The Academic Librarian In The Digital Age

As new technology and opportunities emerge through the revolutionary impacts of the digital age, the function of libraries and librarians and how they provide services to constituents is rapidly changing. The impact of new technology touches everything from libraries' organizational structures, business models, and workflow processes, to position descriptions and the creation of new positions. As libraries are required to make operational adjustments to meet the growing technological demands of libraries' customer bases and provide these services, librarians must be flexible in adapting to this fast-moving environment. This volume shares the unique perspectives and experiences of librarians on the front lines of this technological transformation. The essays within provide details of both the practical applications of surviving, adapting, and growing when confronted with changing roles and responsibilities, as well as a big picture perspective of the changing roles impacting libraries and librarians. This book strives to be a valuable tool for librarians involved in public and technical services, digital humanities, virtual and augmented reality, government documents, information technology, and scholarly communication.

As new technology and opportunities emerge through the revolutionary impacts of the digital age, the function of libraries and librarians and how they provide services to constituents is rapidly changing. The impact of new technology touches everything from libraries' organizational structures, business models, and workflow processes, to position descriptions and the creation of new positions. As libraries are required to make operational adjustments to meet the growing technological demands of libraries' customer bases and provide these services, librarians must be flexible in adapting to this fast-moving environment. This volume shares the unique perspectives and experiences of librarians on the front lines of this technological transformation. The essays within provide details of both the practical applications of surviving, adapting, and growing when confronted with changing roles and responsibilities, as well as a big picture perspective of the changing roles impacting libraries and librarians. This book strives to be a valuable tool for librarians involved in public and technical services, digital humanities, virtual and augmented reality, government documents, information technology, and scholarly communication.

This textbook, for school library administration courses, is written by a professor who has taught this course at least once a year for the past twenty years. Technology is interwoven throughout the book and not listed as a separate chapter or book section. This is because the school librarian of today—and certainly the school librarian of tomorrow—is working in an environment of web resources, multimedia, mixed methods, and varying programs and services. Major chapters cover the various roles of the school librarian, curricular standards and guidelines, policies and procedures, budgeting, facilities, personnel, services, programming, ethics, advocacy, and evaluation. Sample policies, procedures, and plans make this book valuable to both new and experienced school librarians.

This revolutionary introduction to library management is the first conceived in and written for a digital age. Library Management for the Digital Age covers hierarchies, policies, communication, working relationships, facilities, human resources, settings, customer services, b...

This book is written to promote academic strategic management and envision future innovations for academic library resources, services and instructions in the digital age. It provides academic executives, consultants, instructors, IT specialists, librarians, LIS students, managers, trainers and other professionals with the latest information for developing trends of emerging technologies applied to student-centred and service-oriented academic learning environments. This book explores various fields where key emerging technologies may have great implications on academic library information technologies, academic library management, academic library information services, and academic library internal operations. Reflects most recent emerging technologies which might impact on library administrations, resources, services and instructions Draws a clear roadmap how and where to monitor emerging technologies which began to emerge under academic library environments Provides practical and realistic suggestions and solutions how to utilize emerging technologies in academic learning environments

The current digital age is impacting the contents and delivery of instructional service in many ways. Instructional sessions not only describe various features of a resource, but these sessions also bring issues like the ethical use of information, copyrights, and the value of open knowledge to light. Librarians are required to help users to learn use these tools. Changing the Scope of Library Instruction in the Digital Age provides emerging information on data visualization tools, creating effective instructions, and instructional design in library sciences. While highlighting the challenges of effectively training new and seasoned librarians in these various aspects of data technology and teaching methods, readers will learn the importance of giving librarians the tools they need to complete their new responsibilities. This book is an important resource for entry level and seasoned librarians, researchers, and instructional design specialists seeking current research on up to date library instruction in the modern technology age.

Librarianship is both an art and a science. Librarians study the science of information and how to work with clients to help them find solutions to their information needs. They also learn quickly that there is an art to working with people, to finding the answers to tough questions using the resources available and knowing which information resources to use to find the information being sought in short order. But, what technical skills do librarians need to be successful in the future? How can library managers best develop their staffs for success? Developing Librarian Competencies for the Digital Age explores questions such as: What is the composition of a modern library collection? Will that collection look different in the future? What are the information sources and how do we manage those? What are the technical skills needed for a 21st century librarian? How will reference services change and adapt to embrace new ways to interact with library patrons or clients? What kinds of library skills are needed for the librarian of today to grow and thrive, now and into the future? How will service models change to existing clients and how will the model change going into the future of librarianship? What kinds of budgeting challenges are there for libraries and the administrators who oversee these libraries? What do the library professional organizations see as the core skills needed for new graduates and those practicing in the profession going into the future? In answering those questions, the book identifies specific digital skills needed for success, ways of developing those skills, and ways of assessing them.

