Academic literature on the topic 'College librarians'

The present paper compares library automation in first-grade college libraries affiliated to the University of Mysore. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary inputs from college libraries to understand the present status. A total of 160 colleges were taken up for the study in which 135 (84.37%) colleges responded,15 first grade college libraries did not have librarians and ten librarians did not respond. The study’s findings reveal that 94 (69.62%) college libraries are automated. Among them, 29 (30.85%) college libraries are fully automated, 65 (69.14%) college libraries are partially automated and 41 (30.37%) libraries are not automated. The study’s findings reveal that all autonomous colleges are automated—the main reason for not automating the library in Government colleges, Private aided colleges and Unaided colleges are inadequate of finance and lack of trained manpower. It is suggested that the librarians have to attend intensive training programs on deputation or become proficient in automation work to provide effective and efficient services to users.

The present paperprovides the status of library automation of first gradecollege libraries affiliated to University of Mysore. A structured questionnaire was used as the tool to collect basic inputs from college libraries to understand the present status. A total of 160 colleges were taken up for the study in which 135(84.37%)colleges responded,15 first grade college libraries did not have librarians and 10 librarians did not respond.The findings of the study reveal that 60(63.83%)college libraries are using open source software E-Granthalaya and KOHA software for library automation. Out of 135 colleges,29 (30.85%) college libraries are fully automated, 65(69.15%) college libraries are partially automated and 41(28.90%) libraries are not automated. The librarians have to attend intensive training programs on deputation or have to become proficient on their own in automation in order to provide effective and efficient services to users.

In 1994, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) Libraries founded a College Librarian Program. Begun with four librarians serving four colleges, it has since grown to include eleven librarians providing comprehensive library services to the six of Virginia Tech’s eight colleges not served by branch libraries. Other authors have described the early history of the program or outlined some of its specific elements.1 By reviewing how the program came to be, by analyzing the choice points it presents, especially from an administrative perspective, and by discussing its benefits and costs from a university point of view, the authors hope to illuminate an exciting and potentially beneficial approach that other large institutions might seek to adapt to their own missions.

Background of the study: The college library is the heart of higher education. In the era of information technology today the needs and desires of the settlers vary and change. Librarians are required to be creative and have competence when managing libraries and serving the users. Librarians must develop better performance by paying attention to the quality of service to users. Purpose: The research aims to determine creativity to improve the service and performance of the librarian. Method: This research uses qualitative method. Findings: The results of this research are the efforts of the librarian in increasing the creativity of the librarian's performance, which can be seen from the skills and abilities gained by the librarians through a formal education of the libraries D3, S1 and S2. In addition to increasing the knowledge and insight of librarians write scientific works. Librarians also participate in and hold training, workshops, socialization and book reviews. Conclusion: The organizational environment encourages creativity such as awards given to librarians that can be seen in the performance and aspects of librarian behavior used to calculate incentives. In addition, the support of the leadership and the good team work also affects the creativity of the librarians.

College librarians recognize research and publication as important components of professional growth and communication. Yet, compared to their counterparts in universities, they author fewer articles in the professional literature. This paper examines articles published by college librarians in College & Research Libraries and Journal of Academic Librarianship from 1986 to 1996 to provide a profile of college librarian authors and to identify factors that contributed to their success in publishing.

Recent research on how college students use libraries has raised some interesting questions for academic librarians. Data from the report “College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources: A Report to the OCLC Membership” illuminates how college students from around the world view libraries and what they want from libraries. Asked to increasingly justify their relevance on campus, academic libraries need to decide what services and resources to offer to students, both in person and virtually. Librarians face choices of providing students with what they want and what librarians and faculty think they need. The OCLC report drives home the . . .

Library workers from libraries of all types can struggle with the challenges of juggling instructional responsibilities with other assigned duties. Library context can play a key role in the resources available to mitigate these challenges. In this article, Chelsea Contrada discusses information literacy instruction in a community college library context and how that context influences her approach to library instruction. She articulates some of the unique aspects of instruction in community colleges and how community college librarians take a different approach than many of their peers in four-year colleges and universities. Contrada makes a strong case for increased collaboration across library type and more robust opportunities for professional development and engagement for community college librarians.—Editor

