Subject Librarians: Engaging with the Learning and Teaching Environment

Citation

Turner, R. (2006), "Subject Librarians: Engaging with the Learning and Teaching Environment", New Library World, Vol. 107 No. 11/12, pp. 562-564. https://doi.org/10.1108/03074800610713389

This book, which has been produced by three members of staff from Bournemouth University, is a timely collection of papers about the role of university subject librarians. The work is aimed at library and academic staff within higher education institutions. It is additionally targeted at students of information and library management, and purports to be an overview of current practice. The objective of the work is to encourage further thinking about the increasing challenges of changes in education, learning and teaching in higher education.

Higher education is fundamentally different in the UK than it was even ten years ago. The educational and cultural backgrounds of the student cohort have become diversified as access to higher education has broadened and become more inclusive. The merits or otherwise of this expansion is a discussion best left for other places, but higher education institutions have responded commensurately to the changes in their student base. The role of subject specialists working in libraries has been a part of this radical transformation. These changes are also taking place internationally and this book attempts to capture some of these developments.

The editors see subject specialists as the link between the teaching community and the library. Of course, this is really what they have always been but this work argues that with such issues as widening participation, lifelong learning, information learning and collaborative working, this role has taken on increasing significance which has not been fully explored by the literature. In 2003 the same publisher produced Centred on Learning: Academic Case Studies on Learning Centre Development edited by Edward Oyston which looked at learning centred approaches to information provision. The current work examines this from a number of different angles, all based around the role of the subject specialist. In the USA this has been explored in some depth already, starting at a secondary level, such as Susan Kraat et al. Relationships Between Teaching Faculty and Teaching Librarians (2005).

Subject Librarians is divided into three sections, which can be broadly defined as the role of the subject specialist; the nature and needs of the student cohort; an international perspective. Each of the contributors has biographical information in a section at the front of the book, so it is relatively easy to assess the relevance and authority of the authors. The whole work is indexed and there are bibliographical references with most chapters.

The opening part of the book admirably commences with a review of the literature, by Margaret Feetham. This is a succinct, bordering on the breathless, basic overview which looks at the wider changes in academic libraries which have impacted on the role of the subject specialist, before looking at this role specifically and then considering future challenges. This chapter is followed by a more practical examination of subject specialists in higher education, exploring their engagement with their institution, wider profession, academic staff and students.

In these days of evaluation, benchmarking, monitoring, best practice and constant reviewing, Jill Beard of Bournemouth University contributes a useful chapter on quality assurance and enhancement. She argues that the review process and quality auditing must be underpinned by an effective mechanism to gather feedback from users and the commitment to act on it. These daunting processes can, and should be, seen as positive ways to improve service to users. The actual learning and teaching in higher education post‐Dearing, which is surely the nub of the subject librarians' role, is broadly covered in a rather meandering chapter. This is followed by a section on the importance of effective partnerships, in which the theme of quality which runs through the whole book is particularly emphasised.

No work on educational librarianship would be complete without a look at virtual learning environments and this work is no exception as Marian Matthews addresses this issue and questions whether library and information professionals' organisations are keeping pace with what is happening in the universities and other sectors with regard to VLEs.

The final section in the first part of the book examines the process of change within higher education institutions, specifically the importance of teamwork as a response to the changing needs of users.

And it is these users who are addressed in the second part of the book. A case study of Newcastle University Library is used to demonstrate developing information literacy programmes for undergraduate students. This rather obviously concludes that a “one size fits all” approach will no longer work. Janet Peters develops this theme by considering asynchronous learners. A very interesting further chapter looks at support for, and delivery of, research degree programmes. This section, by Matt Holland, astutely observes that researchers are reluctant to undergo training in information literacy but often lack these skills, so flexible and collaborative cross‐institution approaches to address research needs by subject specialists will need to be developed. The last chapter in this section is very relevant when the British government is looking at recruiting more international students. Frank Trew considers the educational, cultural and communication issues that international students face and how the subject specialist can be a help. The University of Warwick has a librarian with specific responsibility for international students and this is a trend that is likely to continue as the real and proportional numbers of international students increase in British universities.

The final section purports to be about international perspectives, but unfortunately this only consists of one essay about Southern African university libraries and this does not greatly add to knowledge. It would have been interesting to see more international case studies in this separate section.

In general, this edited work has refreshingly managed to draw together contributors in a coherent and logical compilation which goes a long way to achieving its aims. The key issues of quality assurance, networking, changes in educational practice and philosophy, electronic libraries, networking and a less homogenous economic and cultural student profile, are all fully acknowledged and addressed. The work will certainly be of use to all higher education libraries and academic departments, as well as being of use to the student of library and information management. It is certainly not a definitive study and there are weaknesses, particularly in the effort to bring an international element into the considerations. However, the aim of the work is to stimulate further research and debate about library service provision in higher education in the UK. This will certainly have to be undertaken if subject librarians are to continue to fully and effectively support both students and academic departments within a changing educational environment.