Digital initiatives have become increasingly common in academic libraries, but inconsistent definitions, standards, and expectations limit and, in some cases, negatively impact the effectiveness of practitioners. This article explores the discourse surrounding professional titles and responsibilities in digital initiatives within North American…

This article is an update to a previous article on the online embedded librarian program at Athens State University. It examines the nature of embedded librarianship at Athens State University and how it has grown and evolved over the past fifteen years. The authors review the literature and provide definitions and best practices associated with…

In spring 2020, the California State University System and its 23 campuses became the first in the United States to commit to a year of remote instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote instruction separated the system's librarians from their users, whose needs were especially great within the system's ethnically, economically, and…

Narrative inquiry, a phenomenological qualitative research methodology, examines individual human experiences--stories. Yet, researchers in Library and Information Science (LIS)--a human-focused profession--have infrequently used it. This article introduces narrative inquiry and provides a literature review of the few LIS studies using it. Next,…

This article discusses the work of the American Library Association (ALA) Special Task Force on Sustainability, which identified 52 recommendations, including the adoption of sustainability as a core value of librarianship. The group aims to promote libraries as catalysts, connectors, and conveners to promote sustainability, resilience, and…

This article encourages thoughtful discussion on cross-disciplinary partnerships among those researchers, practitioners, and librarians engaged in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Through personal experiences, examples from the literature, and the goal of meaningful collaboration, the authors describe four models of engagement with…

In this paper, we share background and key considerations of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and propose introducing library and information science (LIS) students to SoTL as a way to acquaint them with the higher education teaching profession. Throughout the article, we employ reflection as the primary consideration and support…

This essay urges a broadening of the discourse of library and information science (LIS) to address the convergence of forces shaping the information environment. It proposes adopting a model from the field of science studies that acknowledges the interdependence and coevolution of social, cultural, and material phenomena. Digital archives and…

It has been almost 50 years since Robert Taylor published his classic 1968 article, "Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries," in "College & Research Libraries"; yet much of what that article discussed is as fresh today as it was back then. It has been identified as a classic because it has enduring themes…

An Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded National Forum Planning Grant "Envisioning Our Information Future and How to Educate for It" brought together a diverse group of stakeholders to lay the framework for re-visioning LIS education. This article describes three take-aways from the 2015 forum: encourage wide…

For decades, popular culture was neglected and frowned upon by academics. In recent years, cultural critics, including librarians, have found popular culture materials to be didactic tools, and vital to the study of society and the zeitgeist that has prevailed at the time of their production. As a result, many academic librarians have found it…

Since about 2003, the notion of threshold concepts--the central ideas in any field that change how learners think about other ideas--have become difficult to escape at library conferences and in general information literacy discourse. Their visibility will likely only increase because threshold concepts figure prominently in the Framework for…

This article articulates and defends a student-centered approach to reference and instructional librarianship defined by authentic engagement with students' interests. A review of the history of the construct of authenticity in philosophy, humanistic and existential psychology, and contemporary educational psychology is traced. Connections are…

The development of patron-driven acquisition (PDA) as a viable collections practice is encouraging many academic libraries to be proactive about sharing significant collection development responsibilities with their patrons. The adoption of PDA represents a challenge to some long-held understandings about libraries and collections, however, and…

Few academic librarians ten or fifteen years ago would have believed that those days of flat-lined budgets and miniscule raises could ever seem a golden (or at least silver) age by comparison. It turns out that there is something even worse than uncertainty, however--the absolute certainty of budgetary constriction and unwise decisions.…