scholarly journals Afterword: Special Collections and Assessing the Value of Academic Libraries

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-194
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Pritchard

The initiatives and operational studies presented in this issue of RBM reflect a new level of research and analysis in the area of the assessment of special collections and related services. Here I wish to explicitly frame these essays in the larger context that they imply, namely institutional outcomes. The key challenge in special collections—in fact, in any part of the academic library—is getting the broader institution to care. How does one ensure that the university and its stakeholders will be willing to underwrite the support of special collections, arguably the most expensive component of a library as . . .

Infolib ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 36-39
Author(s):  
Victoria Levinskaya ◽  

Any contemporary academic library is created to meet the needs of the faculty member, researchers, and students in providing access to educational and scientific resources that go beyond traditional sour-ces of information such as books, textbooks, and magazines. Building a library collection is a scrupulous process involving not only librarians, but also the academic staff of the university. This process is highly dynamic, since it should ensure the quality of the provided educational services of the university, as well as contribute to the development of its scientific potential. This article reveals the main challenges facing academic libraries in creating an developing, recent and balanced library collection.


2007 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Herrera

In March 2003 the University of Mississippi Libraries made our MetaSearch tool publicly available. After a year of working with this product and integrating it into the library Web site, a wide variety of libraries interested in our implementation process and experiences began to call. Libraries interested in this product have included consortia, public, and academic libraries in the United States, Mexico, and Europe. This article was written in an effort to share the recommendations and concerns given. Much of the advice is general and could be applied to many of the MetaSearch tools available. Google Scholar and other open Web initiatives that could impact the future of MetaSearching are also discussed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-33
Author(s):  
Kathia Ibacache

Language-learning apps are becoming prominent tools for self-learners. This article investigates whether librarians and employees of academic libraries have used them and whether the content of these language-learning apps supports foreign language knowledge needed to fulfill library-related tasks. The research is based on a survey sent to librarians and employees of the University Libraries of the University of Colorado Boulder (UCB), two professional library organizations, and randomly selected employees of 74 university libraries around the United States. The results reveal that librarians and employees of academic libraries have used language-learning apps. However, there is an unmet need for language-learning apps that cover broader content including reading comprehension and other foreign language skills suitable for academic library work.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 168-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Farida ◽  
Jann Hidajat Tjakraatmadja ◽  
Aries Firman ◽  
Sulistyo Basuki

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to attempt to build a conceptual model of Open Access Institutional Repositories (OAIR) in Indonesia academic libraries, viewed from knowledge management (KM) perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Literature-based conceptual analysis of previous studies related to open access, institutional repositories viewed from KM perpective. Findings – The conceptual model of OAIR emphasizes three variables – people collaboration, process, and technology functions. These variables, with their many elements, are integrated together in order to help the university or Higher Education (HE) institution in capturing its own scholarship produced as a whole. Besides, that integration aims at facilitating knowledge sharing so as to enrich knowledge content and to enhance global access. A process chart of OAIR based on the conceptual model is built to illustrate knowledge content recruitment in Indonesia academic libraries. Research limitations/implications – The conceptual model proposed in this paper is not yet formally tested. It needs more research to understand the Indonesian context of OAIR to build a more accurate model, based on the experiences in developing and implementing OAIR in Indonesia HE institutions. Originality/value – Many academic libraries in Indonesia develop OAIR to increase the visibility of the scholarship of the parent HE institution. It is significant to view the practice of OAIR in academic library from the KM perspective. KM implementation is almost unheard of in Indonesia universities. However, The OAIR phenomenon in Indonesia academic libraries can be viewed as a KM initiative.


IFLA Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 034003522110230
Author(s):  
James E Murphy ◽  
Carla J Lewis ◽  
Christena A McKillop ◽  
Marc Stoeckle

Despite the uncertain challenges facing libraries of all types during the COVID-19 pandemic, new best practices and innovative ways of approaching services have emerged. Including the groundbreaking Taylor Family Digital Library in 2011, the University of Calgary Libraries and Cultural Resources has been contributing towards the ongoing development of the digital academic library. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated a rapid leveraging of digital skills, platforms, expertise, and models of service delivery to continue providing exceptional and transformative experiences for the University of Calgary community. The initiatives discussed in this article include online work teams, virtual 360-degree tours, the online library chat service, digital collections agreements, and remote services for archives and special collections.