This paper aims to gift the results of a survey conducted to see the effective use of online Public Access Catalogs (OPAC) at the library of Jeppiaar Maamallan Engineering College in Chennai. The paper examines the result from a questionnaire based survey conducted at the library. 50 samples of the form were distributed in a random way between the employees of Jeppiaar Maamallan Engineering College in Chennai out of which 48 completed and valid questionnaires (96.00 %) were received for analysis. The information received from the respondents through these questionnaires was analyzed. Thus, the study clearly highlighted the requirement for associate degree education programme module for users to market the effective use of OPAC. An effort is formed through this study to gift the difficulties Janus-faced by users at engineering college libraries, in looking for data victimization OPAC. This paper provides helpful empirical proof for librarians and therefore the analysis community on the usage of OPAC in libraries of engineering colleges. The results of this study are going to be helpful for librarians at Jeppiaar Maamallan Engineering College in Chennai and additionally to different librarians around the state and country. This paper provides original information from library finish users in engineering college, relating to their expertise whiles victimization OPAC.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report the training of college librarians, academic and management staff, IT managers and students on how to organise, manage and use a user-friendly library. In Uganda, as in many countries, the problem is that school and/or college libraries are managed by librarians who may have good cataloguing and management skills, but who do not have the pedagogic skills and knowledge of the school curricula that are necessary for librarians to be able to guide and mentor both teachers and students or organise curriculum-related activities or facilitate research. The development of user-friendly libraries contributes in improving education quality through nurturing the interest of students and teachers in literacy activities and active search for knowledge. Under the stewardship of the Belgium Technical Cooperation and the Ministry of Education in Uganda, library stakeholders were trained on how to put users – rather than themselves – in the centre of the library’s operations and introduced to active teaching and learning methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections. Several measures, short and long term were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. Given the disparities in the trainees’ education level and work experience, the training was delivered in seven modules divided into three units for over eight months in 2015. By the end of the training, trainees developed unique library strategic plan, library policies and procedures, capacity to use library systems, physical design and maintenance systems, partnerships, library structure and staff job descriptions. Design/methodology/approach To effectively engage the participants each topic was conducted using active teaching and learning (ATL) methodologies, including: lecture with slides and hands-on practice – each topic was introduced in a lecture form with slides and hands-on exercises. The main goal was to introduce the participants to the concepts discussed, offer opportunities to explore alternative approaches, as well define boundaries for discussion through brainstorming. The question-answer approach kept the participants alert and to start thinking critically on the topic discussed – brainstorming sessions allowed thinking beyond the presentation room, drawing from personal experiences to provide alternatives to anticipated challenges. The goal here was for the participants to provide individual choices and approaches for real life problems; group discussions: case study/ scenario and participant presentations – participants were provided with a scenario and asked to provide alternative approaches that could solve the problem based on their personal experience at their colleges. By the end of the group discussion, participants presented a draft of the deliverable as per the topic under discussion. More so, group discussions were an excellent approach to test participant’s teamwork skills and ability to compromise, as well as respecting team decisions. It was an opportunity to see how librarians will work with the library committees. Group discussions further initiated and cemented the much-needed librarian–academic staff – college management relationship. During the group discussion, librarians, teaching staff, ICT staff and college management staff, specifically the Principals and Deputy Principals interacted freely thus starting and cultivating a new era of work relationship between them. Individual presentation: prior to the workshop, participants were sent instructions to prepare a presentation on a topic. For example, participants were asked to provide their views of what a “user-friendly library” would look like or what would constitute a “user-friendly library”; the college library of HTC-Mulago was asked to talk about their experience working with book reserves, challenges faced and plans they have to address the challenges, while the college librarian from NTC-Kaliro was asked to describe a situation where they were able to assist a patron, the limitations they faced and how they addressed them. Doing so did not only assist to emotionally prepare the participants for the training but also helped to make them start thinking about the training in relation to their libraries and work. Take-home assignment: at the end of each session, participants were given home assignments to not only revise the training material but also prepare for the next day training. Further the take-home assignments provided time for the participants to discuss with their colleagues outside of the training room so as to have a common ground/ understanding on some of the very sensitive issues. Most interesting assignment was when participants were asked to review an article and to make a presentation in relation to their library experiences. Participant reports: participant reports resulted from the take-home assignments and participants were asked to make submission on a given topic. For example, participants were asked to review IFLA section on library management and write a two-page report on how such information provided supported their own work, as well as a participant report came from their own observation after a library visit. Invited talks with library expert: two invited talks by library experts from Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association with the goal to share their experience, motivate the participants to strive higher and achieve great things for their libraries. Library visitation: there were two library visits conducted on three separate days – International Hospital Kampala (IHK) Library, Makerere University Library and Aga Khan University Hospital Library. Each of these library visits provided unique opportunities for the participants to explore best practices and implement similar practices in their libraries. Visual aids – videos, building plans and still photos: these were visual learning aids to supplement text during the lectures because they carried lot of information while initiating different thoughts best on the participants’ past experience and expertise. The training advocated for the use of ATL methodologies and likewise similar methodologies were used to encourage participants do so in their classrooms. Findings Addressing Key Concerns: Several measures, both long and short term, were taken to address the gaps limiting the performance of the librarians. The measures taken included: selected representative sample of participants including all college stakeholders as discussed above; active teaching and learning methodologies applied in the training and blended in the content of the training materials; initiated and formulated approaches to collaborations, networks and partnerships; visited different libraries to benchmark library practices and encourage future job shadowing opportunities; and encouraged participants to relate freely, understand and value each other’s work to change their mindsets. College librarians were encouraged