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The purpose of this paper is to explore key issues involved with opportunities, challenges, and future developing trends of delivering dynamic and distributed web‐based academic library information resources, services, and instructions for library users in the digital age.

Based on the typical web‐based, three‐tier client/server architecture, this paper explores ten key issues how to leverage quality library user services in the digital age: roles of academic libraries; funding support; information resources; information access; information services; instructions and trainings; impacts of cutting‐edge technologies and emerging technologies; web contents management and knowledge base; assessment and evaluation; and Librarians. Also discussed are the next‐generation web‐based client/server library information architecture and services in the foreseeable future.

With the rapid development of the internet and the world wide web, information exchange and information distribution can be transformed either by disparate formats or by dynamic channels. Knowledge, competence, and skills cannot follow up with the rapid advances of science and technologies. Many library users need assistance to access, locate, convert, synthesize, and evaluate information effectively and efficiently. It is very imperative for libraries and librarians to design, develop, enhance, implement, and deliver high quality user‐centered information services, resources, and instruction at the fingertips of library users.

Target readers who include librarians, instructors, trainers, consultants, managers, IT specialists, executives, and other professionals who are involved with developing and delivering distributed library user services via the internet will find this article of value.

Academic libraries are undergoing a paradigm shift of service, due to various changes in their environment and internally. The maker culture is one of these factors and implies challenges regarding space, infrastructures, and services organization. This situation extends to research support services, in which the users have a particular informative behavior. This chapter aims to analyze whether the academic library has created research support services adapted to the era of maker culture. It examines how research is a key factor in the higher education system to contextualize the importance of research support services in academic libraries. How the researcher accepts or not the role of academic libraries in the process of production and communication of research is studied. As critical elements of the process, we examine part of researcher information behavior in the era of maker culture and the relationship of these users with librarians.

This paper aimed to determine the extent to which academic libraries and information services were extended due to the emergence of COVID-19 in the Gauteng Province, South Africa.

Founded on a pragmatism paradigm, the sequential explanatory research design was adopted to engage with participants and respondents on their experience of library services extensions to support users during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using online questionnaires and interviews. Cluster and purposive sampling were used and data for the quantitative part were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), whilst qualitative data were analyzed manually.

Findings revealed that academic libraries operating in a higher education environment provided extensive support to remote users during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done through the utilization of a variety of technology utilization, ranging from traditional e-mail support to the use of technology related to Artificial Intelligence such as the BOTsa, which is a Chatbot aimed to assist users in receiving speedy responses to library-related inquiries.

This study is unique in that it focuses on academic libraries that operate in higher education environments where support for achieving academic endeavors becomes imperative to ensure the smooth execution of teaching and learning activities within the restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adaptions and improvements to academic library services during and post-COVID-19 era were successful in ensuring that remote users could obtain similar services and access to information as was the case before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Collection content is no longer the primary distinctive signifier of excellence in the present libraries. In an information market where technology has increased access to content, thereby providing resources at one’s fingertips, the provision of services is increasingly becoming a distinctive signifier of excellence and quality. In such an open/service-oriented marketplace, what are the services that are signifiers of excellence and consequently distinguish a library? This paper aims to review select literature within the USA to identify the services that are signifiers of excellence and that will consequently distinguish a library in the current era and investigate the extent to which said services identified in the review of the literature are provided by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Mona library, but focus specifically on only those that meet the additional criteria of placing the UWI Mona library as either the first to introduce the service in Jamaica or as the only library in Jamaica with the particular service offering. These two additional criteria provide the added signature or uniqueness essential to being distinguished.

Through the use of a mixed methods research, this paper highlights library service offerings considered as distinctive signifiers of excellence within the American literature and also within the UWI Mona Library – that will distinguish a library.

This paper reveals services incorporating technology, the library as a place/space, teaching and research and personal attention to users as distinctive signifiers of excellence. In this regard, within the UWI Mona Library, services offered such as the Virtual Reference Service, Extended Opening Service, Halls of Residence Librarian Service, Information Commons Service, Information Literacy Service and the West Indies and Special Collection Research Service were found to incorporate the aforementioned service themes and placed the UWI Mona library as either the first to introduce the service in Jamaica or as the only library in Jamaica with the particular service offering, consequently distinguishing the UWI Mona Library from other academic libraries in Jamaica.

