John Cox writes about and analyses issues impacting academic libraries and their strategic positioning. Before he retired, he was University Librarian at the University of Galway in Ireland and held other library leadership roles at University College Cork and the Wellcome Trust.

This is the most challenging period for university libraries of my 30-year career as a professional librarian. The perilous state of sector finances means nothing is sacrosanct, and this welcome book provides valuable advice and tools to help the library director show that their service is “business critical” in a period of furious competition for limited funds. It is well worth the time of any library director, as well as anyone aspiring to become one.

• IntroductionPart I - Positioning ContextChapter 1 - The Historical Evolution of Academic Library Position and PositioningChapter 2 - Positioning StrategyChapter 3 - The Global Context: Politics, Economics, Society and TechnologyChapter 4 - The Changing Higher Education EnvironmentPart II - SWOT AnalysisChapter 5 - Strengths of Academic LibrariesChapter 6 - Weaknesses of Academic LibrariesChapter 7 - Opportunities for Academic LibrariesChapter 8 - Threats to Academic LibrariesPart III - Position and Positioning StrategiesChapter 9 - The Position of Academic Libraries Today: Making Sense of ComplexityChapter 10 - Positioning Strategies for Successful Academic LibrariesChapter 11 - Academic Library Positioning ToolkitConclusionReferencesIndex