A note from the author

No single book covers the full scope of leading IT in local government. The Leading Local Government IT book and field guide is a starting point, not the whole conversation. The works listed here are the ones I return to, recommend to new CIOs, and find useful when thinking through a hard problem on the job.

Some are recent. Some are decades old. The selection criterion is practical usefulness for the work, not novelty. I update this list quarterly as new books appear and as my own thinking shifts. If you have suggestions, send them to read@stevemonaghan.com.

This list is intentionally short. Reading widely matters more than reading exhaustively. Pick three or four titles that match where you are in your career right now, work them carefully, then come back for more.

The appendix is built to be used, not just read. The questions and tools in it only do their job when you sit down and work them, ideally with your leadership team in the room.

A printed book and a locked PDF don't let you do that. So here's the editable version. Print the section you need, add space for your answers, write in your own questions, and put it in front of your team. Mark it up. Make it fit your shop.

The book is fixed. The work isn't. This one's yours to change.