New Roles for the Road Ahead

116 Pages·2015·1.18 MB·English

New Roles for
the Road Ahead
Steven Bell
ESSAYS COMMISSIONED FOR
Lorcan Dempsey
75TH
ACRL’S ANNIVERSARY Barbara Fister
Edited by Nancy Allen
With an afterword
by Betsy Wilson
ESSAYS COMMISSIONED FOR
75TH
ACRL’S ANNIVERSARY
New Roles for
the Road Ahead
ESSAYS COMMISSIONED FOR
75TH
ACRL’S ANNIVERSARY
Steven Bell
Lorcan Dempsey
Barbara Fister
Edited by Nancy Allen
With an afterword by Betsy Wilson
Association of College and Research Libraries
a division of the American Library Association
Chicago, IL
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements
of American National Standard for Information Sciences–
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-
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Copyright ©2015 by The Association of College & Research
Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.
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Printed in the United States of America.
19 18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Roles for the Road Ahead:
Essays Commissioned for ACRL’s 75th Anniversary
Introduction ..........................................................7 Assessment of Student Outcomes
By Nancy Allen and Systemic Analytics .....................................................63
By Steven Bell
Section 1: Framing the Road Ahead
Librarians Supporting the Creation of New
Introduction: Rules and Roles ........................................11 Knowledge ............................................................................69
By Lorcan Dempsey By Barbara Fister
Evolution in Higher Education Matters Librarians as Guides to Information
to Libraries ............................................................................13 Policy and Trends ................................................................72
By Steven Bell By Barbara Fister
The Student Body Is Changing ......................................19
Section 3: Responding to Opportunity:
By Steven Bell
Creating a New Library Landscape
Technology Co-evolves with Organization and
Introduction: The Value of Our Values ........................77
Behaviors ...............................................................................22
By Barbara Fister
By Lorcan Dempsey
Intra-institutional Boundaries: New Contexts
Public Knowledge and the Role of
of Collaboration on Campus ..........................................80
Academic Libraries .............................................................35
By Lorcan Dempsey
By Barbara Fister
Right-scaling and Conscious Coordination:
Section 2: Shifts in Positioning
New Context for Collaboration .....................................83
Introduction: What Comes Next? Shift! ......................41 By Lorcan Dempsey
By Steven Bell Professional Development, Expert Networking,
Repositioning Library Space ..........................................43 Evolving Professional Identity, and
By Barbara Fister the Future Roles of ACRL .................................................86
By Steven Bell
Building Community through Collaboration ...........46
By Steven Bell Creating Common Ground .............................................97
By Barbara Fister
A New Information Management Landscape: .........50
By Lorcan Dempsey Valuing Libraries ..............................................................100
By Barbara Fister
Libraries as Catalysts for On-Campus
Collaboration .......................................................................56 An Afterword on Leadership
By Barbara Fister for the Road Ahead ...........................................103
By Betsy Wilson
Student Learning, Lifelong Learning,
and Partner in Pedagogy .................................................58 Works Cited........................................................................109
By Barbara Fister
5

Introduction
Introduction
By Nancy Allen
In December of 2012, Pam Snelson, tapped sations with the 75th Anniversary Celebra-
to chair the ACRL 75th Anniversary Cel- tion Task Force and brainstorming sessions
ebration Task Force, sent an e-mail to the that took place in other settings as well.
task force members (Nancy Allen, Betsy Overall, there was one theme that seemed
Wilson, Steven Bell, Tyrone Cannon, Deb dominant: the commissioned work should
Dancik, Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Francis focus on the future, not on the past.
Maloy, Bede Mitchell, Jill Sodt, and Greta
Wood) saying, “I’m am so very pleased The Commissioned Report Working
that you have agreed to join the 75th An- Group has been co-chaired by Betsy Wil-
niversary Task Force. This is going to be son and Nancy Allen, and its other mem-
a fun assignment—who doesn’t like to bers are Kaijsa Calkins, Michelle Demeter,
plan a celebration!” Meeting for the first and Stephanie Atkins. This group, along
time during the January 2013 Midwinter with Pam Snelson, convened via confer-
Conference, the task force convened to ence call several times to discuss the op-
begin discussing plans to recognize the tions for authorship and for content of a
outstanding history of the Association commissioned work.
of College and Research Libraries. The
task force, comprised of a set of working Soon, there was a wonderful plan. The
groups, envisioned a range of activities, co-chairs would work to identify visible,
programs, speakers, and documents that high-impact bloggers working in the aca-
would collectively honor the impact of our demic and research library sphere and in-
association on the lives of librarians and vite them to author a commissioned work
the legacy of libraries in academic and re- that would represent the voices and the
search settings. collective thinking of some of the best writ-
ers in our field. Following this discussion,
When the working group charged to de- in September 2013, we contacted Steven
velop a commissioned work (the ACRL Bell, Barbara Fister, and Lorcan Dempsey,
75th Anniversary Task Force Commis- all of whom regularly write blogs and
sioned Report Working Group) began to other works that provide deep insight into
meet, it was informed by several conver- trends driving the future of academic li-
7
Introduction
braries. To our great excitement, all three From the outset, the authors very much
quickly accepted the invitation to collabo- wanted to have a conversation about the
rate on the commissioned work. commissioned work and suggested that
after they completed a first draft, an ear-
The first task was to agree on the content ly version be posted for comment by the
and structure of the work. Through confer- ACRL community. Thanks to David Free
ence calls with the three authors and the in the ACRL Publications Office, this hap-
co-chairs, a structure emerged. The work pened with the use of CommentPress, and
would discuss the issues in the academic the comment period was completed by
library environment that were shaping December 1, 2014. The authors took com-
changes, the ways libraries engage with ments into consideration while preparing
these changes to our environment, and fi- a final document, and at this point, Betsy
nally, ways that libraries leverage oppor- Wilson completed her afterword on lead-
tunities that lead to a set of new roles for ership in the context of the road ahead.
libraries and librarians over time. The fu-
ture is not a mystery; rather, it is a road Betsy Wilson and I share our deep grati-
and an exciting set of maps—libraries and tude to the authors, to the entire Commis-
librarians are shaping the future and lead- sioned Report Working Group, and to all
ing with innovation and thoughtful en- those in the ACRL community who com-
gagement while we all move forward, and mented on the draft. We thank ACRL staff
the three authors would submit their ob- Mary Jane Petrowski, David Free, Dawn
servations, insights, and guidance for the Mueller, and Kathryn Deiss, all of whom
road ahead. played key roles in completing the work.
Once the overall commissioned work out- All of us who have worked together to
line, or table of contents, was agreed upon, shape and prepare this commissioned
each of the three authors chose sections for work are pleased to present a bold set of
which they would submit essays. There- commentaries on key issues shaping the
fore, the commissioned work would be directions libraries are likely to take. But
comprised of a coordinated set of essays remember, the future of college and re-
that, taken together, would represent a search libraries is up to us—to ACRL
guide to the next 75 years of academic and members shaping association roles for the
research librarianship, with analysis of the future, and to all of us who are working in
key issues, options, and opportunities for or in support of academic libraries today.
our path to the future.
8
Section 1.
Framing the
Road Ahead