Effectively assess whether any library is making good use of the reference/user service resources available today Libraries need to develop standards by which they can assess their individual performances in a larger context, and Assessing Reference and User Services in a Digital Age makes significant contributions to this ongoing discussion. The book addresses its subject matter via approaches ranging from case studies of individual libraries to general discussions of best practices. The contributors explore the impact of the Internet on the field of evaluation, focusing on electronic reference and instruction. They highlight current issues, present research results, and offer expert advice on how to assess online reference and instruction. All chapters are well referenced to facilitate further study, and many include tables, appendixes, checklists, and other helpful features that make difficult information easy to access and understand. The chapters that make up Assessing Reference and User Services in a Digital Age are as rich and varied as the backgrounds of their authors. Experienced researchers provide the results of studies conducted to determine the nature and effectiveness of the online reference services offered by various libraries. Practitioners and administrators from different institutional settings (academic libraries, public libraries, consortiums, etc.) provide their perspectives on the issues facing librarians who need to assess the electronic services they provide. In this important new book: Andrew Briedenbagh shows how a chat service can be implemented and suggests which data should be collected for it Buff Hirko examines VET: the Virtual Evaluation Toolkit Ruth Vondracek shares the experiences of a university library as it entered a statewide e-reference consortium, and offers advice and issues to consider before entering such a partnership librarians from San Jose State University present a model for evaluating electronic reference services that can be used in public or academic libraries Kathleen Kern discusses holistic evaluation chat transcripts are addressed in several chapters, including Joseph Fennewald’s comparisons of question categories, Lesley Moyo’s analysis of the use of instruction in the virtual environment, and Caleb Tucker-Raymond’s proposed set of quality measures for chat reference Laurie Probst and Michael Pelikan report on the use of a “Tell Us What You Think” button to gather user feedback Kristi Nelson and Catherine L. Ross examine a research study that asked library school students to submit a reference question online and report on their experiences Melissa Gross, Charles McClure, and R. David Lankes suggest measures to determine the cost and benefits of a virtual reference service librarians from Utah State University describe the development of their online instructional module Assessing Reference and User Services in a Digital Age is designed as essential reading for library administrators, public service librarians, and researchers. It provides general advice for practitioners as well as an examination of research results and methodological issues. We urge you to consider making it part of your professional or teaching collection today.

There is currently an absence of an organization model which can be used as an aid to describing and discussing career development. This book will fill this gap by presenting a new model, the Librarian Career Management Tool, that can be used to identify and structure possible opportunities and challenges to the career development of academic librarians in the digital age. The career development of academic librarians follows different paths. There are different kinds of career guidance resources targeting librarians and students in Library and Information Science and the prerequisites for career development may differ between academic libraries. Because of this heterogeneity in the field there is a need for a theoretical and practical tool, the Librarian Career Management Tool, which distils variation down to fundamental principles which people can then work with. The tool collates all possible career paths into a taxonomy of influencing factors and natural relationships between these factors for the digital librarian context. The advantage of modelling these distinct patterns is to enable informed and far-sighted decisions on the motivations for the next steps in an individual’s career. It also enables key trends in digital information management to be better understood. Helps academic library managers to identify and structure the opportunities and challenges that their employees face in the digital age Helpful for early career academic librarians to identify and structure their motivations and what they want to achieve as librarians Ideal for educators in higher education within LIS as a resource for use in teaching about the prerequisites for, and characteristics of, career development of academic librarians

The budget-constrained, rapidly evolving climate of higher education and academic libraries makes it a necessity for academic librarians and administrators to communicate the value of their library to the university. This book explains how to execute this critical task. Authored by a library director and director of library liason and instructional services who formerly served as a faculty member, a librarian, and a professional development instructor, The Pivotal Role of Academic Librarians in Digital Learning establishes the library's role in supporting student learning in an increasingly digital environment by exploring theoretical foundations and sharing concrete examples. The chapters focus on strategies and methods for demonstrating the academic library's value through strategic campus partnerships, creation of learning objects such as video tutorials, research instruction designed to facilitate student collaboration, and participation in assessment of learning on campus. All of the topics addressed within a broad range of subject matter fall within the scope of learning in the "digital age," with particular emphasis on utilizing online learning environments—including social media—to teach students critical thinking and research skills as well as to position the academic library as an integral part of the modern learning environment. This book is a must-read for academic librarians in instructional roles, teaching faculty, academic library administrators and managers who need to communicate the value of the library in relation to student learning, and academic administrators who are obligated to demonstrate the important role of libraries in academic excellence.