trustees, faculty or other partners both individually and as teams. The proposal should consist of an abstract of 500 words together with all author contact information. Please include in proposal the issue faced, the strategies and assessments used to examine the issue and the result. Case studies should run at least ten double-spaced pages.
Please send proposals to editors Mary Evangeliste, owner of the consulting collaborative Fearless Future (marye [at] fearless-future [dot] com) and Katherine Furlong, Director for Access and Technical Services for the libraries of Lafayette College (furlongk [at] lafayette [dot] edu).
