Books in the Current Topics in Library and Information Practice series

This series presents innovative approaches used by professionals in library and information practice worldwide. The authors are chosen to provide critical analysis of issues and to present solutions to selected challenges in libraries and related fields, including information management and industry, and education of information professionals.

How do library professionals talk about and refer to library users, and how is this significant? In recent decades, the library profession has conceived of users in at least five different ways, viewing them alternatively as citizens, clients, customers, guests, or partners. This book argues that these user metaphors crucially inform librarians' interactions with the public, and, by extension, determine the quality and content of the services received. The ultimate aim of this book is to provide library professionals with insights and tools for avoiding common pitfalls associated with false or professionally inadequate conceptions of library users.

Knowledge services converges information management, knowledge management (KM), and strategic learning into a single enterprise-wide discipline for the benefit of the business or organization in which it is practiced. As the acknowledged framework for strategic knowledge management, knowledge services-the responsibility of the knowledge strategist-leads to excellence in knowledge sharing and ultimately to shaping the organization as a knowledge culture. Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization provides guidance for the knowledge strategist and is designed specifically to serve as a reference for that management employee, and for those seeking to become knowledge strategists.