Challenging The Jacks Of All Trades But Masters Of None Librarian Syndrome

This volume will explore the current purpose of librarianship and libraries, how we become “Masters of our Domains”, develop expertise in various elements of the profession, and how we extend outward into our communities.

This volume will explore the current purpose of librarianship and libraries, how we become “Masters of our Domains”, develop expertise in various elements of the profession, and how we extend outward into our communities.

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.

This broad-ranging resource is for librarians who want to begin a new program or incorporate healthy living into an existing one. From garden plots to cooking classes to StoryWalks to free yoga, more and more libraries are developing innovative programs and partnerships to encourage healthy living. Libraries increasingly provide health and wellness programs for all ages and abilities, and Healthy Living at the Library is intended for library staff of all types who want to offer programs and services that foster healthy living, particularly in the domains of food and physical activity. Author Noah Lenstra, who has extensive experience directing and advising on healthy living programs, first outlines steps librarians should take when starting programs, highlighting the critical role of community partnerships. The second section of the book offers detailed instructions for running different types of programs for different ages and abilities. A third section includes advice on keeping the momentum of a program going and assessing program impacts. Lenstra offers tips on how to overcome challenges or roadblocks that may arise. An appendix contains resources you can adapt to get these programs off the ground, including waivers of liability, memoranda of understanding, and examples of strategic plans and assessment tools.

Discovery is central to academic activities at all levels and is a major focus for libraries and museums. Of all the parts of modern library provision, discovery services are the most clearly affected by developments in IT, from databases to search engines to linked data to machine learning. It is crucial to the relationship between libraries and their communities. This book will help its readers learn how to adapt in a fast changing area to continue to provide a high level of service. Resource Discovery for the Twenty-First Century Library contains a range of contributions analysing the ways in which libraries are tackling the challenges facing them in discovery in the (post)-Google era. Chapters are written by experts, both global and local – describing specific areas of discovery and local implementations and ideas. The book will help with enhancing discovery both inbound – making locally held resources globally discoverable, and outbound – making global resources locally discoverable, in ways which are relevant to your user community. Content covered includes: · a survey of what resource discovery is today · case studies from around the world of interesting approaches to discovery · analysis of how users approach discovery · how to understand and make the best use of Internet search engines · using limited resources to help users find collections · linked open data and discovery · the future of discovery. This book will be useful for subject librarians and others who give direct support to library users, digital library technicians, managers, staff with responsibility for managing electronic resources, metadata and discovery specialists, trainers and user education specialists. It will also be of use to curators and others who give direct support to researchers, managers of digitisation and cataloguing products, IT staff, trainers and user education specialists.

This book offers a timely mix of thought-provoking chapters bringing together national and global studies on critical librarianship, and conveying the kind of research which current library managers and researchers need, mixing theory with a good dose of pragmatism.

This book provides in-depth practical advice and examples of public and academic library programming activities. Included in this volume are methods for identifying target audiences, activities and ways to find and generate even more ideas, tools for assessment and budgeting, and tips on planning programs from inception to execution.

Academic libraries have traditionally had two key functions, to support teaching and to support research. In an evolving and competitive university environment, along with the emergence of various technologies and substantial changes in scientific communication, university management has reached a turning point. Academic libraries are facing a paradigm shift in the role they need to play to achieve the research objectives of universities. Research support services in academic libraries have evolved as a response to these changes. They are heterogeneous, adapt to their university culture, adopt different points of view, take different approaches in their organizational structures, and include a diverse catalog of activities. Having an overview of different experiences will allow libraries to adopt best practices, redefine services, and even establish new management and collaboration models. Cases on Research Support Services in Academic Libraries is a critical scholarly resource that uses case studies to systematize the experiences of research support services in academic libraries for the support of higher education faculty. The cases focus on such items as the role of technology and its impact as well as how these services help to improve the excellence of universities. Featuring a wide range of topics such as library services, data management, and open science, this book is ideal for librarians, academicians, professionals, researchers, and students.