to ensure library priorities remain on the agenda through advocacy campaigns. Short-term measures: The UFL training was designed as a practical and hands-on training blended with individual and group tasks, discussions, take-home assignments and presentations by participants. This allowed participates to engage with the material and take responsibility for their own work. Further, the training material was prepared with a view that librarians support the academic life of teaching staff and students. Participants were tasked to develop and later fine-tune materials designed to support their work. For example, developing a subject bibliography and posting it on the library website designed using open source tools such as Google website, Wikis, blogs. The developed library manual includes user-friendly policies and procedures referred to as “dos and don’ts in the library” that promote equitable open access to information; drafting book selection memos; new book arrivals lists; subscribing to open access journals; current awareness services and selective dissemination of information service displays and electronic bulletins. Based on their library needs and semester calendar, participants developed action points and timelines to implement tasks in their libraries at the end of each unit training. Librarians were encouraged to share their experiences through library websites, Facebook page, group e-mail/listserv and Instagram; however, they were challenged with intimate internet access. College libraries were rewarded for their extraordinary job. Given their pivotal role in the management and administration of financial and material resources, on top of librarians, the participants in this training were college administrators/ management, teaching and ICT staff, researchers and student leadership. Participants were selected to address the current and future needs of the college library. These are individuals that are perceived to have a great impact towards furthering the college library agenda. The practical nature of this training warranted conducting the workshops from developed but similar library spaces, for example, Aga Khan University Library and Kampala Capital City, Makerere University Library, International Hospital Kampala Library and Uganda Christian University Library. Participants observed orientation sessions, reference desk management and interviews, collection management practices, preservation and conservation, secretarial bureau management, etc. Long-term measures: Changing the mindset of librarians, college administrators and teaching staff is a long-term commitment which continues to demand for innovative interventions. For example: job shadowing allowed college librarian short-term attachments to Makerere University Library, Uganda Christian University Library, Aga Khan Hospital University Library and International Hospital Kampala Library – these libraries were selected because of their comparable practices and size. The mentorship programme lasted between two-three weeks; on-spot supervision and follow-up visits to assess progress with the action plan by the librarians and college administration and college library committee; ensuring that all library documents – library strategic plan, library manual, library organogram, etc are approved by the College Governing Council and are part of the college wide governing documents; and establishing the library committee with a job description for each member – this has strengthened the library most especially as an advocacy tool, planning and budgeting mechanism, awareness channel for library practices, while bringing the library to the agenda – reemphasizing the library’s agenda. To bridge the widened gap between librarians and the rest of the stakeholders, i.e. teaching staff, ICT staff, college administration and students, a college library committee structure and its mandate were established comprising: Library Committee Chairperson – member of the teaching staff; Library Committee Secretary – College Librarian; Student Representative – must be a member of the student Guild with library work experience; and Representative from each college academic department. A library consortium was formed involving all the four project supported colleges to participate in resource sharing practices, shared work practices like shared cataloguing, information literacy training, reference interview and referral services as well a platform for sharing experiences. A library consortium further demanded for automating library functions to facilitate collaboration and shared work. Plans are in place to install Koha integrated library system that will cultivate a strong working relationship between librarians and students, academic staff, college administration and IT managers. This was achieved by ensuring that librarians innovatively implement library practices and skills acquired from the workshop as well as show their relevance to the academic life of the academic staff. Cultivating relationships takes a great deal of time, thus college librarians were coached on: creating inclusive library committees, timely response to user needs, design library programmes that address user needs, keeping with changing technology to suite changing user needs, seeking customer feedback and collecting user statistics to support their requests, strengthening the library’s financial based by starting a secretarial bureau and conducting user surveys to understand users’ information-seeking behaviour. To improve the awareness of new developments in the library world, college librarians were introduced to library networks at national, regional and international levels, as a result they participated in conferences, workshops, seminars at local, regional and international level. For example, for the first time and with funding from Belgium Technical Cooperation, college librarians attended 81st IFLA World Library and Information Congress in South African in 2015. College libraries are now members of the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries and Uganda Library and Information Science Association and have attended meetings of these two very important library organisations in Uganda’s LIS profession. The college librarians have attended meetings and workshops organized by these two organisations. Originality/value At the end of the three units training, participants were able to develop: a strategic plan for their libraries; an organogram with staffing needs and job description matching staff functions; a Library Committee for each library and with a structure unifying all the four project-support Colleges; a library action plan with due dates including deliverables and responsibilities for implementation; workflow plan and organisation of key sections of the library such as reserved and public spaces; furniture and equipment inventory (assets); a library manual and collection development policy; partnerships with KCCA Library and Consortium of Uganda University Libraries; skills to use Koha ILMS for performing library functions including: cataloguing, circulation, acquisitions, serials management, reporting and statistics; skills in searching library databases and information literacy skills; skills in designing simple and intuitive websites using Google Sites tools; and improved working relationship between the stakeholders was visible. To further the user-friendly libraries principle of putting users in the centre of the library’s operations, support ATL methodologies and activities with emphasis on getting engaged in transforming spaces, services, outreach to users and collections the following initiatives are currently implemented in the colleges: getting approval of all library policy documents by College Governing Council, initiating job shadowing opportunities, conducting on-spot supervision, guide libraries to set up college library committees and their job description, design library websites, develop dissemination sessions for all library policies, incorporate user-friendly language in all library documents, initiate income generation activities for libraries, set terms of reference for library staff and staffing as per college organogram, procurement of library tools like DDC and library of congress subject headings (LCSH), encourage attendance to webinars and space planning for the new libraries.

