Academic libraries, apart from their main function, which is to provide information services to academic communities, may also perform a number of social roles in the broad meaning of the term. Accordingly, they now tend to serve as the third place offering inclusion and animation activities to academic as well as local communities (including…

The use of systematic review as a research method has become increasingly prevalent in the social and human sciences. However, the role of the librarian in delivering library and information skills (LIS) support in this area remains relatively undocumented, in contrast with the health sciences where systematic review support is often highly…

This project sought to study how much academic librarians who work with open educational resources (OERs) know about accessibility, as well as how they incorporate accessibility into the products of their work. A survey was sent out through email list services in spring 2020, and any librarian worldwide who works with OERs was invited to…

New research needs, global developments and local shifts in emphasis are demanding a broader range of interactions by librarians with researchers and are challenging previous staffing structures. Research has a higher institutional profile and academic libraries have responded by creating new roles and staffing models, with stronger linkage across…

Since 2009, Open Access (OA) Week has been celebrated worldwide in October each year. It is an opportunity for librarians to engage with the research community and demonstrate the value that they bring to their organisations in the area of disseminating scholarly output. Although thousands of events have been held since the inception of OA Week, a…

This article deals with the management of noise in an academic library by outlining an evidence-based approach taken over seven years by the University of Limerick in the Republic of Ireland. The objective of this study was to measure the impact on library users of noise management interventions implemented from 2007 to 2014 through retrospective…

The purpose of this paper is to quantify, review, and analyze published research output of academic librarians from 21 higher education Institutions in Ireland. A mixed approach using an online survey questionnaire, supplemented by content analysis and extensive literature scoping were used for data collection. Factors inhibiting and predicting…

Four librarians from Irish university libraries completed the U.K. Future Leaders Programme (FLP) in 2010. In this article they recount their experience and assess the effect of the programme on their professional practice and the value for their institutions. The programme is explored in the context of the Irish higher education environment,…

This article reports on selected results of a comprehensive survey of children's reading in England, carried out online in 2005 by the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature at Roehampton University. With 4182 responses from children living in England aged from 4 to 16 years, the survey is a follow-up to a similar study completed in…

The concept of total planning as applied in this presentation refers to planning as a part of library organization. It is felt that greater care should be taken at top-level planning to ensure that some proportion of the income and credit available is allocated to various services to allow departmental planning to be carried out effectively. This…

Discusses the provision of training for children's librarians in library schools in the United Kingdom and Ireland, noting four aspects--whether or not children's librarians should receive special training, types of training available in library schools, implications of the word "training," and future considerations. (EJS)