Search results

In the past decade, library literature has witnessed a spate of studies documenting different aspects of Collaborative Virtual Reference Services (CVRS) and a significant amount of valuable information is spread across numerous individual reports. With the support of the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the authors of this chapter undertook a synergistic effort to examine these studies and identify the popular governance models as well as shared challenges and benefits. They conducted a supplementary survey of librarians with personal experience working in CVRS. The authors found that while collaborative structures are myriad, many utilize similar staffing and management strategies. Benefits of CVRS include shared staffing responsibilities, the extension of service hours, professional and community development, access to specialists, and mitigating the risks of a new service, while challenges include answering local questions, cultural differences, and software and technology problems. The literature on CVRS primarily focuses on single collaborations. While these in-depth examinations are valuable, they cannot provide a “big picture” of how libraries may work together to provide a service. As budgets shrink and ICT-facilitated connections grow, collaboration is an option to which many libraries are turning to for the provision of reference as well as other services. The quality of such collaborations may be improved by considering the lessons presented in this chapter, resulting in better service.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss findings from the formative evaluation of a national public library development initiative in England, with a focus on the practice and impact of collaborative leadership.

A realistic evaluation approach was used in the study, enabling a nuanced assessment of the initiative’s contexts, mechanisms and outcomes in relation to its core objectives. These included testing innovative, partnership approaches to library service delivery, encouraging greater synergy between libraries and the arts and other public and commercial sectors. Evaluation findings are subsequently contextualised using a conceptual framework drawn from critical management studies on collaborative advantage.

Data show that the initiative was an effective catalyst for enhanced collaborative leadership in the public library sector, including the development of a cross-sector community of practice, with evidence of collective ownership and decision making. The relative collaborative advantages of the initiative are underpinned by evidence on the unique value of public library services to collaborating organisations and sectors.

Outcomes are of relevance to a range of public services and governing bodies with reference to shared strategic objectives with other sectors and services and collaborative leadership learning and practice.

There are implications relating to the public value of library services and how this can potentially be enhanced via collaborative leadership approaches to service design and delivery. This is especially pertinent given current cross-government policy drivers towards integrated public services.

The research makes an original contribution to contemporary debates on cultural value in considering the cross-sector role and impact of collaborative leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

To describe the process and results of the business‐planning workpackage of The European Library (TEL) project, in which eight national libraries collaborated on a joint approach to access to their digital libraries.

The methodology was in three parts: first, a literature review and the mapping of the partners' existing and planned digital products and services, then a structured interview or survey to determine the partners' business requirements from TEL, then a harmonization process, and finally the results were then combined with normal business planning elements to produce a mission and final business plan.

Business planning for digital libraries has hitherto not been widely reported. The methodology proved to be an effective method of achieving mutual agreement among partners with widely different aims and characteristics. Eleven harmonized service aspirations were agreed and five categories of business aims.

Focused on the business aims of national libraries, but the methodology can be relevant to other collaborative projects. Together with the few existing other reports, this can form the basis for a new field of work.

The work described led directly to the creation of an operational service, which will be open to all European national libraries.

As far as is known, the first reporting of a collaborative international planning process for a digital library, and maybe the first multi‐partner business plan between national libraries.

This chapter lays out the blueprint the Maryland State Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped followed in meeting the expectations of readers with print disabilities. The chapter also discusses the challenges both state and local public libraries face in meeting the current and future expectations of these clients and presents a scenario of a hybrid service in which state and local public libraries work together to meet client expectations.

Reports the process and strategies the library used to reinvent itself as a community-centered institution. Presents possible approaches for a collaborative, inclusive library service by state/federal sponsored and public libraries.

The Maryland Library successfully met client expectation through creating a community-centered library. Public libraries offer many inclusive services that, combined with the specialized service of a state/federally sponsored library, could provide equitable information access for clients with diverse, individual information needs.

This case study presents a successful library service for a complex, continually changing client population and proposes collaborative partnerships for special and local public libraries.

This paper aims to explore the transformative potential of Google Bard, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot, in reshaping contemporary library reference services and advancing information literacy.

In this perspective piece, a qualitative research approach is used to explore the capabilities of Google Bard within library contexts. Real-world case studies and insights are used to critically examine Bard’s evolving role as a virtual assistant, its impact on enhancing information literacy and the multifaceted challenges it introduces, including biases and privacy concerns.

The research reveals that Google Bard, leveraging natural language processing and machine learning, engages users in dynamic conversational interactions. It provides contextually relevant responses and personalized guidance, leading to an enriched library experience. The symbiotic relationship between AI-driven technology and traditional librarian expertise is highlighted, contributing to interactive knowledge exploration and collaborative learning.

This study contributes to the literature by exploring the multifaceted impact of Google Bard on library services and information literacy. It uncovers novel insights into the integration of AI-powered chatbots in traditional library settings.

Library buildings are routinely reimagined, remodeled, or built new to meet the changing needs of their community. The move from collection-centric to user-centric service models has generated numerous writings about the library as place and space. The one concept lacking in the scholarly discourse is the changing roles of librarians to meet the needs of these new spaces and places. How do librarians fit in the new equation? When addressing the professional identity of librarians, which aspect of their work will need to evolve and which will need to be let go? A critical facet of sustaining services in new spaces is the need to develop the sustainable librarian – to remove the stigma of the librarian as “jack of all trades, master of none.” In order to realize this new mindset of mastering our domain we need to begin reimagining our work. Some ways, this can be accomplished by writing increased flexibility into position descriptions and creating organizational structures to better support librarians within the new spaces. With these new developments to our professional identities, librarians may learn to employ entrepreneurial skills in order to continuously anticipate services and develop skill sets to aid the library’s ability to fulfill its purpose. The authors provide a literature review to discuss the changing role of the academic librarian to meet the evolution of the library building and services. We will provide an example through findings and practices of Grand Valley State University and how it reimagined roles in the early 2000s and continues to reimagine roles in a new building and a renovated branch library. The change of spaces and places in academic libraries to accommodate user needs and perceptions has impacted how academic librarians work in these spaces and places. Library administrators need to rethink workflows, and organizational charts by examining flexible workloads, cross-training initiatives, professional development around new skills, and the letting go of obsolete practices.

Originality/value – in this chapter, the authors will discuss how library leaders are charged with translating the new roles of their librarians to meet the needs of their community in these new spaces and how library leaders may look beyond the literature of the profession for ways to facilitate change.

The GAELS Project is a two‐year project funded by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) strategic change initiative, which promotes collaborative information services to engineering researchers at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. This paper examines the role of user education in this process. We use arguments against the effectiveness of library skills education and evaluative methods learned from human‐computer interface design as a means of improving information skills training and as part of a general reflection on user education and library services. Such an approach shows how networked learning materials can be an effective tool for promoting a collaborative library service across the Glasgow Metropolitan Area Network.

After decades of successful, if not always smooth, working relationships with regional library networks in the United States, Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), Inc., with approval of amended articles of incorporation in 2008, it implemented significant changes in how it would price its products and services and how it would govern itself. These changes proved to have profound impact on the networks, precipitating the merger of many and the dissolution of some. This chapter describes the results of many interviews with past and present leaders of OCLC and the regional networks, both existing and defunct, and other knowledgeable individuals. The contrasting opinions on how the changes came about and their consequences offer a perspective on the evolution and then decline of some of the powerful consortial relationships of the last four decades.