This paper examines the impact of process mapping on the management of change in an academic library in a UK higher education institution. Book ordering has been highlighted by a group of subject librarians as being time-consuming and inefficient, detracting from their ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities. An action research…

Libraries at academic institutions have been involved in research data management services (RDMS) for more than ten years. Institutions have adapted their service models in response to funder, journal, and federal mandates that have consequently increased RDMS demand. However, institutions that hope to start or grow their services may have…

K-12 instructional settings diversified worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic response. Research is needed in examining school librarians' evolving roles during this era. Beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, K-12 remote-synchronous learning was an instructional option in a progressive U.S. public school district. This new "school"…

This paper presents the results of thirty-seven interviews of senior library leaders at American Association of University (AAU) institutions conducted in Spring 2023. The author replicated a 2016 study from "portal," revealing an increased focus on strategic plan-based decision-making along with new priorities of open scholarship and…

The changes experienced in the digital era require academic library staff to constantly update, expand, and develop their skills in order to carry out their roles efficiently and remain relevant in the provision of services to clients. Consequently, academic libraries have been among the first organizations to adopt knowledge sharing as a means to…

After 40 years under one manager, the Circulation Department at the Richard J. Daley Library was long past due for a change. The challenge of reorganizing included interesting and interrelated aspects: changes to workflows and assignments, moving staff and functions inside the department and across departments, and a deep dive into the culture to…

This article addresses the development of electronic reserves within academic libraries. Libraries have been offering electronic reserve services on separate platforms since the 1990s (Austin, 2013). However, since the integration of campus-wide content management systems (CMSs), the need for a library reserves platform that is independent from an…

Organizations are being called upon to take responsibility for the ways their operations impact societies especially the marginalized sectors. Libraries are not exempt from such social responsibility. The paper proposes a theoretical framework for Library Social Responsibility. The paper briefly traces the history of library services for the poor.…

For the past several years academic libraries have been adopting discovery systems to provide a search experience that reflects user expectations and improves access to electronic resources. University of Houston Libraries has kept pace with this evolving trend by pursuing various discovery options; these include an open-source tool, a federated…

Two academic libraries undergoing significant organizational changes were the location for a project that researched how staff members and subunits of the libraries made collective judgments, negotiated what is sometimes called the "landscape of practice"--the collective body of knowledge of their profession--and thus came to collective…

This article addresses the question: How do emotions and emotional labor relate to instruction librarians' motivations to adopt new teaching practices? Twelve information literacy instruction librarians were interviewed about their motivations to adopt new teaching practices. An initial round of coding was completed using grounded theory, to…

Baker Library at Harvard Business School is increasingly asked by the school's faculty to create custom digital information products to enhance course assignments and to find novel ways of electronically disseminating faculty research. In order to prioritize these requests, as well as facilitate, manage, and track the resulting projects, the…

This article outlines some of the opportunities and challenges of changing what the library "brand" means to academic and professional services staff in the rapidly changing environment of UK higher education, taking the University of Leicester as a case study. It makes a practitioner contribution to the growing body of evidence of how…

When a mid-sized library at a private university held its first robust research-support event, a huge portion of the student body was noticeably absent -- the distance population. The ACRL Standards for Distance Learning Library Services affirms that distance learners are entitled to the same services and resources as on-campus learners. This…

Strategic communication is not solely the remit of library managers and directors, but is the product of internal culture and engagement with the organization's brand. Libraries need to communicate strategically, in order to demonstrate to individuals across the organization that their message is on point, and that they understand, are committed…