When American Association of School Librarians' (AASL) "Standards for the 21st Century Learner" were released in late 2007, librarians rushed to incorporate them in curricula at the local and state level and in existing lessons. After an initial frenzy of simply replacing old learning objectives with new ones, the field settled into the task of…

Two paradigms of academic librarians are examined: one, "leader" is closely tied to nineteenth-century ideals; two, "manager" reflects democratization and new technology of twentieth century. Highlights include literature of organization (sociology, psychology, political science), patterns of change, Japanese model, and need to…

Discusses the managerial, business, and personal skills that will be needed for acquisitions librarians to remain central to the virtual library. Considers the issues of self-leadership, management, and survival in a continual state of change, and the need for creativity and innovation, as well as more traditional skills. (Author/AEF)

School library media specialists (SLMSs) in the Rochester (Michigan) Community Schools decided it was crucial to come to a consensus about key roles of SLMSs in successful school library media programs. They identified the following roles: information specialist, instructional partner, and program administrator. To educate administrators, staff…

Focuses on the intellectual character of academic librarianship and defines the concept of librarians' programmatic responsibilities. These responsibilities are by definition undelegatable and constitute an exclusive locus of power within the profession. The role of librarians should be determined by these exclusive responsibilities, not by…

The support of electronic services requires special skills and in many cases more, not fewer, staff hours. Each library must develop individual solutions to this dilemma, but many will find useful a model that incorporates three basic elements: utilization of experienced librarians, targeted recruiting of entry-level librarians and creative…

Since 1989, the Reference and User Services Association/Management and Operation of User Services Section's Management of Reference Committee has successfully used case studies to foster structured discussions among public service librarians on a wide variety of issues relating to managing change in reference services. The information offered in…

Describes how the University of Rhode Island conducted its search for a newly configured position of Vice Provost for Information and Dean of University Libraries. Discusses the search committee members, the two professional "cultures" representing libraries and academic computing, degree requirements, job responsibilities and…

Discusses changes in educational requirements for library-oriented careers in information management caused by developments in the for-profit sector. Highlights include the role of technology; the growth of special library, corporate, and information industry employment; mobility of information professionals; and the interdisciplinary nature of…

As the purchase of virtual resources accelerates, particularly through consortial agreements, the autonomy of the local library will fade and the roles of librarians will change drastically. This rapid transformation is illustrated by a discussion of OhioLINK and its positive and negative effects on one member library. (Contains 21 references.)…

This document provides a history of the National College of Education libraries from 1920 through 1978. The research process consisted of five major activities: (1) locating and collecting information from written sources; (2) conducting oral history interviews; (3) extracting information from audio tapes; (4) organizing the information from all…

Discusses the results of a study investigating the similarities between information jobs in university computing centers and research libraries. Findings show a strong relationship between some computing and library jobs, suggesting the creation of a single information job family in classification systems. (15 references) (EA)

There have been significant changes in the nature of scientific and technical librarianship in the past four decades, reflected both in the structure and organization of literature and the education and professional training of librarians. These changes are reflected in library school curricula and in the skills and abilities needed by…