Academic librarians as change champions: a framework for managing change

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6/7) ◽  
pp. 294-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennine A. Knight
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Anticipate Change ◽  
Academic Librarianship ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Future Direction

Purpose As is the case of all organizations, the academic library is a body reflecting the contribution of its core employees. As such, the roles performed by academic librarians are crucial to its development and existence. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of academic librarians as change champions in an information age that has been, still is, and is expected to be continuously pervaded by varying and widespread changes in librarianship and scholarship coupled with the ever changing and expanding user needs and expectations. The paper also identifies a framework to perform this role. Design/methodology/approach This paper is informed by opinion and draws on relevant literature to highlight the current climate and what is being perceived as valuable to the future direction of academic libraries in order to bring credence to its trajectory. Findings Academic librarians must readily accept, be responsive to, and anticipate change to maintain and justify their relevance to stakeholders. Yet, anecdotal evidence suggests that not all librarians are prepared to embrace change. Practical implications Academic librarians must understand how their roles influence the decision-making processes of the stakeholders and vice versa. Originality/value The paper advances five principles or 5As to guide the change process in academic libraries: alignment, accountability, agility, accessibility, and assessment. Very briefly, it discusses the relevance of a concept referred to as the competition-collaboration continuum to further academic librarianship. These notions serve to assist academic librarians in determining the appropriate actions to be taken now.

Visual literacy: academic libraries address 21st century challenges

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Information Literacy ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Visual Literacy ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Academic Communities

Purpose This paper aims to explore a study that examines the role of academic librarians who teach visual literacy within their information literacy curricula. Design/methodology/approach The author developed a survey that was distributed to five listservs during a three-week period, generating 118 responses from academic libraries. The author subsequently interviewed 16 participants. Findings The findings reveal that visual literacy is important across all disciplines. However, a majority of academic librarians who replied to the survey stated that they do not teach visual literacy. Only 37.3 per cent of the respondents indicated that they or their institutions include a visual literacy component in their sessions. Practical implications The paper identifies the most relevant visual literacy trends, and it includes examples of visual literacy skills and concepts being taught in academic libraries. It provides ideas to develop marketing strategies to increase student enrollment in library workshops. Originality/value This study has expanded librarians’ awareness of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Visual Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. In addition, it explores the teaching of multiliteracies such as visual literacy within the information literacy framework in the academic library. The survey data demonstrate that academic librarians are slowly embracing visual literacy and including it in their information literacy instruction across all disciplines. The study recommends that librarians work on their professional development to become multiliterate to remain relevant within their academic communities.

scholarly journals Replicable services for reproducible research: a model for academic libraries

Bibliosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
F. Sayre ◽  
A. Riegelman
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Reproducible Research ◽  
Library Services ◽  
The Public ◽  
Data Intensive ◽  
Academic Librarianship ◽  
Core Areas ◽  
Research Faculty

Over the past decade, evidence from disciplines ranging from biology to economics has suggested that many scientific studies may not be reproducible. This has led to declarations in both the scientific and lay press that science is experiencing a “reproducibility crisis” and that this crisis has consequences for the extent to which students, faculty, and the public at large can trust research. Faculty build on these results with their own research, and students and the public use these results for everything from patient care to public policy. To build a model for how academic libraries can support reproducible research, the authors conducted a review of major guidelines from funders, publishers, and professional societies. Specific recommendations were extracted from guidelines and compared with existing academic library services and librarian expertise. The authors believe this review shows that many of the recommendations for improving reproducibility are core areas of academic librarianship, including data management, scholarly communication, and methodological support for systematic reviews and data-intensive research. By increasing our knowledge of disciplinary, journal, funder, and society perspectives on reproducibility, and reframing existing librarian expertise and services, academic librarians will be well positioned to be leaders in supporting reproducible research. Citation: Sayre F., Riegelman A. Replicable services for reproducible research: a model for academic libraries.

scholarly journals Beyond books: the concept of the academic library as learning space

2016 ◽  
Vol 117 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 308-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Fallin
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
User Engagement ◽  
Learning Spaces ◽  
Learning Space ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spatial Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Conceptual Paper

Purpose The paper aims to explore the issues surrounding the user conceptualisation of academic libraries. The paper will solidify the role of academic libraries as learning spaces and problematise how libraries are conceptualised by users. Design/methodology/approach The paper is a literature-based conceptual paper and draws on a wide range of literature to challenge the concept of academic libraries and presents how they are becoming reframed as different spaces. Findings The paper argues that the concept of a library is at risk. While libraries have undergone substantial changes, the concept of a library has lingered. This paper demonstrated that libraries need to proactively engage users in this debate. Originality/value The spatial approach taken by this paper demonstrates the complicity behind the user conceptualisation of libraries. Developing an understanding of this process is an important foundation for libraries to develop their user engagement.

scholarly journals Adult education and academic libraries

2018 ◽  
Vol 119 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 422-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Bordonaro
Keyword(s):  
Adult Education ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Adult Learning ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Library Users

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer practicing academic librarians an overview of adult education theories as a way to more deeply understand and further foster adult learning in academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a literature review. Findings This review introduces academic librarians to a range of specific adult education learning theories; it offers examples of academic library users engaging in these types of adult learning; it considers how academic libraries can further foster adult learning; and it identifies major characteristics of adult learners. Originality/value This literature review offers a summative overview of adult education in a way that has not appeared in the library literature to date, along with explicit connections between adult education theories and academic library practices.

