The Changing Academic Library

"In this newly revised and expanded third edition, The Changing Academic Library: Operations, Culture, Environments, number 74 in ACRL's Publications in Librarianship series, presents a critical examination of major issues facing colleges and universities and the unique challenges their libraries face. In twelve chapters--including a completely new second chapter on the state of higher education--the book presents an overview of higher education and the role of libraries within the institution, covering academic models from private colleges to public universities; discusses governance models, financing, and organizational culture, and the library's place within them; examines changes in scholarly communication; looks at the impact of the library on its community; and explores issues affecting library collections, access, services, and staffing"--

"The Changing Academic Library is a revision of Budd's The Academic Library: Its Context, Its Purpose, and Its Operation. This book has been completely updated and revised to reflect the dynamic states of higher education and academic libraries. It presents a critical examination of major issues facing colleges and universities and the unique challenges that their libraries must come to grips with. Current practice is reviewed, but it is examined in the broader context of educational needs, scholarly communication, politics and economics, technology, and the nature of complex organizations."--Publisher's description.

As higher education has evolved through recent decades, college and university libraries also have forged pathways to serve faculty and students more effectively. Academic and research libraries have been early adopters of digital technologies and have provided leadership and training to help remake the academic enterprise. Universities and libraries are operating in a rapidly changing information environment. In this context, libraries have been redefined as facilitators to a world of information far beyond physical collections, providing access to global information through online resources and systems, and also creating their own digital content. Staff and student expectations are developing in line with these changes in the teaching, research and scholarly communication environment. Libraries need to take a strategic role in supporting academics and students within this technologically rich and constantly evolving context. Digital collections and digital scholarship are now mainstream library activities, core to research and teaching. The technology environment will be constantly and rapidly changing, with the expectations and requirements of information users increasing, and with libraries needing to provide an excellent search and discovery experience for their customers. As access to mobile devices becomes ubiquitous, users will expect seamless access to information and services, provided anywhere, anytime.The Changing Academic Library: Operations, Culture and Environment provides academic administrators and librarians a better understanding of the issues facing the library during this time of change, and the role of the library in the evolving campus of the future. It helps academic librarians plan, implement, and manage changes to the fundamental structure of their organizations.

This authoritative and wide-ranging textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the changing functions of higher education libraries and the organizational cultures in which they operate. It offers an assessment of the impact of such changes on service delivery from both provider and user perspectives, and considers the future role of the academic library. The new edition has been completely updated, with a new chapter on performance measurement and more extensive coverage of: accessibility; information literacy; portals; digital libraries; copyright; institutional repositories; virtual and managed learning environments; and management of change. Written in a readable and accessible style, the book focuses on: the library in the institution users of the academic library the impacts and opportunities of ICTs human resources management and organization of resources collection and access management the academic library building library systems and networks specialist services management and professional issues performance measurement. Readership: This textbook is an indispensable introduction to the range of issues facing academic libraries. Invaluable for new information professionals and for students on information and library studies courses, it also makes stimulating reading for education administrators and academic library managers in both higher and further education. While the book considers emerging scenarios in the United Kingdom in depth, it also draws examples from institutions elsewhere in the world, and is of broad international interest.

Managing Change in Academic Libraries helps academic librarians plan, implement, and manage changes to the fundamental structure of their organizations. It shows readers that in academic libraries the two driving forces behind most change are economics and technology. Declines in funding for education and in the purchasing power of libraries have made it impossible to maintain the status quo, let alone realize growth, in traditional information services and collection development. Add to this downward trend in library economics, the explosion of new information technology and its potential for radically altering communications and knowledge management, and one has the ingredients for some amazing changes in libraries. To help manage these many changes, chapters in Managing Change in Academic Libraries approach change with a mixture of radical and rational ideas. Readers learn academic librarians’views on dealing with change as they read about: an environmental scan which identifies both internal and external forces that are increasing the amount and scope of change in academic libraries technological change and its impact in academic libraries the academic library director’s role as an agent of change how two large library systems managed to change in some very fundamental ways when faced with serious economic and political challenges difficult personnel issues faced by academic libraries as they move into new organizational structures and adopt new management styles the future of traditional reference services in light of rapid developments in computing and networking how to change bibliographic control to better serve the changing expectations and needs of user communities conducting a restructuring study and recommendations for organizational change in a large research library system Each chapter shows academic librarians how they can respond imaginatively and nimbly to economic, political, and technological change that envelopes their professional work life. Academic librarians will refer to Managing Change in Academic Libraries again and again as a survival tool as they meet with challenging and unpredictable changes.

Examining the academic library within a contextual framework (of colleges, universities, and American society), this work provides analysis of the institution's content and function. Rather than concentrating on management issues, this book emphasizes the structure, organization, decision making and operations of academic libraries.

The new essays on today’s academic librarians examine above all their functions and responsibilities—since these have greatly changed just in recent years, especially in matters of technology. These librarians/essayists step away from yesterday’s stereotypes and explain at length their new roles. From digital resources and special collections, to web development and new outreach initiatives, the topics covered by the essays in this book will reassure new librarians and stimulate prospective librarians as they realize the enhanced and varied positions that are available in the 21st century academic library.