Author(s):  
Gražina Lamanauskienė

During the last decade there were a lot of organizational changes in the academic libraries. The academic library become one of the leading divisions of the university in formation of information culture of students. It is obvious that academic libraries currently are caught up in a cultural and informational tsunami. The new global information-communication environment is formed very quickly. Modern ICT also is an integral part of modern academic library. These two main factors undoubtedly influences changes of classical schemes of organizational culture. The academic library nowadays is acting as educational change agent. Moreover, mass higher education, flexible delivery, student centred and problem based learning, information literacy and other graduate attributes, are accelerating curricular and educational change in progressive universities. Academic librarians need to be as partners for academic teachers and others in that change. The academic library directly takes part in educational process of university. It is clear that the universities should play the important role in human resource develop-ment to serve the needs of improving the efficiency and quality in all aspects of the people in the country. Such a mission can be solved only in very close participation of the academic library in educational process. The objectives of this study are (1) to study the basic concepts and levels of information culture, (2) to study the main criteria of the information culture in the academic libraries and related parameters affecting the development of the academic library to be a modern organization; and (3) to analyse practical aspects of display (expression) of the mentioned parametres of information culture. The main idea of this study is that in the academic library, as well as in other open organisation, it is pos-sibly to create favourable conditions for effective formation of information culture. The mission of the university academic library must therefore move beyond excellence in information identification, acquisition, organisation, access and skills development. It should be described and asserted in educational terms. It is obvious, that academic library must continue to redefine own role within the teaching and research mission of the university. All necessary conditions should be created in order to guarantee continious process of formation of information culture. Based on an example of the academic library of the University of Siauliai the basic directions of modernisation of functioning of library and effective ways of its participation in educational process are shown in the paper. Key words: academic library, information culture, case study.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Rahmat Iswanto

The assumption is there are many academic libraries of Indonesia especially under Minister of Religion Affairs (MORA) which hardly meet a demand of their users’ needs because their collection management or collection development policies do not prepare well. Actually to create a better collection, an academic library has to plan its collection well. This research has done with a purpose of inspecting a collection development policy of an academic library in Indonesia and its implementation. The collection development policy of main library of State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah at Jakarta in 2008 is the object of this research. This research has done by a descriptive qualitative approach that inspects deeply by means of any deep interview, observation, and document analysis. Having examined the formulation of its collection development policy we know the context of policy’s formulation, some actors who formulate, the roles of the head of the library, the attitude of the university and some values that influence. Having examined its implementation we know that the aims of the policy have achieved or not.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Theophilus Kwamena Ocran ◽  
Paulina Afful-Arthur

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.


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (3) ◽  
pp. 135-149
Author(s):  
Mohammad Aslam

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the key challenges of academic libraries in times of changing nature of higher education system and how library leaders can manage the challenges when effective leadership is highly required for academic libraries today. As the time is changing, the kinds of challenges that library leaders face have also changed. Author of this study explores the methods and approaches, which are more effective ways of managing challenges in the reshaping environment of academic libraries. At the same time, change has become a permanent part of academic libraries and they need leaders who are able to lead and manage change efficiently, bring theories into practices, find innovative solutions to challenges, creative thinkers, effective communicators, collaborative mindset and self-motivators. Design/methodology/approach The selective publications have been reviewed to find the best ways to leading changes and managing challenges in academic libraries. The approaches and methods in this study are based on personal experiences of author as director of the university libraries and experiences of library leadership worldwide are conversed. Findings Academic libraries are facing similar challenges around the world. The author found that academic library leadership needs innovative skills and competencies, effective communication abilities and a new way of thinking to deal with challenges and create willingness to adapt the changes. Kotter’s leadership manage change model may apply for creating and implementing organizational change in academic libraries. Originality/value Literature on this topic is comparatively limited. Consequently, this manuscript adds value to the publications of library and information sciences and offers the literature in the field of leadership challenges and manage change in the academic libraries. It also provides guidelines to academic library leadership universally, and how can leaders work with change effectively.


2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaia Sievert ◽  
Amber Fick ◽  
Becky Adamski ◽  
Ashley Merrill ◽  
Danika LeMay

Staff from the Access and Information Services (AIS) department at the University of Minnesota Libraries developed several readers’ advisory services to promote student engagement. One project was a Book Matchmaking service, for which users completed a web form and were given reading suggestions owned by the libraries. A brief survey was distributed to users of the service during the fall of 2016 to assess impact. The resulting data made a strong argument for further readers’ advisory activities in academic libraries, as libraries and users benefit equally. Participating in the service encouraged positive engagement with the library and encouraged leisure reading.


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