From Treading Water to Smooth Sailing: Mentoring for New Academic Librarians

The two authors were paired as part of a formal mentoring program for orientation and to prepare for eventual promotion and tenure. One author has over twenty-five years’ experience on campus, and the other author has completed one year in her current position. During that first year, various themes emerged to remind both librarians that the more things change, the more they remain the same. As the mentoring experience evolved, it became difficult to distinguish the mentor from the mentee because both librarians understood that discussing common issues was mutually beneficial.     

Academic Reference Librarians:

No abstract available for this article.     

Academic Reference Librarians:

Declining levels of financial support for public institutiom, such as colleges and universities in particular, have resulted in reduced staffing in academic libraries. Concurrently, libraries are besi.eged with greater demands from the academic community for access to and instruction in electronic information resources such as the :Internet Emerging organizational structures of academic libraries is discussed Core competencies for academic reference librarians are then1 identified and discussed. 'lhese include a flexible attitude and approach towards technology. a high tolerance for rapid change in technology, creativity, curiosity, communication skills, public relations savvy, and the ability to effectively relate to a diverse clientele.     

美国大学图书馆员讨论热点选评

美国大学图书馆馆员讨论的一些热点问题对我国大学图书馆的发展有着现实意义。对这些问题的分析揭示出国内大学图书馆应该关注投资回报,但不应拘泥于其计算方法;应该重视馆藏文献的剔旧,保证馆藏的有效性,节约管理成本;应该关注在用教材的收藏,体现为读者服务的精神;应该正确认识学生兼职咨询工作的现象,结合本馆实际实施。     

高校图书馆员"职业高原"问题探析

在高校图书馆员中普遍存在着“职业高原”现象,这种现象已经对高校图书馆员的职业生涯管理造成危害,文章对这种现象进行了剖析,并提出了解决“职业高原”问题的对策。     

Multiple Roles of Academic Reference Librarians:

No abstract available for this article.     

Visualizing Academic Librarians: An Arts-informed Inquiry

This research was undertaken by five librarians from Deakin University Library Australia as part of a professional development project. The objective was to collect qualitative data on the perceptions of librarians by academics and library colleagues from Deakin University. The ways in which academics perceive librarians, as well as how other library staff perceive librarians, are relatively under-explored areas. This study investigates the topic through an analysis of drawing and other visual representations, based on a study design that applied a visual, arts-based methodological approach. Participants were invited to focus groups where they were provided with a variety of craft materials, asked to create a visual representation of liaison librarians, then discuss their artifact. The data consists of twenty-eight artifacts, which were content analyzed, and semi-structured interview recordings, which were transcribed and analyzed for themes. Participants expressed liaison librarians positively, as helpers and connectors, as a gateway to knowledge, with complex and varied roles, as trusted sources, and as relationship builders. By drawing attention to these themes, the participants highlighted that liaison librarians are invaluable to Deakin University.     

Crowdfunding for Academic Libraries: Indiana Jones Meets Polka

Crowdfunding – or creatively presenting a case for funding to like-minded individuals – is becoming an effective development strategy for academic libraries. The crowdfunding projects described offer multiple approaches to consider, from an adventure-themed video to embracing polka music to entice donors to give. Social media, used in conjunction with the web and well-established email communication formed the basis of successful project promotion. Developing a robust communication plan ahead of campaign launch is critical for success. Thanking donors for their transformational gifts and follow up communication describing the impact of their participation six months later raises friends for the library potentially for many years to come. With proper planning, an active and enthusiastic committee and effective donor stewardship, crowdfunding campaigns will help libraries raise funds to support strategic initiatives.     

The Professor-Librarian: Academic Librarians Teaching Credit-Bearing Courses

Many academic librarians have ideas or opportunities for teaching information literacy courses for the library, outside the scope of their regular positions. Some additional librarians are asked to consider teaching credit-bearing courses for other departments at their institutions, based on graduate degrees they hold in fields besides library science. Academic librarians who face either option are often asked to provide detailed information on how colleagues at other institutions handle arrangements: payment, coverage of library services while they are teaching, and proving their suitability for teaching in a given subject area. Unfortunately, the data available on their work is both scant and scattered. The authors surveyed librarians at 350 academic libraries across the United States to gather and analyze data on these and numerous related aspects of librarians’ teaching for departments outside the library. They also collected and analyzed comprehensive background information on these “professor-librarians.”     

The Academic Library Meets Web 2.0: Applications and Implications

Visits to 81 academic library websites in the New York State reveal that 42% of them adopted one or more Web 2.0 tools such as blogs while implementation of those tools in individual libraries varies greatly. We also propose a conceptual model of Academic Library 2.0 in this report.     