<p><em>This research aims to determine strategies for developing librarian competency as well as supporting and inhibiting factors for developing librarian competency in the Pontianak City State University Library. The method for exploring data in the field uses interviews and observations using the case study method with qualitative descriptive analysis. The informants used were the heads of libraries from the three universities and 2 librarians each in each college library. The results of the research show that the problems found in three State University libraries in Pontianak City include the low skills of librarians in using technology and the problem of educational qualifications of leaders who do not meet the standards for running university libraries in 2015 and 2017. Conclusions from the research show that the strategy is carried out through competency certification for equality as well as through training, workshops, national seminars in the field of librarians, becoming members of the IPI, and involving librarians in competitions for outstanding librarians. Efforts to improve librarian competence include leadership support and the availability of funds. Meanwhile, the inhibiting factor is a lack of awareness of increasing competence through education and support from the work environment.</em></p><p align="justify"><em><br /></em><em></em></p>

This study was designed to ascertain, analyse and compare the perceptions of College Librarians and their associates about the role responsibility which College Librarians in libraries in New South Wales Colleges of Advanced Education (CAEs) were actually assuming and ideally should be assuming as part of their role as library managers. Using as its basis a theoretical framework of role and role-related concepts, as developed by social psychologists such as Kahn et al. (1964), a role set group of Principals, Registrars and Senior Library Staff was identified as the survey population. A review of the literature about CAEs and their libraries and overseas studies about the role of library managers assisted with the development of a role responsibility questionnaire. Data from the questionnaire was analysed in respect of actual and ideal role responsibility and any gaps between actual and ideal role responsibility. Gaps between perceptions of actual and ideal role responsibility between College Librarians and associates may indicate a potential for role conflict for persons enacting the role of College Librarian. This study found statistically significant results in respect of both actual and ideal role responsibility between College Librarians and Senior Library Staff, which indicated that there was not clear agreement between the two groups about either the role responsibility currently assumed by College Librarians and that which ideally should be assumed. In respect of the gap between actual and ideal role responsibility, however, there was no statistically significant result between College Librarians and associates, indicating that the potential for role conflict resulting from divergent perceptions between role set groups was not evident. This does not preclude the potential for role conflict from other sources.

Collaboration between faculty and librarians is an important topic of discussion and research among academic librarians. These partnerships between faculty and librarians are vital for enabling students to become lifelong learners through their information literacy education. This research developed an understanding of academic collaborators by analyzing a community college faculty's teaching social networks. A teaching social network, an original term generated in this study, is comprised of communications that influence faculty when they design and deliver their courses. The communication may be formal (e.g., through scholarly journals and professional development activities) and informal (e.g., through personal communication) through their network elements. Examples of the elements of a teaching social network may be department faculty, administration, librarians, professional development, and students. This research asked 'What is the nature of faculty's teaching social networks and what are the implications for librarians?' This study moves forward the existing research on collaboration, information literacy, and social network analysis. It provides both faculty and librarians with added insight into their existing and potential relationships. This research was undertaken using mixed methods. Social network analysis was the quantitative data collection methodology and the interview method was the qualitative technique. For the social network analysis data, a survey was sent to full-time faculty at Las Positas College, a community college, in California. The survey gathered the data and described the teaching social networks for faculty with respect to their teaching methods and content taught. Semi-structured interviews were conducted following the survey with a sub-set of survey respondents to understand why specific elements were included in their teaching social networks and to learn of ways for librarians to become an integral part of the teaching social networks. The majority of the faculty respondents were moderately influenced by the elements of their network except the majority of the potentials were weakly influenced by the elements in their network in their content taught. The elements with the most influence on both teaching methods and content taught were students, department faculty, professional development, and former graduate professors and coursework. The elements with the least influence on both aspects were public or academic librarians, and social media. The most popular roles for the elements were conversations about teaching, sharing ideas, tips for teaching, insights into teaching, suggestions for ways of teaching, and how to engage students. Librarians' weakly influenced faculty in their teaching methods and their content taught. The motivating factors for collaboration with librarians were that students learned how to research, students' research projects improved, faculty saved time by having librarians provide the instruction to students, and faculty built strong working relationships with librarians. The challenges of collaborating with librarians were inadequate teaching techniques used when librarians taught research orientations and lack of time. Ways librarians can be more integral in faculty's teaching social networks included: more workshops for faculty, more proactive interaction with faculty, and more one-on-one training sessions for faculty. Some of the recommendations for the librarians from this study were develop a strong rapport with faculty, librarians should build their services in information literacy from the point of view of the faculty instead of from the librarian perspective, use staff development funding to attend conferences and workshops to improve their teaching, develop more training sessions for faculty, increase marketing efforts of the librarian's instructional services, and seek grant opportunities to increase funding for the library. In addition, librarians and faculty should review the definitions of information literacy and move from a skills based interpretation to a learning process.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2005.
"Department of Educational Administration and Higher Education." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78). Also available online.

