Dodge, Hillary. Gather Round the Table: food literacy programs, resources and ideas for libraries. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2020. 132 pp. ISBN: 978 0 8389 4629 9. £47.


Kroski, Ellyssa (ed). 53 Ready-to-Use Kawaii Craft Projects. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2020. 256 pp. ISBN: 978 0 8389 1924 8. £47.


Applying project management principles for libraries


CARLY Wiggins Searcy’s book is one of a spate of titles on project manage- ment that have appeared in recent years, which is perhaps suggestive of the financially tight environ- ment within which libraries now have to operate. More work has to be com- pleted with fewer people and less money, which means an increased need for efficiency and less margin for error. Project management tools can be utilised to avoid wasting scarce resources and helps to focus on delivering strategic aims.


According to the author’s blurb, Searcy has a great deal of experience of managing projects in libraries and is a certified project management professional. She should therefore be well placed to offer her insights on what constitutes good practice. What makes her contribution stand out from other titles is that it gives the basic princi- ples of project management without getting too bogged down in procedural detail (one of the drawbacks of PRINCE2 as a method) and without neglecting the importance of the soft skills needed to bring a project to a successful close. What I particularly liked was her discussion of the ethical framework in which to operate as a project manager, taken from the Project Management Institute’s code of ethics. Throughout the book, Searcy uses the same three exam- ples to highlight the different


June 2021


Issues and developments in the world of scholarly communication


Searcy, Carly Wiggins. Project Manage- ment in Libraries: on time, on budget, on target. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2018. 123 pp. ISBN 978 0 8389 1719 0. £42.


aspects of project management, which help to set the theory in a practical context. In addition, she provides handy templates and checklists for the budding project manager to keep track of the spinning plates. In a series of brief chapters, Searcy discusses the requirements for initiating and planning the project, devoting only a single chapter to actual delivery. In such a short book it is inev- itable that a subject only gets a relatively superficial treatment, but Searcy provides a deftly written introduction to project management, which should certainly give sufficient under- standing for simple projects.


Danielle Westerhof Durham University


OUP’s US series What everyone needs to know uses a question-and- answer format to introduce complicated matters to general audiences. This book is part of that series. Its author, Rick Anderson, is a university acquisitions librarian and blogger specialising in scholarly communication. How scientists commu- nicate is of importance to everyone: Anderson realised that many people, including students, frequently come across research findings but are puzzled by how academic publishing and dissemination systems work. They may also lack basic information-liter- acy skills such as the ability to discriminate between good and bad studies. The book is written very much from a librarian’s viewpoint: not a disadvantage, but something that is not explained. The fourteen encyclopaedic chapters begin with theory, looking at who scholars are and why and with whom they communicate. The longest chapters cover academic libraries with British and US copyright policies (including Creative Commons). Types of publication (theses, mono- graphs, journals, e-books, blogs) are explained in detail as is the significance of open access. Other sections describe academic publishing, digitised books (and their benefits for rare books col- lections), altmetrics, journal impact factors and metadata. Most topics are explained


Anderson, Rick. Scholarly communi- cation: what everyone needs to know. New York: Oxford University Press. 2018. 280 pp. ISBN 978 0 1906 39454 7. £10.


in simple language but there are omissions (for instance, online services, commercial publishing and its impact on open access, aggregators and, surprisingly, the role of librarians). Inevitably, some information is out-of-date. Anderson demystifies the organisation of US higher education (tribal colleges and master’s or doctoral universi- ties, for example) and makes clear the differences between British and US copyright policies. The book is an easy-read with clear expla- nations, though the style is a trifle wordy and it is written primarily for an American audience.


Ralph Adam


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 51


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