Libraries, Leadership, and Scholarly Communication: Essays by Rick Anderson

Rick Anderson is a creative thinker and a respected provocateur on topics related to library collections and scholarly publishing. As trends such rising journal pricing, declining budgets, open access and demand-driven acquistion upset established practices and library-vendor relations, arguments easy to come by. Rick Anderson is not one to back away from them. It's no surprise that the Charleston Conference, a popular conference where vendor executives and academic librarians discuss the marketplace, invited him to participate in a Hyde Park Debate": Resolved: Wherever Possible, Library Collections Should Be Shaped by Patrons, Instead of by Librarians.This book is a collection of essays, articles, white papers, and blog posting; many highly influential, some equally controversial. Organized thematically, the collection gives the reader the convenience of accessing the writing in one place. Together, the pieces create a coherent set of arguments about the future of libraries and scholarly communication.DRAFT COPY AT TRANSMITTAL “Whenever you’re forced to make choices , values are going to come into conflict,” writes Rick Anderson in the Preface. Often, it’s costs that force a choice between two desirable options. Mission driven organizations, lacking the financial incentives of the corporate world, may gloss over tough questions to avoid the painful reality that not everyone on the teams shares the same priorities. Browse this selective, thematic compilation of Rick Anderson’s writing, and you will find the conversation starters for your strategic discussions. Anderson offers engaging, persuasive arguments on range of timely topics, such as:Decline of printPatron-driven acquisitionsOpen accessBlacklisting publishersPatron privacySymptoms of zealotryRelations with publishers sales repsUnintended consequences of print on demandHow to define library value