The Purpose-Based Library: Finding Your Path to Survival, Success, and Growth. By John J. Huber and Steven V. Potter. Chicago: Neal-Schuman, 2015. 200 p. Paper $62.00 (ISBN 978-0-8389-1244-7).

Building on the management principles presented in his book, Lean Library Management: Eleven Strategies for Reducing Costs and Improving Services (Neal-Schuman 2011), John Huber extends the “lean” philosophy to help libraries define the core purposes that add value to their community in order to survive, succeed, and grow. Huber includes anecdotes and facts from libraries with which he has consulted to illustrate the effect that increased competition, reduced assessments, budget cuts, and outsourcing have on libraries and that ways that some libraries have resisted these effects. In addition to examples cited by Huber, each chapter also features insights from Steven V. Potter, library director at Mid-Continent Public Library in Missouri, which put the discussion in the context of library administration experience.

Huber and Potter present a bold and comprehensive philosophy to fend off budget and perception threats: the library must be perceived not only as adding value to its community, but also as a hub for facilitating the community’s pursuit of core needs. Borrowing from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Huber proposes a pyramid of community needs, with the library as the catalyst to bring together community agencies, businesses, government, religious organizations, foundations, charities, and volunteers to cooperatively address community needs. Huber’s pyramid steps include food and shelter safety net, safety and security, functional literacy and access, digital literacy and access, functional skills development, creative expression, and advancement of knowledge. A chapter is devoted to each of these topics, and each includes a discussion of how libraries are engaging their communities to effect change, as well as charts and metrics to measure the dollar value of services.

Huber and Potter present food for thought that will be useful to library managers and administrators engaged in financial management and strategic planning. Current library services readily fall into the pyramid of needs: computer centers contribute to digital literacy and access; digital media labs and maker spaces enhance creative expression; story times, GED and ESL classes advance functional literacy and access. Although few libraries are in the position to coordinate community engagement for all the needs on the pyramid, administrators can use this book to build on existing community partnerships in one area and add to these over time. The charts and metrics will give librarians a useful starting point for examining the data cited in the footnotes, developing their own community metrics, expressing the dollar value of local library services, and making the case for the library as a core asset to its community. Although no bibliography is appended, the book includes a useful index, and the citations listed at the end of each chapter comprise a valuable resource for research data.—Linda Ward-Callaghan, Manager of Youth Services, Joliet Public Library, Joliet, Illinois