Rick Anderson on libraries, leadership, and scholarly communication

For Immediate Release
Thu, 06/16/2016

Contact:

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

ALA Publishing

American Library Association

(312) 280-5052

rchristopher@ala.org

CHICAGO — A creative thinker on topics related to library collections and scholarly publishing, Rick Anderson does not back away from controversy. “Whenever we, as members of an organization like a library, are forced to choose between good things, we may start by trying to figure out some way to have both things,” he writes in the preface to “Libraries, Leadership, and Scholarly Communication: Essays by Rick Anderson,” his new book. “But in many cases, that will turn out to be impossible and we’ll have to decide which good thing is going to take priority over the other. We can’t make that decision without invoking values, and the moment we start invoking values is when the conversation can take a really difficult and interesting turn.” Published by ALA Editions, this collection of essays, articles, white papers, and blog posts provides food for thought and conversation starters for brainstorming sessions and strategic discussions. Anderson offers engaging, persuasive arguments on a range of timely topics, such as:

  • the decline of print;
  • patron-driven acquisitions;
  • Open Access (OA);
  • blacklisting publishers and relations with publishers’ sales reps;
  • patron privacy;
  • symptoms of zealotry;
  • unintended consequences of the print-on-demand model; and
  • how to define library value.

Anderson is associate dean for collections and scholarly communication in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. He serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards, is a regular contributor to The Scholarly Kitchen, and has been a regular contributor to Library Journal’s Academic Newswire. His book “Buying and Contracting for Resources and Services: A How-to-Do-It Manual for Librarians” was published in 2004 by Neal-Schuman. A former Library Journal “Mover & Shaker,” he is a past president of the North American Serials Interest Group. In 2013, he was the recipient of the HARRASSOWITZ Leadership in Library Acquisitions Award. He was elected president of the Society for Scholarly Publishing in 2015. He is a popular speaker on subjects related to the future of scholarly communication and research libraries.

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. ALA Editions publishes resources used worldwide by tens of thousands of library and information professionals to improve programs, build on best practices, develop leadership, and for personal professional development. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a growing range of print and electronic formats. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5052 or editionsmarketing@ala.org.