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1 – 10 of over 16000John Rodwell and Linden Fairbairn
Many university libraries are adopting a faculty liaison librarian structure as an integral part of their organization and service delivery model. This paper aims to examine, in a…
Abstract
Purpose
Many university libraries are adopting a faculty liaison librarian structure as an integral part of their organization and service delivery model. This paper aims to examine, in a pragmatic way, the variations in the definition of the role of the faculty liaison librarian, the expectations of those librarians, their library managers and their clients and the impact of environmental factors. The faculty liaison librarian role is not entirely new, evolving from the traditional subject librarian and university special/branch library role. However the emerging role is characterized by a more outward‐looking perspective and complexity, emphasizing stronger involvement and partnership with the faculty and direct engagement in the University's teaching and research programs.
Design/methodology/approach
Following a review of the literature and other sources on the rationale and role of library liaison, the current developments, drivers and expectations are discussed.
Findings
The study finds that dynamic external and internal environments of universities are driving the evolution of library liaison, so the role description is still fluid. However, the breadth and weight of expectations is now such that the effectiveness and sustainability of the role has to be addressed.
Practical implications
While a dynamic, broader and more intensive role for the faculty liaison librarian is emerging, more thinking is needed about the extent of that role and its sustainability. What, for example, are the priorities for the faculty liaison librarian? What traditional activities can, and may, have to be abandoned? These considerations are necessary not only to guide the librarians, but also to help define the attributes and skills required for the position and to determine the institutional support it requires.
Originality/value
This is a contemporary critique of the well‐established, but diverse library service – the faculty liaison librarian structure.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify insightfully future roles and skills required by librarians to meet the ever changing users’ need in the modern library landscape.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify insightfully future roles and skills required by librarians to meet the ever changing users’ need in the modern library landscape.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted a qualitative approach. It deployed the Delphi technique and other knowledge elicitation techniques, such as systematic literature review, in-depth key informants interviews, formal and informal discussions, and own experience. Data collection was quitted when it reached to the theoretical saturation. Content analysis was used to analyze the gathered data. Triangulation of methods was also employed to complement one another, and enhance the credibility and validity of the results.
Findings
The findings of the study revealed that some of the roles and skills required by librarians are evolutionary, while others are revolutionary, but the ultimate future role of librarians is to change knowledge revolution into society (to create informed society) through re-socializing and shaping the young generations. The result also confirmed that a synergy of passion, knowledge, skills and cultural intelligence yield blended librarians that fit the future library landscape. To be a librarian is more than just equipped with knowledge and skills; it requires passion and solid discipline. For librarians, unlearning is equally relevant skills like learning.
Originality/value
Instead of the usual skills assessment, this study approached it in a new perspective and divulged a synergy of passion, knowledge, skills, cultural intelligence, professionalism, and discipline as essential assets for the twenty-first century librarians.
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Evgenia Vassilakaki and Valentini Moniarou-Papaconstantinou
This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the specific roles information professionals have adopted in the past 14 years. It aims to identify the roles reported in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a systematic review of the specific roles information professionals have adopted in the past 14 years. It aims to identify the roles reported in the literature concerning developments in the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted the method of systematic review. Searches were conducted in February and March 2014 on different LIS databases. From a total of 600 papers, 114 were selected, based on specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. A thorough full-text analysis of the papers revealed six roles that librarians have adopted: teachers, technology specialists, embedded librarians, information consultants, knowledge managers and subject librarians.
Findings
New and evolving roles were identified, mainly in the context of academic libraries. Librarians’ educational responsibilities and their active involvement in the learning and research process were highlighted in all role categories identified. Collaboration among faculty and librarians was reported as a way of ensuring successful instruction. Librarians’ personal views of their new and emerging roles were more frequently reported; further research is needed to shed light on academics, students and other users’ perceptions of librarians’ engagement in the learning process.
Research limitations
The study considered only peer-reviewed papers published between 2000 and 2014 in English. It focused on information professionals’ roles and not on librarians’ skills and their changing professional responsibilities.
Originality/value
This review paper considers the development of the LIS profession in a changing environment and offers an understanding of the future direction of the LIS profession.
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Joel Nakitare, Emily Sawe, Joyce Nyambala and Tom Kwanya
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the emerging roles of academic librarians in Kenya, with a view to determining whether they perform better as apomediaries or…
Abstract
Purpose
The main purpose of this study was to investigate the emerging roles of academic librarians in Kenya, with a view to determining whether they perform better as apomediaries or infomediaries. The specific objectives were to: examine the characteristics of the changing information universe in which academic librarians in Kenya currently operate; analyse the information-seeking behaviour of academic library users in the new information universe and examine the emerging roles of academic librarians in Kenya.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a descriptive research design and used an online survey research technique to collect data from practising academic librarians. This study targeted senior librarians from all the 67 private and public universities in Kenya. One senior librarian per university was purposefully selected to fill the questionnaire owing to their experience and expertise. 33 out of the 67 senior librarians responded to the survey. The collected data were descriptively analysed using SPSS, and as per the study objectives.
Findings
This study established that most library users are digital independent and access library resources remotely. Nonetheless, many users still borrow and utilize print books despite the ubiquity of digital platforms. The findings revealed that academic librarians to a great extent now play the role of apomediaries, going beyond information giving to empowering their users.
Practical implications
There is need for academic librarians in Kenya to not only be aware of the characteristics of their current users but also to continuously develop professionally so as to be able to adequately cater for the needs of their clients.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the scholarship on librarians' roles in Kenya by demonstrating that most of them are transitioning to the apomediary roles.
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Academic library consortia activity has become an integral part of academic libraries’ operations. Consortia have come to assert considerable bargaining power over publishers and…
Abstract
Academic library consortia activity has become an integral part of academic libraries’ operations. Consortia have come to assert considerable bargaining power over publishers and have provided libraries with considerable economic advantage. They interact with publishers both as consumers of publishers’ products, with much stronger bargaining power than individual libraries hold, and, increasingly, as rival publishers themselves. Are consortia changing the relationship between academic libraries and publishers? Is the role of academic library consortia placing academic libraries in a position that should and will attract the attention of competition policy regulators? Competition policy prohibits buying and selling cartels that can negatively impact the free market on which the Canadian economic system, like other Western economies, depends. Competition policy as part of economic policy is, however, only relevant where we are concerned with aspects of the market economy. Traditionally, public goods for the greater social and cultural benefit of society are not considered part of the market economic system. If the activities of academic library consortia are part of that public good perspective, competition policy may not be a relevant concern. Using evidence gained from in-depth interviews from a national sample of university librarians and from interviews with the relevant federal government policy makers, this research establishes whether library consortia are viewed as participating in the market economy of Canada or not. Are consortia viewed by librarians and government as serving a public good role of providing information for a greater social and cultural benefit or are they seen from a market-economic perspective of changing power relations with publishers? Findings show government has little in-depth understanding of academic library consortia activity, but would most likely consider such activity predominantly from a market economic perspective. University librarians view consortia from a public good perspective but also as having an important future role in library operations and in changing the existing scholarly publishing paradigm. One-third of librarian respondents felt that future consortia could compete with publishers by becoming publishers and through initiatives such as open source institutional repositories. Librarians also felt that consortia have had a positive effect on librarians’ professional roles through the facilitation of knowledge building and collaboration opportunities outside of the home institution.
Reza Safdari, Hamideh Ehtesham, Narges Ziaee and Mehri Robiaty
This study aims to highlight the role of librarians as an essential element in medical research. For this purpose, the primary research process was divided into three phases…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to highlight the role of librarians as an essential element in medical research. For this purpose, the primary research process was divided into three phases: before, during and after. Then, the roles of librarians associated with each phase were separated and the viewpoint of researchers and librarians on the importance of these roles were considered and compared.
Design/methodology/approach
This comparative, descriptive-causal research was conducted using the census method. Birjand University, a type-2 university in the field of Medical Sciences according to the rating of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, was selected for the study. The participants were all faculty members and all librarians working in the university’s libraries. The data collection tool was a questionnaire made by authors. Its validity was confirmed by four professors of Library Science, and questionnaire design expert and its reliability was confirmed with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.89. Data were analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, using descriptive statistics.
Findings
From the perspective of researchers, awareness-raising for open access resources, determination of standard subject keywords on the basis of Medical Subject Headings for articles and scientific texts and using scientific research findings as a basis for preventing duplicate studies in future research are the most important roles for librarians in the three stages of medical research. From the perspective of librarians, the use of knowledge management skills, searching scientific information as review of the literature and also selecting standard keywords to search the databases and providing health-care professionals with the findings of latest scientific research have the highest place in the different stages of the research lifecycle.
Originality/value
The difference between the viewpoints of librarians and researchers about the role of medical librarians at the various stages of the research lifecycle shows that there are significant gaps between the librarians’ services and users’ expectations. It is expected that through learning modern professional skills, medical librarians can assume new roles in medical research and make their capabilities known and available to researchers.
