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The purpose of this paper is to review the evolution of technology-oriented university librarian positions and analyze digital initiatives librarian job advertisements to determine the number and type of skills that academic libraries desire.

Forty-nine job postings between October 2010 and March 2016 were found via the Code4Lib listserv. Information on job title, desired skills and responsibilities and other information was compiled and analyzed.

Twenty-four skills and responsibilities were identified; the top four were metadata, digital preservation, digital collections and digitization. Other skills and responsibilities are frequently listed by ACRL as emerging trends.

Digital initiatives librarian job postings have risen substantially in the past five years. A total of 24 skills and responsibilities were identified and skills related to the administration of digital collections are the top desired skills of digital initiatives librarians.

Job analysis literature has influenced the design of job descriptions for new roles and the literature offers a “picture of how academic librarianship is developing” (Cox and Corrall, 2013, p. 1528). Library administrators are encourage to design digital initiatives librarian positions strategically, basing the responsibilities on demonstrated needs on their campuses, rather than in response to trends in academic librarianship.

The purpose of this paper is to describe methods for restructuring workflows and efficiently using staff members and volunteers to continue work on multiple, simultaneous digital collections as budgets and resources decline.

This paper describes one library’s varied approaches to several digital collections supported by literature or volunteers in libraries.

In the face of continually declining resources and new, time-sensitive priorities and compliance responsibilities, librarians can continue to maintain digital collections by modifying workflows, using the services of volunteers and communicating strategically.

This paper is relevant to librarians, archivists and others who are looking for ways to justify and capitalize on the use of unconventional personnel in digital collections programs.

This paper presents a case of the successful use of volunteers to accomplish digital collections-related tasks in an academic library and provides a communication-based strategy for addressing some of the challenges related to volunteers in academic libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze technology-related librarian advertisements to examine the changing role of the systems librarian in today’s modern, technology-filled libraries.

The authors examined 70 advertisements for technology-focused librarians posted on ALA’s JobList in 2014. The ads were examined for area of focus and required knowledge and experiences.

The ads revealed three main areas of focus: traditional systems, digital initiatives, and web services. In addition to traditional computer and library systems skills, employers were seeking candidates with project management, digital collection, customer service, technology implementation, and problem solving skills and experience.

This study highlights how the adoption and expansion of library technology has altered the roles and responsibilities of systems librarians. Instead of solely focusing on maintaining library databases and ILSs, technology librarians have branched out and become more integrated within the library.

This study has implications for those entering the library field and LIS programs, as well as gaining insight into the expanding role of technology librarians today’s library.

The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate a current model, as well as explore future models, for integrating institutional repositories (IRs) in higher education goals at the University of Toledo.

This is a case study that uses literature review as an exploratory framework for new approaches while reflecting on existing literature to present the current practical framework for using IRs.

The digital environment has pushed academic institutions toward new strategies for curating their record on scholarship and preserving their heritage collections, using their IRs. Innovative approaches are also vital to curating the IR content digitally to facilitate access to those contents in ways that was not possible a few decades ago. Surveys and existing literature point to increasing uses of IRs despite abstinence from considering open access for scholarly activity among faculty concerned about copyright, plagiarism and sustainability. Staffing and funding IR initiatives are important factors in sustaining the curation of scholarship in the digital environment.

IRs with open access publishing, expert gallery and digital library features place academic libraries in a central role as partners in digital scholarship.

This case study presents an original approach to incorporating the IR into the curation of digital content while also considering potential uses of knowledge management approaches for data and knowledge sharing in an academic environment.

This paper aims to determine if the digital humanities technique of topic modeling would reveal interesting patterns in a corpus of library-themed literature focused on the future of libraries and pioneer a collaboration model in librarian-led digital humanities projects. By developing the project, librarians learned how to better support digital humanities by actually doing digital humanities, as well as gaining insight on the variety of approaches taken by researchers and commenters to the idea of the future of libraries.

The researchers collected a corpus of over 150 texts (articles, blog posts, book chapters, websites, etc.) that all addressed the future of the library. They ran several instances of latent Dirichlet allocation style topic modeling on the corpus using the programming language R. Once they produced a run in which the topics were cohesive and discrete, they produced word-clouds of the words associated with each topic, visualized topics through time and examined in detail the top five documents associated with each topic.

The research project provided an effective way for librarians to gain practical experience in digital humanities and develop a greater understanding of collaborative workflows in digital humanities. By examining a corpus of library-themed literature, the researchers gained new insight into how the profession grapples with the idea of the future and an appreciation for topic modeling as a form of literature review.

