The Academic Librarian in the Digital Age

Essays on Changing Roles and Responsibilities

$55.00

In stock

SKU: 9781476680163 Category: Tags: ,

About the Book

As new technology and opportunities emerge through the revolutionary impacts of the digital age, the function of libraries and librarians and how they provide services to constituents is rapidly changing. The impact of new technology touches everything from libraries’ organizational structures, business models, and workflow processes, to position descriptions and the creation of new positions. As libraries are required to make operational adjustments to meet the growing technological demands of libraries’ customer bases and provide these services, librarians must be flexible in adapting to this fast-moving environment.
This volume shares the unique perspectives and experiences of librarians on the front lines of this technological transformation. The essays within provide details of both the practical applications of surviving, adapting, and growing when confronted with changing roles and responsibilities, as well as a big picture perspective of the changing roles impacting libraries and librarians. This book strives to be a valuable tool for librarians involved in public and technical services, digital humanities, virtual and augmented reality, government documents, information technology, and scholarly communication.

About the Author(s)

Tom Diamond is the collections and materials selector librarian at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. His published monographs include coverage of the tobacco industry and middle management in academic and public libraries. He is a member of the American Library Association.

Bibliographic Details

Edited by Tom Diamond

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 198
Bibliographic Info: 17 photos, appendices, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8016-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3998-7
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Introduction (Tom Diamond) 1

Part I. Changing Roles: The Big Picture
Openness, Scholarly Communication and Evolving Expectations for Academic Librarians (Mary Jo Orzech) 7
Library Positions in a Period of Change (Emily Guhde and Brian W. Keith) 22
Inside the Laboratory: Open Science and the Skills of Research Librarians (Jorge Revez) 42

Part II. Emergence of the Digital Librarian and Digital Humanities
Why Digital Matters: Building a Digital Humanities Center at the University of Utah (Rebekah Cummings) 57
Libraries as the Vanguard of Virtual and Augmented Reality for Academic Instruction (Will Buck and Janine Pino) 71
From Liaison to Coordinator: How Digital Humanities Influenced a Role Change and Restructure (Andrea Malone) 84

Part III. Changing Roles of Public and Technical Service Positions
From Nodes to Networks: Redefining the Role of Library IT (Somaly Kim Wu, Beth Caruso and Bob R. Price) 97
Documents ­De-Emphasized? The Shifting Roles of Government Information Professionals (Kenya Flash and Dominique Hallett) 108
Changing Roles for Web Services Librarians: Supporting Library Staff as User Experience Practitioners (Jess Waggoner and Susan Chesley Perry) 120
Cataloging and Metadata: Tools, Trends and the Changing Role of the Librarian (Harriet E. Wintermute, Melissa K. Moll, Mike Monaco and Euemduan C. Osmera) 131
Learning, Growing, Evolving: Changing Discovery Services at the University at Albany Libraries (Elaine M. Lasda and Rebecca A. Nous) 141
From Storytime to Data Analytics: The Rise of Digital Technology and Its Role in My Librarianship (Shanna Hollich) 157
Exploring Scholarly Communication (Virginia Cononie) 169

About the Contributors 183
Index 187