This study explores how acquisitions practices and infrastructure influence building diverse distinctive collections within Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member institutions. Through a survey of the existing acquisitions practices within ARL institutions, this study interrogates the collections-based methodologies that are utilized to…

Academic and research libraries are undergoing a profound transformation, shaped by technological advancements, shifting societal dynamics, and evolving institutional priorities. This essay examines how these forces are driving libraries to evolve into specialized and distinct models, shaping their future and drawing parallels to the Cambrian…

Policy language plays a central role in ensuring that academic libraries are accessible and inclusive to patrons with disabilities. However, relevant accessibility information is often missing from publicly available library policies. This article uses findings from a content analysis of SUNY libraries' public collection development and…

Even as librarians have spent the past twenty years documenting the rich world of scholarly communication beyond the catalog, repositories and catalogs too often remain completely siloed from each other. Current practices and tools to unite the two focus entirely on matching names, an imprecise method requiring substantial time spent on review.…

This exploratory study seeks to gather preliminary information about the roles that academic librarians in the United States (US) and Canada play in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) work on their campuses. It also provides insight into how librarians at US Carnegie Research 1 (R1) classified universities and U15 Group of Canadian…

The purpose of this study is to learn more about virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) practices at the United States' top one hundred university libraries, as well as how they are engaging with the metaverse. We conducted qualitative and descriptive analysis on the websites of the top one hundred university libraries in the United…

In this chapter, we explore the organizational units, projects, and support that exist for digital literacy within the Vanderbilt University Library system. We frame the chapter chronologically, starting with the efforts of the past, then moving toward the present efforts, and concluding with where future efforts are going.

This paper examines the impact of process mapping on the management of change in an academic library in a UK higher education institution. Book ordering has been highlighted by a group of subject librarians as being time-consuming and inefficient, detracting from their ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities. An action research…

This article builds on a 2018 study and reports on a survey conducted in 2022 to examine the value of advanced subject degrees in addition to the Master of Library Science for academic librarians. This study explores the impact of advanced subject degrees on scholarly contributions, compensation, teaching roles, and tenure status in academic…

This exploratory and qualitative study examined the appraisal practices of archivists in university special collections, including how archivists define appraisal, decide what to keep and discard, apply a collection policy in their decision process, and contend with problematic aspects of the practice. The first part of this study examined the…

Library staff developed a project to reclassify the Curriculum Materials Collection of a specialty library on the campus of a regional comprehensive university. Materials were reclassified from a custom classification system derived from those developed by Lois Belfield Watt in 1962 and Harlan Johnson in 1973, to the Dewey Decimal Classification.…

Institutional repositories (IRs) remain a powerful tool for opening, sharing, and preserving scholarship. Scholarly communication (SC) services and resources are essential to promoting and supporting IRs. Linking SC services within an IR offers support to users at their point of need. This study investigates the prevalence of web linking between…

Dahlgren Memorial Library, the Graduate Health and Life Sciences Research Library at Georgetown University implemented the circulation of room keys in 2007. The rooms were outside of the library and managed by Georgetown University School of Medicine's Office of Financial Affairs who were integral in the implementation of the keys and the…

Shared print programs are helping their member libraries right-size their collections. As they do, there are concerns about the adverse impact of bibliographic inaccuracies. This paper studies bibliographic record inaccuracies and the resulting frequency of mismatches between an item owned and the record representing ownership. Through analysis of…

Over the past twenty-five years, many academic libraries have shifted from print to digital collections. One consequence of this change has been the increased use of a library's website to access books, journals, and databases in a digital format. Thus, library space, once used to house print material, is now available for other purposes, creating…