Beyond Control: Accessioning Practices for Extensible Archival Management

Accessioning has long been one of our profession’s least visible, discussed, and critically examined activities. This article analyzes our scholarly literature on the subject, revealing an absent theoretical framework and a marked over-reliance on static assumptions about what accessioning entails, to the detriment of both archivists and our collections. The case study that follows describes the creation of an accessioning program at New York University and posits a model of accessioning situated in the context of holistic archival administration, based on both theory and practice, and informed by access-driven workflows and iterative processing strategies.     

Self-Efficacy of Academic Librarians: Implications for Public Services Managers

The question of academic librarian status has resulted in academic librarians approaching relationships with faculty as one of deference, where they cede power to disciplinary faculty regardless of their own expertise. To date, no research has explored why academic librarians engage in deference behavior when working with disciplinary faculty. Self-efficacy, a person's beliefs in their ability to perform a task, may be an appropriate theoretical framework to begin exploring this behavior. This pilot study explores the perceived self-efficacy of Colorado academic librarians holding an instruction and/or liaison role (n = 68) in order to examine academic librarians' levels of perceived self-efficacy and its relationship to faculty status and years in profession. Results indicate that there is not a significant relationship between perceived self-efficacy and faculty status or years in profession but that gender is significantly associated with perceived self-efficacy. Results also indicate a change in self-efficacy as library faculty progress between faculty ranks. Avenues for future research on academic librarian self-efficacy are suggested and implications for public services managers are discussed.     

Strategic Engagement: New Models of Relationship Management for Academic Librarians

ABSTRACT

How do we best bridge the gap between the Library and the diverse academic communities it serves? Librarians need new strategies for engagement. Traditional models of liaison, aligning solutions to disciplines, are yielding to functional specialisms, including a focus on building partnerships. This paper offers a snapshot of realignment across the Russell Group from subject support to relationship management. It then follows the journey of a newly-formed Faculty and School Engagement Team. Techniques are explored for building relationship capital, anchored to a model Strategic Engagement Cycle. Theory is contrasted with the challenges of securing real buy-in to new ways of working amid diverging agendas and assumptions, notably within the Library itself. Consideration is given to the retention of aspects of subject librarian roles. Investment in a relationship management function demands staunch and ongoing commitment to fulfil its promise, not only from its performers but from across the library community.     

The Low Morale Experience of Academic Librarians: A Phenomenological Study

A dynamic body of knowledge about workplace bullying and burnout in academic libraries exists; however, there is a significant shortage of library and information science (LIS) literature regarding the related problem of low morale in any library environment; additionally, literature focusing on workplace bullying and burnout is quantitative, limiting insight into the animate experience of these events and inquiry into associated long-term effects. A phenomenological study was conducted to understand academic librarians' experience of low morale. Emergent themes connected workplace abuse, mental and physical health impacts, systemic influences, and the long-term consequences of low morale on LIS career trajectories.     

Beyond Heroes and Villains: Examining Explanatory Mechanisms Underlying Moral Disengagement

In recent years, theorizing regarding the role and importance of media entertainment in everyday life has garnered much serious attention by media effects scholars. The role of moral judgments, sanctions, and lack thereof are areas in which theoretical development has expanded. The present study examines narrative exposure, identification, and moral judgment as indicators of the degree to which individuals may morally disengage during mediated entertainment experiences. In addition, this study attempts to further expand disposition theory and theorizing about the role of moral disengagement by moving beyond conceptualizations of good, bad, and morally ambiguous characters to explore more subtle moral distinctions between characters as they exist within the same narrative and along a continuum. Results suggest that identification and moral judgment serve as important mediators predicting moral disengagement; however, the nature of these relationships are moderated by the perception of the character’s moral fortitude.     

Taking Library Instruction into the Online Classroom: Best Practices for Embedded Librarians

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of online courses has led librarians to adapt their instructional techniques and follow teaching faculty and students into the online environment. Moving beyond Web pages and online research guides, librarians are now becoming instructional partners in online course management systems. Through an online survey of librarians and a literature review, the authors examine best practices for these “embedded librarians.”     

Doing It All: First Year Challenges for New Academic Reference Librarians

ABSTRACT

The article suggests ways in which new academic reference librarians can carve out a niche within the larger field of librarian-ship. The author recommends that these new professionals first identify areas of specialization within their departments, which they can later extend to their libraries, colleges or universities, communities, state, region, and nation.