Chapter 19 - Howard Amos, University Librarian, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Abstract

Howard Amos is the University Librarian at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. The University of Otago was founded in 1869 with an endowment of 100,000 acres of pastoral land and authority to grant degrees in arts, medicine, law, and music. New technologies and communication services, and the development of the internet, as well as emerging technologies and their applications to library services play an extremely important role in the development of library services. Emerging technologies and changes in the academic landscape mean fundamental changes in the way libraries and librarians deliver services. Staffing structures place more emphasis on librarians by providing library services out in the faculty–taking the library to the academic. The University of Otago Library has restructured the organization to remove a traditional “reference service” where we a reference desk staffed by subject librarians provided a “just in case” service. Amos has implemented procedures and processes to ensure a culture of change and the ability to take a flexible approach in organising library resources to meet the needs of uses. This has led to an interest in quality assurance and quality management as applied to academic libraries. Benchmarking activities with the Matariki Network of Universities has led to the development of a library-assessment capability maturity model.