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The present study discusses the future of academic librarianship, emphasizing the essential aspects of embedded librarianship practice and implementation. In addition, it also explores the changing role of academic librarians, addressing challenges and opportunities in various contexts and highlighting the significance of embedded librarianship practice.

The study employs a literature review to understand the significance of embedded librarianship and its implementation in academic libraries. The researchers searched a range of electronic data sources, including Emerald Insight, Taylor and Francis, Science Direct, Web of Science, EBSCOhost, Scopus, Information Science and Technology Abstracts (LISTA), Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), etc. Moreover, only peer-reviewed articles were considered for the review.

The study identified five major competencies, i.e. communication and interpersonal skills, teaching, research, collaboration and coordination and technological expertise, that are essential for implementing embedded librarianship in the academic library. However, in developing countries, there are various challenges faced by academic librarians such as inadequate ICT infrastructure, resource accessibility, cooperations, cultural diversity and a lack of financial support from the authority were major barriers to the successful implementation of embedded librarianship.

The study findings are of considerable value to academic librarians, providing them with the opportunity to assess and evaluate their competencies and acquire the essential skills for implementing embedded librarianship. Further, the study also recommended some practical implications of embedded librarianship practices in the academic environment.

The findings and insights from this investigation provide a valuable perspective on the future of academic librarianship, shedding light on the critical role that embedded librarianship plays in shaping its direction.

The development of library science is discussed within four main phases: US influence before 1949; Soviet Union influence 1949‐1965; diplomatic segregation from the West 1966‐1976; and the influence of the developed countries 1977‐1991. The effects of the Cold War on Chinese politics and so on librarianship are indicated and discussed and the influence of the Cultural Revolution, and recovery after it, analysed.

The purpose of this paper is to report a study designed to identify qualifications and skills that library and information science (LIS) students should have when they graduate.

The reported research examines the curriculum of 49 institutions in three countries which offer programs in LIS. Course descriptions are studied through the web and the module specifications presented there.

The study identifies 59 qualifications/skills that were central to graduation in the field of LIS.

Course specifications have some limitations as they do not always include the detailed description that would be desirable.

The paper examines the orientation of institutions that provide LIS programs and, more importantly, the way that orientation is integrated into their programs of study.

Poor infrastructure facilities, outdated mindsets and lack of exposure among professionals to the latest developments have been bottlenecks against progress in Indian libraries for a long time. Today, with the advent of both information and communication technologies and global competition, the scenario for special libraries in India is changing fast. This paper aims to outline the emerging trends and developments taking place in special libraries in India: it aims to provide an overview of how special libraries in India function, particularly as a younger generation of library professionals is now actively becoming involved in developing new skills and competencies in order to become more customer‐sensitive and customer‐centered.

This is a general review and survey of current development areas in special librarianship.

In most Indian special libraries, features such as Internet resources and other electronic/digital resources, subject gateways and networks and consortia, are fast gaining acceptance. New trends include the development of libraries’ own web sites, the sophisticated application of digital technology, more professional marketing of information products and services, outsourcing, flexi‐workforce, knowledge management and participative management, which are becoming the order of the day.

The paper clearly presents the changes coming in special libraries in India.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to make a contribution to the theoretical understanding of documents and documentary agency in society through examples from a defined institutional and professional setting; and second, to create an understanding for the role of ethical codes in the process of defining and developing modern librarianship.

This study analyses the role of documentation carrying content of professional ethics in the formulation of modern librarianship. This is done through a series of example documents of various kinds, such as founding charters, peer handbooks and ethical codes systematically analysed through the use of document theory and theory on institutional change.

The findings of this study suggest that documents pronouncing ethical self-regulation within librarianship play a primarily legitimising role in situations where new types of libraries emerge or when libraries adapt to social change. The study proposes legitimacy as a key aspect of documentality, thus supplementing the established understanding of the concept.

This study is the first to analyse the role of ethical codes in libraries using document theory. It brings new knowledge to the role of ethical self-regulation in librarianship over time and in different institutional contexts. In suggesting a developed definition of documentality, it contributes to the theoretical understanding of the role of documents and documentation in institutions and in society at large.