Why are bathrooms inclusive if the stacks exclude?

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 159-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis L. Wagner ◽  
Archie Crowley
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Gender Nonconforming ◽  
Exclusionary Practices ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to deploy a critical discourse analysis (CDA) to consider exclusionary practices enacted by academic libraries as evidenced through resource provision. Specifically, this paper looks at the inclusion of trans and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) individuals in library guides, TGNC naming practices in abstracts and the physical shelving of transgender studies texts. This paper concludes with a discussion of methods to overcome such exclusionary practices in the future. Design/methodology/approach This paper deploys CDA as informed by queer theory, affording a lens to consider how language and information are structured such that particular power dynamics emerge placing symbolic value on discursively normal identities. CDA helps illuminate when, how and why TGNC individuals remain excluded within academic librarianship practices. Findings Findings show continued investments in heteronormative and cisnormative structures concerning information provision and access for TGNC patrons. TGNC patrons using library guides consistently fail to see any mentioned made of their respective identities aside from research about their identities. Patrons seeking information of personal value (i.e. coming out resources) find few resources. Further, library stacks and databases enact consistent microaggressions such as fetishizing, deadnaming and misgendering. Research limitations/implications This project contains considerable social implications, as it pushes against a continued recalcitrance on the part of academic libraries to invest in neutrality by showing its failures regarding TGNC persons. Practical implications This study possesses a considerable set of practical implications and highlights tangible problems that could be addressed with relative ease by academic librarians through either systemic reorganization of information or TGNC patrons. Alternatively, this work also suggests that if such reformations are not possible, academic librarians can take it upon themselves to call attention to such issues and purposefully mark these failings, thus making it clear that it is a current limitation of how libraries function and invite patrons (both cisgender and transgender) to challenge and change these representations through research and advocacy. Social implications This project contains considerable social implications as it pushes against a continued recalcitrance on the part of academic libraries (and librarianship more broadly) to invest in neutrality. This study contests the idea that while possessing neutrality academic libraries also posit themselves as inherently good and inclusive. By showing the violence that remains enacted upon transgender and gender nonconforming folks through multiple venues within the academic library, this study makes clear that statements of negativity are thrust onto TGNC patrons and they remain excluded from an institution that purports to have their well-being as one of its core values. Originality/value The deployment of CDA within information science is still a relatively new one. While linguists have long understood the multiplicity of discourse beyond language, the application of this method to the academic library as a discursive institution proves generative. Furthermore, the relationship between academic libraries and their LGBTQ+ populations is both underrepresented and undervalued, a problem exacerbated when focusing on how transgender and gender nonconforming patrons see themselves and their relationships to the academic library. This paper shows the dire state of representation for these particular patrons and provides groundwork for positively changing such representations.

The role of digital scholarship in academic libraries, the case of university of cape coast: opportunities and challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theophilus Kwamena Ocran ◽  
Paulina Afful-Arthur
Keyword(s):  
Learning Style ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Teaching Staff ◽  
Cape Coast ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Scholarship ◽  
The University

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to assess the role of academic libraries in digital scholarship at the University of Cape Coast. The study adopted the descriptive survey design and used teaching staff (lecturers) as the population of the study.Design/methodology/approachA sample size of 278 was used for the study. The study used questionnaires to obtain data from participants. The study revealed that faculty members appreciate digital scholarship through the services offered by Sam Jonah Library are relevant to the current higher education context, reliable information, preservation of information resources and facilitating the integration of library services into the learning process are closely integrated into the library service, transform scholarly communication, teaching and learning style and research paradigm.FindingsThe study revealed that digital scholarship contributes to faculty members' delivery at the University of Cape Coast through the provision of information literacy training for new students, provision of reference lists of materials available in the library and provision of lists of new materials. The study revealed that faculty members face inadequate facilities to enhance digital scholarship, inadequate open access to reading materials (articles, books, etc.), inadequate platforms or suite of tools for librarians to take faculty.Practical implicationsThe application of digital scholarship provides an expansion to the core competitiveness of librarians new services which enables innovativeness and transformation of libraries. Students will be equipped with digital literacy skills; it affords instructors to approach teaching with innovation and scholars are also engaged to perform novel practices in scholarship acquisition. Digital scholarship is the umbrella under which all academic technologies comes under to foster collaboration and better learning experience.Originality/valueThis paper offers an insight of the role digital scholarship in promoting and advancing scholarship in the academic environment. It highlights a number of digital scholarship platform available in the library. It is observed that digital scholarship practices must be encouraged in the library because it facilitates the role of academic library which is to support teaching, learning and research.

Not a token! A discussion on racial capitalism and its impact on academic librarians and libraries

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Vong
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Cultural Performance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Racial Trauma ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
And Training

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of racial capitalism in the context of academic libraries.Design/methodology/approachThis paper draws on Leong's (2013) extended theory of racial capitalism and identifies how neoliberalism and racial capitalism are tied as well as how it is manifested in academic libraries through tokenism, racialized tasks, consuming racial trauma, cultural performance demands, workload demands and pay inequity.FindingsThe article ends with some suggestions in how to address these problematic practices though dismantling meritocratic systems, critical race theory in LIS education and training, and funding EDI work.Originality/valueThe article explores a concept in the academic library context and points to practices and structures that may commodify racialized identities.

Re-positioning library technology support on Campus-Wilson Library’s journey

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 14-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Jiang ◽  
Karen Beavers ◽  
Jennifer Esteron Cady ◽  
Liberty McCoy
Keyword(s):  
3D Printing ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Technology Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Academic Technology ◽  
Technology Services ◽  
Library Technology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss the changing role of the academic library, in relation to technology support services. It proposes that library technology services should expand to take a central role in developing student academic technology skills, and shows how moving into non-traditional areas of technology support can expand a library’s operation capabilities to include entrepreneurship and innovation for faculty, staff and students. Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines how our library expanded its technology services to include course management support, technical literacy training and three-dimensional (3D) printing, and details future developments into robotics and software development. It details the authors initial objectives, the issues encountered, the improvements made in response and what the authors hope to do in the future. Findings – We are at a time when technology has made innovation and creation available to many. Academic libraries should take on this opportunity of repositioning technology services to provide and promote technical applications, becoming a central point for library users to share ideas and collaborate on projects. As a result of the interdisciplinary nature of academic libraries, the authors are in the best position to make this happen on campus. Originality/value – Even though continual change has been a theme in the development of libraries, very little has been written on the role of technology support services. This paper sets the foundation for further exploration in how taking on academic technology support services, 3D printing and makerspaces could be a part of library services.

scholarly journals Leveraging apps for research and learning: a survey of Canadian academic libraries

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Canuel ◽  
Chad Crichton
Keyword(s):  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Mobile Application ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Insight Into

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to assess the response of Canadian academic libraries to the rapid proliferation of mobile application (apps), many of which are useful for research, teaching, and learning. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was conducted to identify existing initiatives that address the use of mobile apps to facilitate research, teaching, and learning at the libraries of the 97 member institutions of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC). Based on this survey, this paper describes how apps are promoted, curated, organized, and described by today’s academic libraries. A review of the literature places this survey in its broader context. Findings – In total, 37 per cent of AUCC member libraries include links to mobile apps in their web site. Larger, research-intensive universities, tend to leverage apps more frequently than smaller institutions. Examples of how academic libraries are promoting apps provide insight into how academic librarians are responding to the proliferation of mobile technology. Practical implications – The results of this survey highlight trends with regard to this emerging service opportunity, help to establish current best practices in the response of academic libraries to the emergence of mobile apps, and identify areas for potential future development. Originality/value – This is the first study of its kind to explore and describe how third-party apps are used and promoted within an academic library context.

Impact of academic libraries on grade point average (GPA): a review

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-85
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Sterner
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Grade Point Average ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Academic Librarians ◽  
Academic Impact ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Student Privacy ◽  
The Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the literature to determine how academic librarians are measuring their libraries' institutional level impact on student success as measured by grade point average, a metric commonly used in American education. This paper highlights a range of methods, outcomes and challenges in an initial scoping study.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology centered on a literature review of measuring the impact of academic libraries on student success as quantified by grade point average (GPA) from 2010 to present. Searches in ProQuest, EBSCO and Google Scholar were used to identify the relevant literature. Keywords searched in databases included various combinations of academic impact, student success, learning outcomes, library and higher education.FindingsThe analysis of 15 papers shows that academic librarians have demonstrated a small, nonnegligible positive correlation of library usage on GPA. The results of studies have highlighted that correlation does not prove the cause. Concerns and limitations of studies included using the GPA as a measurement of student success, differences between GPAs in subject areas, timeframes used, sample size collected, student privacy and the meanings of the results.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is limited to articles published in English measuring student success as quantified by GPA and focuses heavily on American sources.Originality/valueThe research can guide librarians through known challenges and highlight successful designs and study methods used by other academic librarians to measure the impact of the library on student success.

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