Research data services are increasingly offered by academic libraries. As a result, librarians may need to upskill to provide data services and build capacity. This study measures the current level of data services skills of academic librarians and explores preferred methods of continuing education. An online survey was circulated asking…

Because information and documentation units in libraries have responsibility for an ever-increasing number of projects, this paper aims at analyzing the discipline of project management in library and information science (LIS) from a professional perspective. To that end, the researchers employed quantitative and qualitative methodology based on a…

Libraries have found themselves overtaken by commercial entities providing open, unmediated information services, causing debate about the future of libraries. It has been argued that in order to stay relevant, libraries must undertake a fundamental shift towards a new focus on engaging with clients. At University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)…

A survey of Australian academic reference librarians was conducted as part of an international collaboration seeking to identify the most important knowledge, skills and attributes now and for the next ten years. Librarians working in or managing reference-related services at university and vocational education and training institutions…

Two factors identified as contributing to the lack of communication between researchers and practitioners, terminology and relevance, are the focus of this paper. A questionnaire distributed to senior staff in academic libraries asked participants to assess abstracts from articles in top ranked LIS journals. Results indicated a relatively high…

The Federal Government is introducing a new funding model for research in Australian higher education institutions, the Research Quality Framework (RQF). This paper provides an overview of the RQF and looks at possible impacts of the RQF on academic libraries in Australia. These impacts are drawn from experience at one Australian university,…

This paper focuses on innovation and the change triggered by the introduction of new approaches to planned change in professional practice. It presents a range of ideas and theories about innovation and change and speculates about how new approaches get introduced and become accepted into professional practice. The paper concludes by focusing on…

The meanings of professional and academic as qualifiers of librarians are discussed, arguing that if librarians in academic institutions are to be accorded a status comparable with that of faculty, they must be prepared to be assessed by the comparable and traditional means, namely qualifications, research, and publications. (14 references)…

This paper explores library evaluation in Australia and proposes a return to research fundamentals in which evaluators are asked to consider the centrality of philosophical issues and the role of different research methods. A critique of current evaluation examples demonstrates a system-centred, quantitative, input/output focus which fails to…

This issue of the IATUL (International Association of Technological University Libraries) Proceedings focuses on developments in Australian libraries. The first article, "University Librarianship in Australia" (D. H. Borchardt), reviews the growth of librarianship in Australia and examines some current issues. "Information Retrieval…