To record and evaluate the impact of the American contribution to Iranian librarianship education.

Describes how American support created modern librarianship in Iran, thanks to a range of initiatives such as the American development foundations and programs, and the Fulbright Program, which helped the country to renovate its higher education. Reviews the advantages and disadvantages of the American model of education for librarianship, which was implemented by a number of Iranian universities. This paper also describes how American library educators were influential in the creation of some major professional library organizations such as the Tehran Book Processing Centre (TEBROC), the Iranian Documentation Centre (IRANDOC) and the Iranian Library Association (ILA).

Concludes that, despite the fact that modern librarianship in Iran came to life after the Second World War due to American assistance, the major shortcomings of the American model of library education in Iran led to lack of creativity in Iranian students, lack of independent research capability, and lack of integration between what students learned and what the Iranian library profession actually needed.

Establishes the context of influence behind the growth of Iranian library science education, which can inform further research on such cultural impacts.

Since many other countries have based LIS education on an American model, they may find some similarities in the discussions in this paper with their own case.

This paper documents an important period of growth and development in the history of Iranian librarianship.

The purpose of this study is to describe the causes, nature, extent and effect of the influence of the American Library Association (ALA) on the development of modern Chinese librarianship from 1924 to 1949. This study was based primarily on documents located in the ALA archives, which houses the documents of the International Relations Committee of ALA. It was found that library development changed in China during the period by borrowing from American librarianship as conveyed by the ALA, largely as a consequence of the following: American library advisors or educators, such as Arthur E. Bostwick, Charles H. Brown and Charles B. Shaw, conducting surveys of libraries in China; an American library and/or a library school in China; projects for the encouragement of public libraries; fellowships granted to Chinese librarians for study in the USA; the establishment and operation of the CLA; and the Book Program to strengthen library collections during the time of the China‐Japan War.

This study aims to provide insight on the meaning of communication overload as experienced by modern academic librarians. Communication is the essence of reference librarianship, and a practically endless array of synchronous and asynchronous communication tools (ICTs) are available to facilitate communication.

This study relied on a phenomenological methodology, which included nine in‐depth interviews with academic librarians. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using RQDA, a qualitative analysis software package that facilitates coding, category building, and project management.

Seven themes about librarianship emerged from this research: attending to communication abundance, librarians of two types, instruction not reference, twenty‐first century librarianship, user needs, trusted methods: filter not retrieve, and self‐impact. The shared meaning of communication overload among these librarians is that it is a problem when it detracts from or hinders their ability to assist their users.

Further research should contribute to an understanding of communication as a problem when it interferes with serving the librarians' users, or to an understanding of interpersonal communication within the librarians' organizational structures and in their broader professional networks.

Research in popular psychology has focused on the negative impacts on productivity and concentration of living in an always‐plugged‐in environment. This research confirms that librarians should have time to work away from digital distractions to maintain job satisfaction.

Important work by Radford and Dervin has focused on communication with users. This study focuses on the impact of ICTs on librarians' work and personal lives.

The Russian poet, Nikolai Stepanovich Gumilev (1886–1921), was arrested in 1921 on the false charge of conspiracy and was shot. The Soviet Union's existence ended as abruptly and unexpectedly as did Gumilev's. No major political structure in modern history has collapsed so rapidly. Left is the scarred memory of an enormously rich history. Libraries are the souls of memory. Russian libraries face an extremely important role as the skins of the past are shed for a new soul.

THE HISTORY OF LIBRARIES AND LIBRARIANSHIP has been given both too little and too much attention. That there is a great deal of indifference on the part of many librarians concerning their past, or their original raison d'être, is obvious from the style of many of the articles written in defence of such a knowledge. The greater part of such articles seems to be taken up with explaining that apathy concerning library history is very understandable because modern methods in librarianship are more important; that what happened thousands of years ago in Egypt, or even in Britain in the last century, has very little bearing on modern theory or practice; that modern developments in library science—computers and the like—render the older methods utterly useless. For example, Reichmann says: