7 Classrooms: library as pedagogical incubator

By Brian Mathews

Interesting post from The Ubiquitous Librarian blog!

How academic libraries may change when Open Access becomes the norm

From  Musings about Librarianship blog:   "The trend I am increasingly convinced that is going to have a great impact on how academic libraries will function is the rise of Open Access.  As Open Access takes hold and eventually becomes the norm in the next 10-15 years, it will disrupt many aspects of academic library operations and libraries will need to rethink the value-add they need to provide to universities....."

Key knowledge and skills required for LIS professionals in a digital era academic library in South Africa?

Knowledge and skills for the digital era academic library

J. Raju

Library and Information Studies Centre, University of Cape Town

This paper [in the J of Academic Librarianship] reports on a preliminary study which is part of a wider study aimed at developing a comprehensive skills statement which would provide an objective framework against which professional LIS practitioners in the modern academic library environment in South Africa may both measure their existing competencies and also identify the need for further skills acquisition. The research question guiding this preliminary investigation was: What key knowledge and skills are required for LIS professionals to effectively and efficiently practise in a digital era academic library in South Africa?

Some areas highlighted in the article:  

...emerging trend of research data management and curation; 

new job titles represent strong ICT elements; 

“significant technology skills set”; 

life skills such as communication and interpersonal skills, critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork; 

a capacity for continuous learning and who are adaptable in a fast changing work environment ; 

communication skills .. among the most highly ranked generic skills; 

team-based approaches are a common practice in digital projects and interpersonal skills are a key to success in team efforts”; 

capacity for continuous learning, flexibility, fostering change and the capacity to work independently;

enthusiasm and self-motivation; 

reflective thinking, and the ability to respond to others' needs; 

“adaptive skills to keep up with changes and challenges within library and information environments”; 

“…generic capabilities [which may include personal competencies] and discipline knowledge are quite significantly intertwined and interrelated and vital for success as a library and information professional in the twenty first century”

Planning library spaces and services for Millennials: An evidence-based approach

Library Management

Volume 34, Issue 6-7, 2013, Pages 498-511

 Planning library spaces and services for Millennials: An evidence-based approach

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine undergraduates' perception and use of two distinct library spaces - social and communal - in an academic library in order to provide more customized services. Design/methodology/approach: A survey was conducted at D.H. Hill Library at North Carolina State University, including structured questions on perceptions and use of the library, perceptions of library layout and design, and respondent demographics, as well as open questions on the advantages and disadvantages of social and communal spaces. Findings: Undergraduates frequently use the physical library. Their usage patterns mirror common characteristics of Generation Y by going there mostly on weekday nights, with friends or in a group. Both communal and social spaces appear to be well-used for many different activities ranging from solitary academic work to technology-driven collaborative work and socializing. Some demographic variables, such as ethnicity and gender, are found to affect aspects of perception and use. For example, African American and Asian students tend to engage in activities that involve library technology, tools and resources, while White students simply use the spaces. Despite their excitement and appreciation of the social spaces in the library, students consider the quiet communal spaces integral to their experience of the library and stress the need of quiet space for academic work. Originality/value: This is one of a few systematic empirical studies on end-users' use of library space. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Creative Destruction and Library Services

I came across this editorial in Issues in Science and TechnologyLibrarianship
Excerpt:
“ …..Reduced library visitorship due to the more desirable digital delivery of services and collections means that science librarians (among others) have to change their way of operating. For example, the recent emphasis on the creation of inviting spaces to attract users is probably not an effective long-term survival strategy. Think about it: What if the Department of Motor Vehicles' stated objective was to get as many people into their brick-and-mortar office as possible? What if bank executives instructed their branch managers to induce as many people to come into the bank as they could? Would these strategies actually improve service or outcomes?
The digital delivery of information means that librarians have to develop more direct-to-reader services. And because publishing infrastructure and standards are so well developed in science, it will be the science librarians who are first in this area. If we can't deliver content and services to our users in their offices and labs, then it is likely that someone else (e.g. Google and Amazon) will…”  

Embracing Change (in Academic Libraries)

Serials Review 1 August 2013

The Internet, Google, e-journals, packages, e-books and patron driven acquisitions have all been perceived as “a threat to libraries as we know them.” Yet, in spite of these developments and under the weight of chronic budget pressures, the typical academic library now offers more users better access to more content and services than ever before. In this session we will look at how librarians and the vendors that serve them have responded to these “threats” to their future to create new and improved services ...