This paper is of value, as it provides the library and information community with an outline of services that distinguish a library; it offers library managers in Jamaica and the rest of the world the opportunity to compare services in their libraries with that of other libraries as outlined within the literature review as well as within the UWI Mona library; it highlights how the UWI Mona library, an academic library in the Caribbean, compares on the international library scene, with particular reference to the USA; it informs current and potential library users of how the UWI Mona library is trending in service culture and a focus on distinctive services can promote a community of academic library service best practice.

This paper aims at understanding the current situation of research support services offered by academic libraries in world-leading universities and providing useful implications and insights for other academic libraries.

Of the top 100 universities listed in the QS World University Rankings in 2017, 76 libraries were selected as samples and a website investigation was conducted to explore the research support services. The statistical method and visualization software was used to generalize the key services, and the text analysis and case analysis were applied to reveal the corresponding implementation.

Research support service has become one of the significant services of academic libraries in the context of e-research and data-intensive research. The research support services can be generally divided into seven aspects, as follows: research data management (62, 81.58 per cent), open access (64, 84.21 per cent), scholarly publishing (59, 77.63 per cent), research impact measurement (32, 42.11 per cent), research guides (47, 61.84 per cent), research consultation (59, 77.63 per cent) and research tools recommendation (38, 50.00 per cent).

This paper makes a comprehensive investigation of research support services in academic libraries of top-ranking universities worldwide. The findings will help academic libraries improve research support services; thus, advancing the work of researchers and promoting scientific discovery.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of social media in the marketing of academic library resources and services in Kuwait and identifies the factors related to the use of social media applications in marketing academic libraries.

A quantitative data-collection approach using a paper and online questionnaire has been employed to elicit the opinions of librarians working in academic libraries in Kuwait in both private and public institutions. In total, 89 valid questionnaires have been analyzed using descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (factor analysis, correlations, experimental analysis and regression).

The study shows that the academic librarians have a positive perception toward the use of social media. The identified factors relating to the use of social media for marketing library information resources and services are the usefulness of social media tools in raising awareness and in providing needs analysis and satisfaction assessments. However, management support for the use of social media for library marketing is poor.

This study provides insights into the factors related to the use of modern social media platforms to promote information resources and services at academic libraries to provide outreach services to current and potential users.

This research contributes to the field of information studies as it highlights the importance of using social media platforms in marketing academic library information resources and services. Library administrators could use the results to develop social media marketing plans to effectively promote their library resources.

The purpose of this article is to identify opportunities for effective collaboration between academic libraries and student services offices dedicated to providing services to students of color.

A survey research method was used to gather demographic information about students affiliated with one of four “cultural centers” at Washington State University and to generate descriptive statistics regarding their patterns of information use and the degree to which they made use of library resources and services.

Findings are reported in five tables describing library use by students of color as well as their preferences for targeted library programming. Survey results were used to identify a number of potential service enhancements to encourage more effective use of library and information resources by students of color.

Survey dissemination was limited to those students either actively affiliated with one of four cultural centers sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Student Services, or involved in the Academic Enrichment programs sponsored by that office. Survey results suggest that additional inquiry is needed into the development of substantive and sustainable partnerships between academic libraries and student services offices dedicated to providing services to students of color.

Provides a number of discrete approaches to providing more effective library resources and services to students of color within the framework both of liaison with academic departments and of co‐curricular service frameworks.

Builds a framework for service‐based liaison with student communities of color that transcends the familiar discussions related to building library collections that reflect the history and experience of racial and ethnic minority groups. Insight into minority student use of libraries and into avenues for collaboration with multicultural student service programs may be useful to librarians on any college campus with a well‐defined framework for minority student services.