This study examined how community college librarians create value for their institutional open educational efforts through the participation in a virtual community of practice. Guided by netnography and a two-phase sequential research design that used content and template analysis, it was found that community college librarians created value that was aligned to: institutional practices, individual practices, and challenges. This study contributes new knowledge to the subjects relating to open educational resources, open educational practices, community colleges, and community college librarians.

This study describes a survey of 237 first-year undergraduate students conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Through this study, the researcher aimed to fill in gaps in librarians’ knowledge about first-year students’ awareness of reference services, and students’ preferred modes of communication with librarians. The results show significant positive relationships between librarians’ verbal promotion of reference services and students’ tendency to ask reference questions in person.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate planning processes for academic library buildings and the outcomes of such processes. This is accomplished through a case study utilising discourse analysis. The main question is: How is a vision of an academic library implemented in and through a building? The case study is retrospective and focused on the building of a newlibrary at Kalmar University, Sweden, at the end of the 1990s. During this period, technological and educational developments and general societal change transformed the context of library planning and made way for renegotiations of the librarian profession.A critical realist approach characterises the study of visions, processes and the analysis of the various functions of the building. Results reveal the proactive nature of the activities of thelibrary director in Kalmar. Early in the process he formulated a vision in which he presents the library as an information resource, a meeting place between different user groups and a workplace intended to promote learning and knowledge. From a professional point of view, the vision implied a dehierarchisation of relations both within the library staff and between library staff and visitors. The vision was based on an interpretation of Swedish national educational policy, and architecturally manifested by an ambition to reduce the physical and psychologicalboundaries between library staff and visitors. The early formulation of the visiontogether with the clients’ use of architectural expertise facilitated the choice of architects.However during the process a need arose to anchor the decision in the library field. Efforts were made to address library expertise and to collect user comments from a broader academic field. Discourses concerning the university library as a workplace and a meeting place wereespecially evident in the strategies of the leading agents. The discourses uncovered in the study correspond to more general discourses which became prominent in society and higher education during the period in question. The library itself has met growing appreciation by users both from within and outside the university.The proactive leadership demonstrated by the library director in Kalmar was based on hegemony rather than coercion. This corresponds to contemporary tendencies. Hegemonic consent may persist even after changes in leadership. In Kalmar however, architectural solutions with insufficient support from the library staff have been reconstructed after changes in leadership.Future research on architectural planning processes may pay further attention to different discursive resources, social fields and the positions within them.
Akademisk avhandling som med tillstånd av samhällsvetenskapliga fakulteten vid Göteborgs universitet för vinnande av doktorsexamen framläggs till offentlig granskning klockan 13.15 fredagen den 4 december 2009 i sal D207, Högskolan i Borås, Allégatan 1

This thesis examines the history of Commonwealth Government higher education policy in Australia between 1958 and 1997 and its impact on the development of two groups of academic librarians: the Association of Librarians in Colleges in Advanced Education (ALCAE) and the Committee of Australian University Librarians (CAUL). Although university librarians had met occasionally since the late 1920s, it was only in 1965 that a more formal organisation, known as CAUL, was established to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information. ALCAE was set up in 1969 and played an important role helping develop a special concept of library service peculiar to the newly formed College of Advanced Education (CAE) sector. As well as examining the impact of Commonwealth Government higher education policy on ALCAE and CAUL, the thesis also explores the influence of other factors on these two groups, including the range of personalities that comprised them, and their relationship with their parent institutions and with other professional groups and organisations. The study focuses on how higher education policy and these other external and internal factors shaped the functions, aspirations, and internal dynamics of these two groups and how this resulted in each group evolving differently. The author argues that, because of the greater attention given to the special educational role of libraries in the CAE curriculum, the group of college librarians had the opportunity to participate in, and have some influence on, Commonwealth Government statutory bodies responsible for the coordination of policy and the distribution of funding for the CAE sector. The link between ALCAE and formal policy-making processes resulted in a more dynamic group than CAUL, with the university librarians being discouraged by their Vice-Chancellors from having contact with university funding bodies because of the desire of the universities to maintain a greater level of control over their affairs and resist interference from government. The circumstances of each group underwent a reversal over time as ALCAE's effectiveness began to diminish as a result of changes to the CAE sector and as member interest was transferred to other groups and organisations. Conversely, CAUL gradually became a more active group during the 1980s and early 1990s as a result of changes to higher education, the efforts of some university librarians, and changes in membership. This study is based principally on primary source material, with the story of ALCAE and CAUL being told through the use of a combination of original documentation (including minutes of meetings and correspondence) and interviews with members of each group and other key figures.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1993.
Title from title page screen, viewed February 8, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Paul J. Baker (chair), John R. McCarthy, George Padavil, Fred M. Peterson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 139-151) and abstract. Also available in print.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 133-138).
This dissertation focuses on an investigation that was conducted to find out the state of knowledge management in the Kamuzu College of Nursing and Bunda College of Agriculture libraries, constituent college libraries of the University of Malawi. Drawing from the literature on knowledge management, the study proposed and implemented two models for the maturity assessment and implementation of knowledge management respectively. The study used the models successfully to measure the levels of maturity of knowledge management and identify the knowledge needs and knowledge assets of the libraries. The results of the study revealed that both libraries are at the same level of knowledge management maturity i.e. knowledge management is still in its infancy as they did not have clearly established strategies to make use of knowledge. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the two libraries in the various aspects of knowledge management investigated. The study therefore recommended a road map for implementing knowledge management in the libraries. Knowledge management is recognised by many organisations of strategic importance to improving an organisation?s performance and its competitive advantage. Knowledge management thus has been largely associated with profit making organisations. However, knowledge management is also applicable to non-profit making organisations such as academic libraries. The environment in which academic libraries operate continuously changes and it is therefore imperative for the libraries to use knowledge management as a tool to adapt and remain relevant.