 

several areas of change.

•

The collection: moving to electronic

•

The library as a place (physical and virtual)

•

Services available from the library

•

Librarian's role in curating and managing data sets

•

Discovery tools and access to content

•

How and where users can be reached

•

Library's role in exposing the institution's research and knowledge assets on a world stage.

 

Librarians' Views of Academic Library Support for Scholarly Publishing: An Every-day Perspective

 Some of the topics discussed in the article: (from J of academic librarianship)

• How do academic librarians perceive their role in relation to the research community in their everyday work? 
• How is it possible to make academic librarians active in the processes surrounding academic research
• more integrated view of the different parts of the university in that researchers and non-academic staff are tied closer to each other
• academic libraries ... today are expected to take a larger responsibility for the publication output of the university, primarily through the establishment and support of open institutional archives and Open Access journals. In keeping these archives, insight and participation in the scholarly processes are required in order to keep researchers aware of the opportunities offered by the university library to make research results public through internal, open channels.
• a gap between attitudes and action, where positive attitudes about Open Access are confronted by the rigidity of the university system and its library practice.
• basic tension between the traditional “reactive” academic librarian and the “proactive” librarian expected to meet contemporary demands
• the importance of the pedagogical discourse that has dominated academic libraries for the last decade is now decreasing. Instead a combination of traditional bibliographic work and development of engagement in researchers' publication strategies is emerging. Even though there are several ways of looking at the practical solutions for the library's engagement in digital repository development and Open Access publishing, there is a clear sense that this will be of increasing significance for academic libraries in years to come.
• increasing importance of bibliometric research evaluation indicators both locally and nationally is felt to be a factor which will influence both the position of academic libraries in organizational settings and the practical work for librarians, not least in relation to the digital institutional repositories, where bibliographic records must be developed and maintained.
• With new prerequisites for scholarly publication through peer-reviewed Open Access journals and institutionally based digital repositories, academic librarians now feel that there are opportunities emerging both in relation to the individual researchers, research groups and to the universities as a whole. Turning focus from information seeking tutorials towards publication support and strategy formulation makes the academic libraries, also at relatively small universities as those in this study, active parts of the development in scholarly knowledge production.

Designing researcher-centric library services

from 12th May 2013 Research Information (Analysis and Opinion)


"....findings highlighted three primary areas that would benefit from new or redesigned services. Firstly, there is the area of information discovery. In particular, there is a need to support chemists in keeping up with the literature and enabling serendipitous discovery.
The second key role is research dissemination and scholarly communications. While academic chemists publish frequently, the report revealed the need for greater support in disseminating their research outputs.
Data management and preservation was the third area identified. The report acknowledged a gap in training in how to store, manage and curate the data that is collected by chemists and their labs..."

