An increasingly complex and demanding research landscape has seen university libraries rapidly evolve their services. While research data management, bibliometrics, and research impact services have predominantly featured in the literature to date, the full scope of support libraries are currently providing to their institutions is unknown. This…

This paper focuses on the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic library operations. In the quest to render fast, effective and efficient services, academic libraries have adopted different technologies in the past. Artificial intelligence technologies is the latest among the technologies…

The e-book is raising fundamental questions around the dynamics and habits of reading; the role of books in the academic library; and the role of librarians in addressing new realities of reading and learning. Print and digital texts foster different styles of reading and different ways of thinking and doing research. This paper examines…

The mission of school librarians in the digital age of information gathering and messaging has not undergone any real change of focus. Even though the tools and methods available for accessing information have significantly altered the way people now use library services, school libraries remain a constant place to make valuable discoveries. The…

Nearly all academic librarians agree that academic libraries have to change in order to respond successfully to the new realities of the higher education environment, rapidly developing information and telecommunications technologies, and the crisis in scholarly communications. But there is little agreement on what must change, how the changes…

In December 2013, the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) sponsored a workshop that explored the ways in which library and information technology services (LITS) organizations and academic institutions will need to evolve in the face of new challenges and opportunities. The workshop discussions, reflected in this paper, offer…

The authors compared Web usability definitions, collected from library professionals at academic institutions of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) through online surveys in 2007 and 2012, to determine whether library practitioners' perspectives had altered as information technologies evolved during this time. The authors applied three…

Information anxiety is a serious issue that has the potential to hinder the success of a large percentage of the population in both education and professional settings. It has become more prevalent as societies begin to focus more on the value of technology, multitasking, and instant information access. The majority of the population has felt, to…

Three years ago, when K-12 schools started thinking seriously about creating digital libraries, the Mesquite Independent School District (TX) bought several Sony eReaders, loaded them with books, and circulated them to students. This initial attempt was not a rousing success. After the Mesquite ISD pulled the plug on its disastrous e-reader…

Graduate students are taking big steps and stretching themselves, whether returning to school midpoint in their lives, taking classes on unfamiliar topics, or starting internships and trying to put theory into practice. Who better to offer advice to these graduate students than America's favorite hilarious, morally ambiguous, ambulance-chasing,…

Community and technical colleges have a long-established tradition of instructing students in library use with the goal of increasing information literacy and life-long learning (Branch & Gilchrist, 1996). This article will briefly summarize that history and discuss the impact the information age has had in altering the ways in which that…

This special issue of "portal: Libraries and the Academy" grew out of a discussion about the need for speculative, creative space within the library and information science (LIS) literature.1 While venues for exposing important research and illuminating case studies are plentiful, the LIS literature lacks an obvious platform on which to…

Library 2.0 is a change in the way libraries interact with their users. Technological developments on the Web have had a major influence on these changes. The change also places new requirements on librarians' competencies and skills. This research investigates how librarians themselves see this change in terms of their work identity and working…

Attempts to assess the influence of the web upon our intellectual and imaginative capacities have resulted in a steady stream of commentary and debate. Although the subject has been approached from a variety of perspectives, the analyses often share a lexicon of transformation, of upheaval, of the unprecedented or the inexorable. This can be true…

Assessment in United States higher education has become very important in recent years. Virtually all colleges and universities are now striving to prove through empirical evidence that they are committed to improving student learning. Created in late 2005, the US Department of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education was charged…