This chapter seeks to provide an overview of how academic librarians at the University of South Dakota's (USD) University Libraries are making steps to impact pre-college information literacy instruction and college preparation through collaborative outreach. There is much to be gained from establishing an ongoing dialog and formal relationships between academic librarians, campus programs, high school teachers, and school librarians. Using the existing literature and examples of partnership experiences, this chapter identifies best practices, which can improve student information literacy skills upon arrival at college, ensure students' academic success, increase student retention rates and increase exposure of the institution.

Tribal college librarians comprise a unique group of library professionals who typically serve in a dual role as both academic librarians and public librarians. Most tribal college libraries are the only library in their respective tribal community, and thus they serve the information needs of both their academic clientele and those of the general public. Additionally, their location in tribal communities necessitates that these library professionals have a deep cultural understanding and appreciation in order to work effectively with their largely Native clientele, whether they themselves are Native or not. This chapter describes the unique professional development needs of tribal college librarians and successful efforts to meet these needs. Advice on grant writing, tips and information on grant seeking with a look towards future trends is also provided.

Subject librarians are uniquely poised to facilitate conversations and assistance about scholarly communication topics to faculty and students -- helping make the connections between scholarly communication and discipline-specific research. The University of Central Florida (UCF) Libraries offers a unique intersection between scholarly communication and subject librarians by implementing a robust subject librarian model that includes activities related to scholarly communication and partnering with UCF’s Office of Scholarly Communication to provide support on a variety of topics to the campus community. In particular, this model has been particularly effective with STEM disciplines. The subject librarians in these respective disciplines have actively partnered with the Office of Scholarly Communication to provide a series of workshops targeted to STEM faculty on topics such as predatory publishing. These conversations have prompted invitations to speak at college and department meetings and to provide additional assistance and support on these scholarly communication topics. It has also led to a research project conducted by the science, engineering and computer science librarians and the Scholarly Communication Librarian on the open access publishing practices and trends of UCF STEM faculty to help better inform conversations and research support to these faculty. This article will explore the various ways in which this unique model aids UCF Libraries in providing scholarly communication support to faculty and students in an effective way and will share specific strategies and examples that readers can practically implement at their respective institutions.

Academic libraries across North America are restructuring to meet user needs in an e-preferred environment, resulting in major changes to traditional collection development roles and workflows. Responsibility for collection work is increasingly assigned to functional librarians dedicated to collection development activities across a broad range of subject areas, often serving an entire faculty or college. This paper discusses the history, process, and outcomes of the transition to functional collection development roles at two mid-sized universities. Both Carleton University and the University of Guelph support a wide range of undergraduate and graduate research needs from a single central library, but have implemented a different type of organizational design and are at different stages in the restructuring process. One year into their new functional roles, Carleton’s librarians are preparing to assess the state of change around collection development in their organization, and identify next steps for the restructuring process. By contrast, the University of Guelph has worked with a functional team model for ten years, and is undertaking a 10-year review to assess whether the original goals of the reorganization were met. How does collections work compare under a functional team model, compared to a traditional liaison model? Both perspectives offer strategies for consultation and change management that may be helpful to other institutions restructuring their collection development activities.

The competence development program for top managers and professionals of the libraries at vocational schools and colleges implemented by the Republican Institute for Vocational Education (Belarus) is discussed. The global problems of professional collaborations in the difficult circumstances of instability, uncertainty and ambiguity are examined. The content and stages of the program aimed at building supraprofessional digital competences in librarians at vocational schools and colleges are characterized in detail. The focus is made on andragogical approach toward program development and implementation. Possibilities and experience of cooperation with the coutry’s university libraries are demonstrated.

