Since 2012, Cullom-Davis Library at Bradley University has used "Get It Now," an article delivery service from Copyright Clearance Center. It was initially added to fill a hole in the collection created by a 20% reduction in the library budget. In the succeeding 9 years, the service continued to be offered. However, changes were made…

To better understand, articulate, and improve the academic library's impact on online populations, this two-phase mixed-method study examines library communication with online students and faculty. In phase I, online focus group participants responded to vignettes illustrating library communication scenarios. Results from phase I informed the…

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor had embraced service design and design thinking, but the pandemic-induced campus transition enabled staff to innovate differently. Many services transitioned to virtual options but some onsite library services reopened for Fall 2020. Library employees created a new service model to accommodate request…

This article aims to present the Open Distance eLearning library processes for requesting information resources using the Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC). OPAC is known as a platform used by library clients to check the availability of information resources from the entire library collection. ODeL libraries also use the OPAC, not as a…

For decades, declines in library reference use have been inextricably tied to technological improvements. This article asserts that reference staffing models may be a significant predictor of a decline in reference questions. Using two years of data, collected from a large public university, the researchers determined user preferences among five…

This paper focuses on the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic library operations. In the quest to render fast, effective and efficient services, academic libraries have adopted different technologies in the past. Artificial intelligence technologies is the latest among the technologies…

Victoria University of Wellington Library's support for research is at a crossroads. The university is implementing an ambitious research strategy. In response, the library is repositioning services and support based on the identified needs of our researchers and contextualized within the research lifecycle. This is paralleled by the changing…

Academic librarians have been engaged in embedded librarianship for nearly 15 years, yet there are few published research studies on the impact of physically embedded librarians, who work alongside departmental faculty. This study leveraged a change in reference service to analyze what happened when subject librarians moved from the library…

Distance librarians often do not have the opportunity to engage face-to-face with users of library services. Without this personal interaction, it can be difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of library services in meeting the needs of the distance learners. Distance librarians may not realize it, but most have a wealth of information at their…

In 2012, "U.S. News & World Report" ranked nineteen institutions on its Up-and-Coming national universities list. The universities were put on the list based on rankings from experts in higher education administration. The experts were asked to identify institutions that had implemented innovative ideas in the areas of academics,…

University rankings play an increasingly large role in shaping the goals of academic institutions and departments, while removing universities themselves from the evaluation process. This study compares the library-related results of two university ranking publications with scores on the LibQUAL+™ survey to identify if library service quality--as…

2012 was a year of rapid change for education with the advent of MOOCs--Massive Open Online Courses--available for the world to use to learn for free. But what does this mean for the role of the librarian? How has the landscape in education changed, and what are the issues and challenges that librarians now face? This article reviews the position…

The need for research support in U.K. universities is growing at a fast pace and a number of different professional and academic units within universities are involved in the process. This case study takes place in a post-92 higher education institution and discusses the benefit of utilizing a cross-university Community of Practice (CoP) approach…

An academic library that focuses on delivering a personalized service is examined within the context of the boutique library model. It is suggested that a critical success factor in adopting a personalized, boutique-style service is acquiring knowledge and insight of our users. This, together with appropriate evaluation, will assist with providing…

This case study explores the introduction of a university wide employability program by the World of Work Careers Centre (WOWCC) at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU). The article reports the background against which an employability program was implemented; the justification and growing demand for more emphasis on employability skills in…