The generational effect: directors of public libraries

Directors of Municipal and Departmental lending libraries, now in their fifties, are to be found at the heart of all change initiated over the past 20 years during the process of decentalisation, as militant supporters of the public library.They have turned into managers and entrepreneurs of the public arena. Half of them will retire before 2010. The author of the article analyses the characteristics of the next generation, those of manager-technicians. He examines the constraints they will have to face up to and envisages transformations in the management function.
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