A descriptive study was conducted to look into the effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on academic libraries in Nigeria universities.. Four research questions guided the study. A review of the related literature was also carried out. The study took place in nine selected Nigerian universities. Survey participants were librarians and library officers from nine state-run university libraries. To collect data, the researchers had used san online survey template and a questionnaire. The information gathered was interpreted with descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicate that university libraries have differing degrees of ICT infrastructure capacity. The automation of library materials has begun, and database technology has vastly increased information storage and retrieval. Insufficient library funding/financial assistance, as well as inadequate technological infrastructures, was also found. In order to provide efficient resources, any division in such an academic library should indeed be computerized. Governments should prioritize library funding and financial assistance in their budgets. Under their small budgets, management could perhaps emphasize ICT spending.. Keywords: ICT, Academic Library, CD-ROM,, Nigerian University.

How can the library be best positioned to continue enabling student and institutional success? The Community College Academic and Student Support Ecosystem research initiative seeks to examine how student-facing service departments—including academic libraries—are organized, funded, and staffed at community and technical colleges across the country. In February 2021, we surveyed 321 community college library directors to provide the community with a snapshot of current service provision, leadership perspectives on the impact of COVID-19, and challenges faced in making decisions and navigating change.

The Government of Bangladesh is currently implementing the College Education Development Project (CEDP) to improve participating colleges' teaching and learning environment and strengthen the strategic planning and management capacity of National University (NU) affiliated tertiary colleges in Bangladesh. The focus of CEDP is to improve the capacity of the National University College system to plan, manage, implement, and monitor institutional programs, as well as strengthen the foundation for the next phase of development activities. CEDP promotes institution-led activities that focus on creating quality teaching-learning environments in government and non-government colleges through the availability of competitive grants. The achievement of the College Education Development Project (CEDP) is the satisfaction level of students, teachers, and employers in terms of the quality and relevance of teaching. To measure the satisfaction level of the relevant stakeholders (i.e., students, teachers, and employers), three beneficiary feedback surveys (i.e., baseline, mid-term, and endline) are planned to be conducted, among which the baseline was carried out in 2019. The Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) conducted the Mid-term Satisfaction Survey in May-June 2022. The mid-term survey is the second of the three planned surveys of the CEDP, measuring the mid-term satisfaction level of the stakeholders, students and teachers of National University-affiliated colleges, and employers of NU graduates. This study uses data from the Mid-term Satisfaction Survey to assess the mid-term satisfaction level of students, teachers, and employers. The study was designed using a mixed-method approach, both quantitative and qualitative, to address the objectives of this study. Data analysis has used both the baseline data collected in 2019 and the mid-term data collected in this study. Using the baseline and mid-term data, a two-round panel data was constructed at the college level. Depending on the specific indicators, the program's effect at the college level was calculated. We compare the overall satisfaction level regarding all the relevant indicators by stakeholder types, i.e., principals, teachers, and students, and observe differences among the average satisfaction levels. The overall teaching and learning environment satisfaction level is 3.81 among college principals, 2.95 among teachers, and 2.57 among students. A similar pattern is also found for other indicators except the collaboration of colleges with industries. The satisfaction level regarding the collaboration of colleges with industries is noted as the lowest for principals (1.62) and teachers (1.76), and for students, it is slightly higher (2.10 on a scale of 5). The lowest satisfaction level among students is recorded for connectivity through the internet (1.89), and the highest for teaching skills (3.92). The regression results show that for the full sample, the Difference-in-Difference (DiD) of the satisfaction scores on the quality of academic infrastructure, the quality of internet connection, and the quality of facilities for students’ soft skill improvement are statistically significant. The DiD for the other two satisfaction scores, namely, the teaching and learning environment and the degree of industry linkage, are not statistically significantly different from zero. These results show that the colleges that received Institutional Development Grants (IDGs) have made a positive and statistically significant impact on the improvement of the quality of academic infrastructure, quality of internet connection and other related facilities, and quality of facilities for students’ soft skill compared to those who did not receive this grant. However, the grant has made some changes in the teaching and learning environment and the degree of industry linkage between IDG awarded colleges and IDG non-recipient colleges. These changes are not statistically significant. The overall findings from the mid-term satisfaction survey highlighted that: (1) Institutional Development Grant (IDG) has made positive and statistically significant impact on the improvement of quality of academic infrastructure, quality of internet connection and other related facilities, and quality of facilities for students’ soft skill compared to those who did not receive this grant; (2) The grant has made some changes in the teaching and learning environment and the degree of industry linkage between IDG-awarded colleges and IDG non-recipient colleges. These changes are not significant enough to increase the satisfaction level of the students, teachers, and principals. Therefore, this study proposes these recommendations for increasing the overall satisfaction level of all stakeholders: (1) The poor level of industry collaboration has been highlighted by all types of beneficiaries. To facilitate industry collaboration, job fairs should be organised every year, preferably at the district level; (2) Introducing short course facilities can increase the job market opportunities of the NU-affiliated colleges; (3) Subject-based pedagogical training for the NU teachers is highly recommended; (4) The interrelation and collaboration between NU-affiliated colleges and universities should be increased. The colleges that are not well equipped with enough facilities can collaborate with the universities to share their equipment, such as computer labs, libraries, scientific labs, etc. This will help the less privileged colleges provide quality teaching and learning facilities to the students; (5) Forming and activating the activities of Alumni Associations in the NU-affiliated colleges; (6) There should be funds available for the renovation of old academic buildings, addition to an existing building, and upgrading labs and research facilities for teachers wherever appropriate, (7) There should be some provision of need-based funds/emergency grant that might be used or made available to the college authorities in case of sudden emergency or need (e.g., a sudden flash flood in Sylhet division)

