The Indispensable Academic Librarian

This book will empower and validate academic librarians by demonstrating their indispensable roles as educators

Traditionally, academic librarians have delivered “beck and call” service to educators both in and out of the classroom. However, far from being merely auxiliary to the learning cycle, academic librarians are educators in their own right. If the primary challenge before them is to change how they’re perceived within their institutions, Reale proposes, the key lies in becoming a proactive teacher and collaborator. Offering strategies applicable to many different areas, this book shows how the academic librarian can be an educator in both structured and unstructured spaces on campuses. Blending practice-based evidence with a warm approach, Reale discusses the changing perception of academic librarians, how they are seen and how they see themselves;shows how academic librarians can and should assert their rightful place in the learning cycle;looks at how to match teaching goals with academic librarians’ mission;advocates for the indispensable roles the academic librarian should play, including co-collaborator, one-on-one research consultant, expert-at-large in non-structured spaces such as the dorm or student lounge, and embedded librarian in the classroom; offers talking points for self-advocacy, looking at the many ways academic librarians are making a difference; andexplores activities and programming for engagement and learning. This book will empower and validate academic librarians by demonstrating their indispensable roles as educators.

Reale's book is a valuable springboard for reflection that will help academic librarians understand the complexity of the challenges they face and then forge a path forward.

The role of academic librarian is far from cut-and-dried. There are numerous job classifications and widely varying academic focuses and cultures to contend with. While every academic librarian is expected to meet the research needs of an institution's faculty and students, many are expected to assume other obligations as part of a faculty or tenure system. Given the many variants, library school alone ccannot prepare individuals for every aspect and flavor of academic librarianship, and intrepid librarians who find themselves in new places and positions face unique challenges. The Successful Academic Librarian is an antidote to the stress and burnout that almost every academic librarian experiences at one time or another. In its pages, Gwen Meyer Gregory and nearly 20 of her peers take a practical approach to a range of critical topics. Their advice, war stories, tips, techniques, and inspiration will help you thrive in your academic library career. -- from back cover.

This landmark handbook is the essential guide to the academic librarian's role. This text synthesizes a huge and complex area of professional practice into one single handy resource. It offers practical and pragmatic advice in the form of checklists, ideas for innovative practice and definitions of common terminology. This approach sits alongside analysis and reflection on issues, challenges and exploration of possible future developments. International case studies in each chapter offer you insight into real situations and real decisions and will inspire you to try different ways of working. The chapters cover all critical aspects of the role, divided into the three key themes: people, collections and services; Who are we? Understanding the role of an academic support librarian; Who are they? Understanding the needs and behaviours of the users of our services; Developing and leading academic support services teams; Communication, advocacy and promotion; Collection development and building living collections; Interpretation and promotion of the collections; Knowledge management and evolving collection development roles; Managing a collections budget; Information services and connecting people with information; Research support services; Librarians as lecturers and information literacy training; and, Innovation and enterprise. This is an indispensable text for academic librarians, at all levels of their career, as well as managers of subject librarian teams. It offers an unrivalled overview of the academic librarian's role for students studying library and information courses and provides academics with an insight into the services they provide.

A-Z Common Reference Questions for Academic Librarians is a survival guide for frontline library staff to help them find appropriate information quickly, whether they are answering questions at a physical help desk or remotely by telephone, email or instant messaging service. The book will help academic librarians tackle the questions most commonly asked by students, academics and researchers. A broad cross-disciplinary A-Z of themes including topics such as literature searching, plagiarism and using online resources are covered helping you to address an query confidently and quickly. Each topic is split into three sections to guide your response: typical questions: listing the common enquiries encountered points to consider: exploring the issues and challenges that might arise where to look: listing annotated UK and international resources in print and online including key organisations, scholarly bodies, digital libraries, statistical data and journal article indexes. A-Z Common Reference Questions for Academic Librarians updates and expands the author’s previous book, Know it All, Find it Fast for Academic Libraries, and includes new sections on blogging and social media text and data mining and data visualization assistive technology resources early career researchers impact measurement including bibliometrics; citation analysis and journal rankings academic internet searching LGBT studies Middle East studies project management open access publishing research data management study skills systematic reviews. This will be an indispensable day-to-day guide for anyone working with students, academics and researchers in an academic library.

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.

Intended for use by both librarians and students in LIS programs, Academic Librarianship Today is the most current, comprehensive overview of the field available today. Key features include: Each chapter was commissioned specifically for this new book, and the authors are highly regarded academic librarians or library school faculty— or both Cutting-edge topics such as open access, copyright, digital curation and preservation, emerging technologies, new roles for academic librarians, cooperative collection development and resource sharing, and patron-driven acquisitions are explored in depth Each chapter ends with thought-provoking questions for discussion and carefully constructed assignments that faculty can assign or adapt for their courses The book begins with Gilman’s introduction, an overview that briefly synthesizes the contents of the contributors’ chapters by highlighting major themes. The main part of the book is organized into three parts: The Academic Library Landscape Today, Academic Librarians and Services Today, and Changing Priorities, New Directions.