This article proposes that understanding information literacy as a social practice is a threshold concept for academic information literacy librarians. While the social nature of information literacy has been theorized for more than 25 years, the noted theory-to-practice gap in this area suggests a new question to be raised. This study explores…

This qualitative study examines how academic librarians understand, conceptualize, and describe their teacher identity. The role of the academic librarian has greatly changed due to the advent of information technology. Traditionally, they were generalists, who were responsible for selecting and maintaining library collections. Academic librarian…

This study compares the perspectives of academic library administrators, library school educators, and academic librarians with respect to academic instructional librarianship. A nine-item questionnaire was administered to 14 educators, 10 library administrators, and 13 instructional librarians. The survey included items related to important…

Librarians at a community college in New York City identified that, unassisted, undergraduate students often find it difficult to categorize the various information formats they are locating and citing, such as a newspaper article, a book, a scholarly article, a blog or wiki entry, or a reference source. Due to their untrained approach defining…

Although mentoring is widely valued and encouraged within librarianship, it has been conceived mostly as a professional relationship that occurs after one has obtained a position. Thus, mentoring among LIS students is not customary--largely because internships and field experiences are not universally required. To address this problem, the…

Describes a survey of academic librarians that examined the actual and preferred methods by which they gain knowledge relevant to bibliographic instruction. It is concluded that current training in bibliographic instruction is often insufficient and that organized continuing education courses are needed. The questionnaire used is appended. (four…