Reviews current trends in academic, mainly university, libraries. Issues selected for discussion as demonstrating most significant and longer lasting change include lifelong learning, frontline services and their quality, electronic libraries, and coping with continuous change.
The paper examines the management of change and the embedding of innovation in academic libraries and information services during a period of considerable and continuous change. Detailed examples are given from the author's own institution that adopts a very structured and corporate approach to strategic planning. The internal and external factors driving organisational change in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector are identified using a PEST (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) analysis, and a detailed SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis is presented which will enable institutions to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of their services being able to deliver the changes required. Examples are given of the kinds of changes library and information services will need to implement in order to respond effectively to the changing external environment. Some of the barriers to the successful implementation of change are identified, with some practical measures to bear in mind to help ensure successful outcomes.
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