About this item
In the years since John Huber's trailblazing Lean Library Management was published, budget pressures on libraries have only increased. Yet libraries who have adopted his strategies have turned conventional management thinking that if budgets are reduced, customer service suffers on its head. These libraries have proven that by streamlining and improving customer services, they can eliminate wasteful activities and bring down costs. In The Purpose-Based Library, Huber and seasoned public library administrator Potter build on insight gleaned from decades of experience to demonstrate how libraries can create real growth opportunities through concentrating on their true mission and purpose, and without spending a lot more money. With a focus on putting ideas into action, they point the way towardsNew ways to think about metricsReexamining customer self-driven servicesEffectively leveraging the considerable footprint of librariesIdentifying and assessing community needs and realigning library services accordinglyActively encouraging community fundraisingOffering cutting-edge services and programsPacked with boots-on-the-ground commentary, this book presents strategies to help libraries survive and succeed.
About the Author
Mr. Huber formed the management-consulting group of J. Huber & Associates in October of 1986. The firm's primary clients have included the financial investment groups of Forstmann & Little Co., Chase Venture (now JP Morgan) , PPM America, First Atlantic Capital and Spencer Trask. These and other financial investment firms have engaged Mr. Huber with the task to dramatically improve the value and performance of their investments. Mr. Huber supported clients in over 40 states with over 100 successful projects in the areas of strategic operations planning reviews, work flow improvement, process reengineering, plant layouts, productivity improvements, manufacturing systems design and installations, employee involvement and plant redesign, relocation and startup. Typical results of the operation improvement efforts included dramatic reduction in inventory investments (50-90%) , dramatic reduction in customer service lead-time (50-90%) , and dramatic improvement in customer service performance (20-40%) . For the past ten years, Mr. Huber has turned his attention the public library systems assisting them pursue and achieve Lean performances. Mr. Huber is the author of the popular and well-received book titled: Lean Library Management, Eleven Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Customer Service and the upcoming book, The Purpose-Based Library, steps to survival, success and growth.