Topic modeling a future-themed corpus of library literature is a unique research project and provides a way to support collaboration between library faculty and researchers from outside the library.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the application of a web‐based tool as a remote asynchronous usability testing method based on an assessment of an academic library's digital collections website.

The paper examines the selection of an asynchronous remote usability testing method, the reasons for the selection of SurveyMonkey, an evaluation of its effectiveness through an assessment of the digital collections web site, and the potential for its application in future usability studies.

SurveyMonkey can be employed as an assessment tool with advance planning by evaluators to capture the responses and opinions of users. Overall, it is a cost effective and time‐saving option for small assessment projects.

This was an informal study where a specific product, SurveyMonkey, was tested with the purpose of evaluating its effectiveness as a remote asynchronous assessment tool through its application for a specific website usability study. The assessment was not compared to other testing methods, and the tool was not evaluated through formal methods.

Libraries and other organizations can look to free, or low‐cost, web‐based tools as an alternative to more traditional methods, such as focus groups, when evaluating services.

The paper describes the creation and implementation of a web‐based usability test for a library website using a specific product. It looks at the effectiveness of the assessment tool based on cost and time requirements, in addition to the benefits and disadvantages of conducting remote usability testing.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of assessing the needs of a digital repository. The study’s institution – Kent State University, a large state university – is currently re-envisioning their digital library services to accommodate emerging technologies with an agile framework and platform. This paper includes discussion on the process of creating a sustainable digital initiatives program, a plan of action for migration, platform decision rationale and an overview of planning for future projects that is both flexible and extensible in nature.

The article’s approach is to examine the process of review and selection of the digital repository at Kent State University through the needs and requirements checklist the team devised according to the institution’s specifications. Literature published in the past five years is reviewed and applied to the selection process. The author maps out a plan that can be adaptable for growth and sustainability for a content management system.

Using models identified in the article, the team mapped a solution that can enhance the use and interaction by patrons to digital collections as well as provide a method to ensure the longevity of digital assets.

The article addresses issues that are inherent to digital content management systems of all shapes and sizes, and strives to provide a solution that would be relevant and applicable to many types of institutions in regard to digital repositories.

Purpose – As the role of technology in libraries has broadened and expanded, tech-savvy librarians and non-librarian technologists are increasingly working side by side in complex digital environments. Little research has explored the key differences between these roles and the implications for the future of the Master of Library Science (MLS) and its variant degrees, particularly as technologists from various backgrounds increasingly enter the information field. This chapter contrasts the technological responsibilities of the two groups to build an understanding of the necessity of the MLS in library-oriented technology work.

Design/Methodology/Approach – Qualitative coding and text mining techniques were used to analyze technology-oriented librarian and non-librarian job advertisements, technology curriculum changes, and surveyed technology interests of current information professionals.

Findings – Findings indicate a clear distinction between librarian and non-librarian technology responsibilities. Librarian positions emphasize web design, data and metadata, technology troubleshooting, and usage of library-oriented software. Non-librarian technologists require programming, database development, and systems administration, with deeper software and systems knowledge. Overlap was noted in the areas of user experience, linked data, and metadata. Several newer trends that information professionals expressed a desire to learn – such as makerspace technologies – were observed to be poorly covered in the technology curriculum, though the MLS curriculum generally covered the tech-savvy librarians’ responsibilities.

Originality/Value – This chapter builds understanding of the current necessity of the MLS in library-oriented technology work, as contrasted against the role of non-librarian technologists, through analysis of a triangulated set of data sources covering employment opportunities, technology curriculum, and librarians’ technology interests.

This paper aims to clarify the relationship between researcher, digital librarian, and cataloger supporting collection building in institutional repository (IR). It also aims to propose modeling the collaborative process and outline why and how cooperative partnership is important throughout the IR content building process. The study seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge of IR collection building by including a faculty‐centered approach and level of data curation aspects than is normally found in IR content building literature.

The paper opted for an experimental approach of IR collection building, including several interviews and one expert group discussion with faculty representing the department of anthropology. The data were complemented by digital collection description and accessibility in IR, online public access catalog (OPAC) and OCLC WorldCat.

The paper provides empirical insights about how faculty contribution is brought about during IR content building. It suggests that digital librarians act as “integrating forces” on two levels: integrating the elements of level of data curation for digital objects representation and discoverability, and mediating between digital objects description and the researcher.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack general application. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test proposed propositions further.

The paper includes implications for the development of a mature and fully realized IR, the development of “data curators” and for managing the balance between participation and content.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how levels of data curation can be enabled.