Explain
Explain and apply interdisciplinary theories and models relevant to managing library and information service agencies.
LI805, Organization Theory for Administering Information Agencies, required an individual paper in which we were to reflect upon and apply the theories we’d discussed in class to a real-world example. An editorial had recently appeared in the Lawrence Journal-World entitled “Libraries are limited, obsolete,” which had received national attention from Library Journal and several prominent library bloggers (and me) and I felt that this article provided an ideal platform from which to discuss two theories we’d talked about in class: institutional theory and population ecology.
Institutional theory, the idea that the “social legitimacy and public perception” of one’s organization, as well as population ecology, which asserts that only the fittest and most adaptable organizations will survive, are key concepts for libraries. As I discuss in my paper, these theories can be applied by both acknowledging and confronting potentially negative public perceptions of libraries and the information profession. This can be accomplished by more effectively promoting and marketing library services, and by being truly responsive to criticism so that we can begin to regain some of the social legitimacy that we seem to be losing.
