Academic Libraries and Engagement: A Critical Contextualization of the Library Discourse on Engagement

Abstract

This article argues that the concept of engagement as it is used in the academic library literature requires greater structure and depth if the librarian community intends to appropriate and advance the usage of a phrase that resonates loudly across higher education. In reviewing the literature around engagement as well as in introducing critical perspectives from outside the library literature, this literature review and investigation demonstrates that engagement is a variously defined and used term that is both difficult to nail down but is essential to the healthy participation of an academic library in its respective community. The external perspectives introduced stem from the behavioral, psychological, and conceptual organizational approach to student engagement, whose application to academic libraries could be strengthened with a more critical grounding in the compelling terms and discourses of engagement as they are understood by those outside libraries. The framework of intellectual capital is introduced as a productive way of capturing the differing definitions and usages of the terms ‘student engagement’ and ‘engagement’.