Soft Systems Analysis and the Management of Libraries, Information Services and Resource Centres

At a time when libraries, resource centres and information services have been undergoing fundamental changes, technologically and socially, the need to identify tools and techniques to promote greater understanding of this change has become an important aspect of information management. This book examines how soft systems have developed as an alternative to more reductionist "hard" approaches which fail to take into account the social and political dimensions of issues and have led to the implementation of systems that are unsuccessful or have failed to meet the needs of users. Soft systems take into account the subjective element in problem-solving and are particularly suited to the new Internet-driven information situation, where traditional information boundaries are being challenged. The book explores soft systems techniques within a framework of consultancy and suggests ways in which they may be applied to the design of LRCIS. It looks at the management of planning, soft systems tools, analyzing user needs, defining functional requirements, organizing and implementing soft systems approaches and TQM and soft systems.