As part of ARL’s Research Library Impact Framework initiative, a team at Syracuse University Libraries conducted a study to explore the impact of embedding three “distinct academic learning communities” in Syracuse University’s Bird Library: the Blackstone LaunchPad; the Center for Learning and Student Success; and the Syracuse Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement. Three objectives guided the team: (1) explore how the libraries impact the communities; (2) determine how the communities impact the libraries; and (3) identify methods/metrics that could demonstrate reciprocal impact and be useful to the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Impact was explored from multiple perspectives, including community directors, community participants, the libraries’ dean, and libraries’ staff. Results point to the value of the library as a central and interdisciplinary academic space for the communities, one that helps break down disciplinary borders by allowing community participants to more easily meet and collaborate with students from other schools and colleges.

Open access (OA) and the broad sharing of research outputs has been empirically shown to accelerate scientific progress and benefit society and individuals at scale through improved health outcomes, socioeconomic mobility, and environmental well-being, to name a few. Academic research libraries, for their part, have made significant investments in opening up research and scholarship—particularly research conducted on their campuses and made available through journal subscriptions. Yet these investments are difficult to collect given their distribution across many budget lines, the lack of standardized reporting categories, and inconsistent data collection practices. In May–June 2022 the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) undertook a survey of its US-based academic research libraries to better understand OA expenses. This report presents the survey results.

In the busy world of academic research library assessment work, can simple and easy-to-use outcome-based assessment tools contribute in meaningful and actionable ways to library decision-making? This was the question at the center of a project conducted by staff in the Iowa State University (ISU) Library’s Assessment and Planning unit as part of the library’s participation in the ARL Research Library Impact Framework initiative. The ISU project was done in support of the ARL research question, “How do library spaces facilitate innovative research, creative thinking, and problem-solving?” The ISU research project was based on the use of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Project Outcome for Academic Libraries survey tool. In the ISU project, data was collected and analyzed using the Project Outcome spaces survey, once every semester, from the fall of 2018 through the fall of 2021. The ISU project was designed to identify benefits of the Project Outcome survey through the hands-on use of the Project Outcome tool kit and to share those findings. This practice brief also provides information on how to use Project Outcome. A goal of the project was to support and encourage other ARL libraries in their own use of the Project Outcome resources.

This practice brief describes the assessment project undertaken by the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University as part of the library’s participation in ARL’s Research Library Impact Framework initiative to address the question “(How) do the library’s special collections specifically support and promote teaching, learning, and research?” The research team investigated how the Freshman Fellows experience impacted the fellows’ studies and co-curricular activities at the university. Freshmen Fellows, established in 2016, is a signature opportunity to expose students to primary-source collections early in their college career by pairing four fellows with four curators on individual research projects. The program graduated its first cohort of fellows in spring 2020. The brief includes a semi-structured interview guide, program guidelines, and a primary research rubric.

The author of the study analyzes and determines the features of the introduction of new forms of education in the highest historical pedagogical institutions of Ukraine in the early twentieth century. In particular: colloquiums, excursions, rehearsals, the organization of scientific sections of students and societies. Colloquiums were held to discuss the creative work of students. Proseminars prepared students for participation in seminars. Excursions prepared students for scientific work and taught them to collect information about historical monuments. Interviews and rehearsals took an important place in the revitalization of academic activity of students in universities. During the interviews, students learned to express their thoughts freely. Rehearsals were used as a means of monitoring the progress of students. An important component of the preparation of the future teacher of history was the organization of scientific student sections and societies. The main forms of their work were: the discussion of scientific reports, the publication of periodicals, the creation of libraries, museums, etc. The most talented students took part in scientific sections and societies. Thus, higher education institutions created prerequisites for the education of gifted young people. The publication also reveals the specifics of the practical training of students. The practical component included not only pedagogical, but also museum practice. In addition, pedagogical institutions of higher education conducted educational excursions, literary and musical evenings, organized social, sanitary and charitable activities. The author of the publication not only explores the features of various forms of education, but also the possibility of using them in the practice of the modern higher pedagogical institution in Ukraine.