Redefining the Academic Library

Just published, the USA’s University Leadership Council’s report:
Redefining the Academic Library: Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services


Full report in pdf
 
Content:
Transformational Change in the Information Landscape:

    Unsustainable Costs
    Viable Alternatives
    Declining Usage
    New Patron Demands

Managing the Migration to Digital Information Services

I. Leveraging Digital Collections

    The Promise and Perils of Ebooks
    Patron-Driven Acquisition
    Print-on-Demand

II. Rethinking the Scholarly Publishing Model

    Centralized Licensing Structure
    On-Demand Article Access
    Open-Access Publishing

III. Repurposing Library Space

    Data-Driven Deselection
    Collaborative Collection Management
    Building the 21st Century Library

IV. Redeploying Library Staff

    Externalizing Low-Impact Activity
    Roles in Teaching and Learning
    Roles in Research and Scholarship
 

Think like a Startup

A white paper to inspire library entrepreneurialism
by Brian Mathews

What if Residence Halls and Student Centers managed learning commons spaces?
• What if the Office of Research managed campus-wide electronic database subscriptions and on-demand access to digital scholarly materials?
• What if Facilities managed the off-campus warehouses where books and other print artifacts are stored?
• What if the majority of scholarly information becomes open? Libraries would no longer need to acquire and control access to materials.
• What if all students are given eBook readers and an annual allotment to purchase the books, articles, and other media necessary for their academic pursuits and cultural interests?9 Collections become personalized, on-demand, instantaneous, and lifelong learning resources.
• What if local museums oversaw special collections and preservation?
• What if graduate assistants, teaching fellows, post-docs, and undergraduate peer leaders managed database training, research assistance, and information literacy instruction?
 Read this interesting paper

2012 top ten trends in academic libraries

A review of the trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education

Academic Library Use of Facebook: Building Relationships with Students

"Given Facebook's explosive growth to become a dominant mode of communication for college students, academic libraries are exploring this applicability of Facebook as a means to deliver and market services. Previous articles have indicated that both librarians and students have mixed opinions about libraries having a presence on Facebook. This may be one of the first studies to consider how libraries are actually utilizing Facebook pages, rather than individual librarian profiles or groups, by analyzing Facebook messages."

Changing roles of middle managers in academic libraries

The purpose of this paper is to: address how the library middle management role has changed; assist middle managers in identifying new opportunities and broadening their horizon within middle management; offer strategies for middle managers to be more efficient and effective in the changing era; and lay out the challenges middle managers are facing to further discussions.

E-books may inhibit student comprehension: studies

E-books may be the wave of the future, but it seems members of Generation Y — you know, the digital generation — still prefer their books in print, and find some aspects of e-reading to be clunky.

Researchers at the University of California and the California Digital Library recently released results of a survey that found a majority of students (58%) now use e-books, but most still prefer print formats. Of the 2,400 survey respondents who indicated a preference, 49% say they prefer print books, 34% prefer e-books, and 17% had no preference or described a preference that is usage-dependent.

Larger numbers of graduate students are more favorably inclined to e-books, but almost six out of ten undergrads indicated the highest preference for print books (58%). In fact, according to the survey report, “many undergraduate respondents commented on the difficulty they have learning, retaining, and concentrating while in front of a computer.”

The State of Mobile in Libraries 2012

As patrons embrace mobile devices, libraries need to provide new services. Here’s a look at the state of mobile library services—and what libraries need to do to stay on the radar

Also in this article:

Apps: What Do Patrons Want?

By Lisa Carlucci Thomas

Where do mobile library services stand in 2012? Nearly two years after the 2010 LJ Mobile Libraries Survey, mobile devices, such as smartphones, ereaders, and tablets have become mainstream, and the mobile library landscape has broadened significantly. Librarians, technologists, and information professionals are learning about and experimenting with mobile technologies while exploring and adopting best practices from library peers, institutional partners, and cross-industry experts.

Suddenly everyone (and no one) knows best how to meet the ever-changing mobile demand for information. From marketing, packaging, and licensing, to delivery, participation, and integration with existing services and practices, we’re all experts in ­training.

Do Librarians Work Hard Enough? | Inside Higher Ed

Do Librarians Work Hard Enough? | Inside Higher Ed

Levy and Coffman have something in common. They think of these social institutions like universities and libraries in terms of what customers can get from them, and how they could get it for less. In short, they have no idea of the common good. It’s the logical outcome of the near-religious faith that markets are always right, just like customers.