The education services sector faces ever-changing global market dynamics with creative disruptions. Building knowledge brands can push the higher education sector beyond its geographical boundaries into the global arena. This study aims to identify key constructs, their theoretical background and dimensions that aid in building a global knowledge brand. The authors' research focuses on adapting and validating scales for global knowledge and education services brands from well-established academic literature.

The authors have adopted a mixed methodology approach and a systematic literature review. Authors interviewed 18 subject matter experts as part of content and face validity to arrive at select constructs, dimensions and items. Quantitative methods with random sampling were adopted as the primary methodology. Initially, the survey was administered to 390 students to test preliminary results. The survey was also administered to 5,112 students at a later part of this study. Valid responses stood at 3,244 with a 63% response rate. Further, the authors conducted confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to test the reliability and validity of scales. This study analyzed composite reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity to finalize items for scales. The authors also validated the hypotheses based on the discriminant validity assessment scores.

Authors' key research findings are that academic stimulus, campus infrastructure and student intent play a significant role in campus culture and events design and experience at campus. Authors were able to bring out 16 key constructs and 55 critical dimensions vital to global education services brand building. This study also adapted and validated 99 items that meet construct validity and composite reliability criteria. This study also highlights that constructs such as student intent, academic stimulus, campus infrastructure scalability, selection mechanism, pedagogical content knowledge, brand identity, events experience and campus culture play a vital role in global brand recognition.

The authors' work is fairly generalizable to education services and the higher education sector. However, this study must be extrapolated and empirically validated in other industry sectors. The research implications of this study are that it aided the authors in building theoretical background for student brand loyalty theory, student expectation theory and study loyalty theory. This study adds to the body of knowledge by contributing to theoretical concepts on students, knowledge culture, events, infrastructure and branding. Researchers can adopt the scales proposed in this study to build research models in higher education branding. This study acts as a catalyst for building theories in education services areas. Researchers can delve deep into proposed research aspects of campus infrastructure, knowledge infrastructure, campus knowledge culture, events design and events experience.

This study aids educators and brand managers to develop global education services and optimize their effort and budget. Administrators in the education services sector must focus on practical aspects of student perception, campus infrastructure, culture and events experience. Practically administrators can reorient their efforts based on this study to achieve global brand recognition.

This study highlights that students are not customers but are co-creators of value in the education sector. This study provides scales and dimensions needed to build co-creation frameworks and models.

Most research in higher education branding has not covered wider aspects of global brand building. Existing theories proposed in higher education and education services articles cover only narrower aspects of campus infrastructure, culture, events design and branding. This study presents a comprehensive list of critical factors that play a vital role in global knowledge brand building. This study highlights the constructs and scales integral to building a global education services brand.

Technological advancement has forced academic libraries to change their traditional services and routines by adopting emerging technologies to respond to the changing information needs of their users who are now more technologically inclined and prefer to access information remotely and in a timely manner. Smart technologies are the recent trends in academic libraries. This research aims to investigate the level of smart information service implementation at academic libraries in Jordan. It also aimed to investigate the correlation between the level of smart information services offered by the libraries and the level of digital competencies among the library staff.

This research is designed using survey design to collect comprehensive information from the study participants. A questionnaire was disseminated to 340 respondents, and 246 questionnaires were returned and were suitable for analysis with a response rate of 72.4%.

The results indicated a moderate level of smart information service offered by academic libraries, as well as a moderate level of digital skills associated with the advocacy of smart information services. The results also indicated a strong and positive relationship between the level of smart information services at the investigated libraries and the level of digital competencies among the librarians.

The findings will help other academic libraries understand how to respond to the emergent change in users’ information-seeking behavior by understanding their available human resources competencies and the requirement to undergo this emergent change.

This paper provides insights and practical solutions for academic libraries in response to global information trends based on users’ behaviors. This research was conducted in Jordan as one of the developing countries and hence it provides insights of the situation there. It will help academic libraries in Jordan and the region to handle and cope with the challenges associated with technology acceptance based on its staff level of digital competencies. The contribution of this research that it was done in a developing country where progress in the filed can be considered slow because of many factors, mainly economics, where institutions focus on essential library objectives, which are information resources development and databases subscriptions.