Pymm, Bob. Learn library management. Canberra: DocMatrix Pty Ltd, 1998. 152 pp. $A24.95. soft cover. ISBN 1 876283 04 1.

This spirex-bound volume is part of the DocMatrix Library Education series. It supports the syllabus for several modules in the Diploma of Library and Information Studies, a national course for library technicians that is provided in Au stralia's Vocational Education and Training institutions. The knowledge, skills, attitudes, learning outcomes and assessment criteria for each of the modules are provided (with one error of attribution), in the introduction. The principal module that is addressed, is a core module called Managing an Information Agency Environment.

The workbook is laid out in fifteen formulaic chapters that introduce management issues such as team building, financial management, service provision, human resources, and different levels of planning. These are rounded off with a glos sary of management terms ranging from generic (for example 'budget') to specific acronyms (for example 'MBTI').

Most chapters conclude with an information management case study devised for small group discussion. There are also exercises that usually consist of a brief scenario, and instructions such as 'produce three strategies related to achiev ing the mission of the Agency'. Despite the tenuous nature of the examples provided, Bob Pymm commendably provides model answers (in his words 'not necessarily THE right ones'), to many of these exercises.

Management texts often alienate students with verbosity. This one doesn't. It recognises that many students have yet to experience management, and can best come to terms with it in simple point form, leaving instructors to embellish wit h examples. It is therefore a good instructional tool, both for the courses for which it provides a framework, and for university courses in the same area. In these, it should be complemented by discursive and analytical material, including that for which references are provided in the further reading at the end of each chapter.

Michael Middleton, QUT