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In a dynamic, information and technology‐driven society, librarians can create new roles by assessing changes in their environment, the potential effect and ways to reposition…
Abstract
In a dynamic, information and technology‐driven society, librarians can create new roles by assessing changes in their environment, the potential effect and ways to reposition themselves. Scenario building, literature reviews, situation analysis, speculation and forecasting may be used. Librarians have a good idea of what they can offer, but are often unable to reposition themselves in time. Reasons for this generally slow reaction are speculated on and the future role of librarians (including expected knowledge and skills) is briefly reviewed. An argument is then pursued on how an educational perspective that supports a constructivist‐learning environment, portfolio assessment, and affective and metacognitive skills could support librarians in preparing for change. The value of task analysis, needs assessment, and market research are mentioned briefly. Apart from knowledge (cognitive level), teaching should focus on affective and metacognitive skills, decision‐making abilities, environmental scanning, change management and the typical personality characteristics required to survive in the cyber age (e.g. assertiveness, self‐confidence, creative thinking, and innovativeness).
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This paper aims to provide a review of discussions and perceptions of librarians' roles in the literature of the last ten years within the context of the impact of the internet on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a review of discussions and perceptions of librarians' roles in the literature of the last ten years within the context of the impact of the internet on their working life.
Design/methodology/approach
An analysis of the appropriate literature was carried out, focusing on papers explicitly referring to changing roles of librarians and information professionals.
Findings
The literature review found evidence of contrasting attitudes on the part of librarians towards imposing networked and digital technologies in the information landscape. In the internet age librarians need to come to terms with a working environment that is always more dematerialised, and with their users' new information habits. It is apparent that they should be able to find a correct balance between traditional roles and new roles in order to let their professional category survive and continue to be a crucial and vital part in the information society.
Originality/value
An overview of the major themes and issues afforded by information professional since the spread of networked technologies within their working places is provided. It is neither supposed to raise technological issues nor to make an analysis of the latest services and resources for libraries, but rather to concentrate on the human aspects of this topic: perceptions, attitudes, fears and passions towards the internet in the professional life.
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Jamie Johnston, Ágústa Pálsdóttir, Anna Mierzecka, Ragnar Andreas Audunson, Hans-Christoph Hobohm, Kerstin Rydbeck, Máté Tóth, Casper Hvenegaard Rasmussen, Henrik Jochumsen, Mahmood Khosrowjerdi and Sunniva Evjen
The overarching aim of this article is to consider to what extent the perceptions of librarians in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Sweden reflect a unified…
Abstract
Purpose
The overarching aim of this article is to consider to what extent the perceptions of librarians in Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Sweden reflect a unified view of their professional role and the role of their institutions in supporting the formation of the public sphere and to what extent the variations reflect national contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
The multi-country comparison is based on online questionnaires. The central research questions are how do librarians legitimize the use of public resources to uphold a public library service? How do librarians perceive the role of public libraries as public spaces? How do librarians perceive their professional role and the competencies needed for it? Consideration is given to how the digital and social turns are reflected in the responses.
Findings
The results show evidence of a unified professional culture with clear influences from national contexts. A key finding is that librarians see giving access as central for both legitimizing library services and for the library's role as a public sphere institution. Strong support is shown for the social turn in supporting the formation of the public sphere while the digital turn appears to be a future challenge; one of seemingly increased importance due to the pandemic.
Research limitations/implications
This study shows that libraries across the seven countries have expanded beyond simply providing public access to their book-based collections and now serve as social, learning and creative spaces: both in the physical library and digitally. Qualitative research is needed concerning librarians' notions of public libraries and librarianship, which will provide a more in-depth understanding of the changing professional responsibilities and how public libraries recruit the associated competencies.
Originality/value
The article provides a much needed insight into how librarians perceive the role of public libraries in supporting the formation of the public sphere and democratic processes, as well as their own role.
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This chapter explores specializations within academic librarian practices, focusing on librarian research and collaboration. Academic librarian roles are transitioning from…
Abstract
This chapter explores specializations within academic librarian practices, focusing on librarian research and collaboration. Academic librarian roles are transitioning from service providers to specialists, researchers, and collaborators. Roles have shifted to incorporate interdisciplinary research and collaboration; embedded librarianship; research data management expertise; information literacy instruction; and core curriculum development. In order to understand this shift in roles, a mixed methods research project undertaken with a Purdue University researcher and Purdue Libraries faculty that prompted the development of a research diagrammatic metaphor modeling the components of librarian-faculty collaboration. The model demonstrates the dynamics and roles in academic collaboration and interdisciplinary research. A generalization of the model applied to two librarian-faculty collaboration scenarios exemplifies how these components facilitate engagement and project management. Potentially the model could be operationalized to understand disciplinary differences and provide a framework of accountability for both faculty and librarians engaged in research projects.
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