Academia’s work hours are weird. So is our approach to work[ing]. So much of our identity is wrapped up in that work. The same could be said of libraries in general; and so I imagine this is doubly problematic for academic librarians. A 2018 study by Tamara Townsend and Kimberly Bugg found that 40% of […]
It’s important to remember that librarians not only provide access to information resources, but are often the people most equipped and able to teach students about the ethical, technical, and strategic approaches to information resources. Librarians have always done both, but the balance, with a pronounced weight toward the latter, has been shifting for some […]
But then students are our target audience: “The vast majority of academics who responded – around 90% – saw the main role of the university library as a purchaser of content. While 45% described themselves as very dependent on their library for their work, only 2% of academics start their research with a visit to […]
“Further, the library must be willing to allow dedicated time for what happens after exploration. The “serve ‘em and send ‘em along” model is no longer serving a patronage whose information needs include planning, building and executing projects that utilize the strengths of librarianship (information organization and broad contextualization). Reframing the library as a productive […]
VA Tech is one of my models for what academic libraries should be in the 21st century. Even though I risk my UVA-degreed soul when I say that. “At Virginia Tech we’re positioning ourselves to not only provide content, but to support content production. We think of this as not only about access to information, […]
Academic libraries are becoming more than adjuncts to their home institutions with the increase of interdisciplinary research institutes, but that essential role, as adjuncts, is still at the core of everything we do. It also reminds me that I need to read WBT’s book. “Because academic libraries are adjuncts to the institutions they serve, philosophizing about […]