FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION AND LIBRARIES BUILDING THE FAST RESPONSE LIBRARY (FRL)

20th IATUL Conference

图书情报档案学

A. S. APOSTOLOU ; C.H. SKIADAS

PID  :  126320

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: CEUR

【 摘 要 】

In the coming millenium, libraries in order to be effective, need to measure their performancerigorously against the expectations and real needs of their customers. The library of the future will need to be customer sensitive, knowledge creating, agile enterprise. It must provide value to every customer, where value is the customer’s perception of total lifetime benefits minus total lifetime costs. It must continually exchange information and ideas with its customers and suppliers to deliver customized products and services. The library must quickly reconfigure its products, services and processes, and it must integrate expertise from other organizations to remain competitive. Consequently, it will become critical to create an environment grounded in ongoing innovation and learningone that will benefit from external uncertainty and unpredictability. Employees will need skills and knowledge to make empowered decisions and work in a variety of roles. This article is written to deal with the need that libraries had to respond fast to the changing needs of their customers. In other words, libraries of the future need to be organized as Fast Response Libraries (FRL). This will be done if libraries be well prepared for dealing successfully with challenges posed by an increasingly competitive and timeresponsive marketplace. This requires libraries and librarians to understand and accept that competing against the new sources of knowledge requires a library to use all its resources at the most effective. These resources must therefore be integrated and focused on how best to support the library’s competitive strategy. The Fast Response Organization and the new Manager There is a revolution going on in management today. Old understandings are being questioned as never before. New insights are changing the way managers understand their responsibilities. Those running the most admired corporations view their companies in a new light, as systems made of interacting and interrelated parts. They understand that the primary purpose of their companies is meeting and exceeding customer needs and expectations. They know that this is what generates profits so they will be around tomorrow. This systems view has brought about a new attitude and approach for successfully serving customers needs. The emphasis is on bringing employees together as team members to execute organizational processes. This approach includes a variety of techniques for helping an organization continuously improve its productivity and the quality and value of its products and services. Organizations of the future had to respond fast to the changing needs of their customers. This will be done if they are well prepared for dealing successfully with challenges posed by an increasingly competitive and time