Current Issues
Elective
Given the following resources are available to the candidate:
- Access to information and data sources about federal, state, and local legislation and the community and the populations served by the library.
- Current reports on trends of libraries, technologies, user populations, etc.
The candidate:
- Identifies social/political/economic issues that may affect the library, the populations it serves, or its services (see Politics and Networking; and/or Service to Diverse Populations)
- Develops recommendations based on the issues.
The criteria to judge the adequacy of the performances are:
- Data collected are relevant and useful.
- Recommendations are timely and targeted.
- Further exploration is conducted on issues of priority to the library.
- Operational plans and budgets accommodate the impact of relevant issues.
Learning Objectives:
- Identifies major current issues in public library management.
- Identifies how general political, economic or social trends related to the issues in their public library management context.
- Analyzes an issue in depth, incorporating information gleaned from all relevant sources, and documents how the issue could impact strategic planning, services, policies, resource allocation, or collection management as applicable.
- Develops and defends recommendations for how an issue might be addressed and resolved in order to match both the particular library and its community context. Include elements of change management techniques, which may or may not be needed.
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Revised April 2016