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 dissertation examines the sources of job satisfaction among 1,833 library and information science (LIS) master's program graduates in North Carolina from 1964-2009. Only respondents who identified themselves as librarians were included in the analysis. The study first examined the effects of traditional work-related variables such as income,…

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…

Animated maps of the library stacks were integrated into the catalog interface at Pratt Institute and into the EBSCO Discovery Service interface at Illinois State University. The mapping feature was developed for optimal automation of the update process to enable a range of library personnel to update maps and call-number ranges. The development…

Central to the ongoing success of the liaison model is the need for liaison librarians to stay informed and up-to-date about recent developments in the subject areas of their assigned academic departments and programs. This article describes an exploratory study conducted to determine whether information obtained from the social media accounts of…

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…

Liaison librarians and faculty in chemistry, English, and psychology departments at colleges and universities in the United States were surveyed. They answered questions about services provided by the liaison and satisfaction. Liaisons' satisfaction with their performance was associated with active liaison service, such as recent contact with the…

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.…

This study identifies developments relevant to new academic librarians' perceptions of librarianship. Through use of the long interview and document analysis, the researchers developed a grounded theory consisting of six categories that weigh upon novice librarians' perceptions of the profession: (1) deciding upon a career, (2) experiencing…

Wayne A. Wiegand, F. William Summers professor of library and information studies and professor of American studies, Florida State University, retires this year. For more than three decades, Wayne's sustained involvement with librarianship reenergized the profession's historical studies and brought new conceptual frameworks to the debate.…

Interest in subject specialists in academic libraries has recently been increasing. After being a trend in the West in the 1960s, interest declined in this method of service provision in academic libraries until its recent return to prominence in the last decade. The purpose of this article is to introduce the current movement of Korean…

In a comparative field study of ten libraries, we show how technological advances in electronic and digital resources have led to an onslaught of technology questions at the reference desk while prompting new and challenging work away from the desk. Libraries in our sample varied in their approaches to dealing with technological change, with…

This paper presents a policy decision tree for digital information management in academic libraries. The decision tree is a policy guide, which offers alternative access and reproduction policy solutions according to the prevailing circumstances (for example acquisition method, copyright ownership). It refers to the digital information life cycle,…

This article explores recent developments in national policy for academic libraries. It considers the shift from traditional to managerial academic librarianship; the move to "social space" and multi-use systems; changes in the balance between meeting teaching and research needs and in public funding priorities; the difficulty of making…

Although issues related to the role of librarians have long been discussed in the literature on academic librarianship, there has been little attempt to incorporate the extensive psychological theory and research on role-related issues. In the current article we review the empirical literature on the role of librarians, with a particular focus on…