There is little literature on what community college library deans must do to transform the community college library into an integral part of modern community colleges. Using a qualitative approach, this study examines the roles and responsibilities of an effective leader in a community college library. Semi-structured interviews with six Texas…

In the digital age, academic libraries are increasingly spending more money on online resources and less on print materials (Wolff-Eisenberg, 2017). The decrease in print resources in libraries has led to available space for libraries to repurpose. As this trend continues, and more and more students bring their own individual electronic devices…

The Ithaka S+R Library Survey has examined leadership and strategic perspectives in the field by surveying library deans and directors nationally on a triennial basis since 2010. The research project's overarching goals are to provide the library community with a valuable data source to inform decision making and track the emerging opportunities…

Academic librarians, like so many others in the higher education and library sectors, have discussed equity, diversity, and inclusion for many years. A number of prominent initiatives have worked to address these issues across the profession and within individual institutions. Yet, libraries have struggled to make progress on these stated values,…

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 problem undertaken in this study was the impact of the COVID-19 on academic-library directors at small, private, liberal-arts institutions in Wisconsin. The purpose of this study was to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic closures on collection development and reference interviews. The participants were seven academic-library…

This article examines racism and accountability practices within academic libraries from the perspective of academic library administrators, with attention to differences between BIPOC and White academic library administrators. The quantitative data collected via an online survey show White academic library administrators are more likely to…

In 2018, after a failed search for the Executive Director of the American Library Association (ALA), ALA members put forth a ballot initiative to determine whether the educational requirements for the position should be modified, in part, to expand the potential applicant pool. With this research, the authors examined if current ARL administrators…

Through a critical phenomenological approach, this study captured the lived experiences of directors in the Ohio Private Academic Libraries (OPAL) consortium and their responses to dual pandemics, the COVID-19 pandemic and the pandemic of racism. Individual qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten OPAL directors to examine…

In the current environment for higher education, it has become critical for all of the departments and colleges within a university to become more aware of their place in the overall mission of the university. This is especially true of the academic library, which had relied upon a reputation as the "heart" of an academic institution for…

The Ithaka S+R Library Survey 2019 examines strategy and leadership issues from the perspective of academic library deans and directors. This project aims to provide academic librarians and higher education leaders with information about chief librarians' visions and the opportunities and challenges they face in leading their organizations. In…

The Ithaka S+R Library Survey 2016 examines strategy and leadership issues from the perspective of academic library deans and directors. This project aims to provide academic librarians and higher education leaders with information about chief librarians' visions and the opportunities and challenges they face in leading their organizations. In…

Within the literature exploring the role of research in academic librarianship, very little attention has been paid to the perspectives of upper library administrators. This perspective is critical because library administrators play a key role in hiring, evaluating, supporting, promoting, and tenuring professional librarians. As a way of bringing…

To determine how academic library leaders make decisions about their organization's future and how they effect changes, the author interviewed 44 university librarians and deans from institutions belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU). The author analyzed the interviews using content analysis to identify the most frequent…

University libraries have had to provide acceptable noise levels for many years and this pressure has not diminished in the twenty-first century. Library space has to be utilized to ensure noise levels are best managed. A study was undertaken across four university libraries in South Florida to determine how universities utilized their limited…