Future Of Libraries Research Articles

Remaining Futureproof: Lasting Librarian Roles in Managing Digital Collections

ABSTRACT From the students’ reactions, trainers recognize the changing technological, social, and economic context of library and information science (LIS) and the students’ competence expectations. They incorporate these experiences when updating the training program, and draw important conclusions therefrom regarding the future of libraries and LIS. This is crucial to providing students with a credible vision: where is LIS headed; what is the future library like; what roles will libraries have in the era of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and data science? It is not enough to deny stereotyped predictions, for example, that robotics may take their jobs. In our study we rely on our experiences from courses on digital collections to refute incorrect assumptions and to introduce the four futureproof attributes of LIS: (1) human creativity remains essential; (2) the professional use of social media is crucial in accessing community knowledge; (3) collaboration competences have lasting value; (4) research-oriented attitude is increasingly important in the librarian profession.

Knowledge Work in the Library

AbstractLibrary staff are knowledge workers (KWs), but it is not entirely clear what this work looks like, how it is allocated, what outcomes are associated with it, or how the pandemic influenced this work. This poster outlines an agenda to study the KW of paraprofessional and professional library staff. Learning more about the form, context, and authority of KW in the library—as well as the personal and task outcomes of this work—will better position LIS to prepare future librarians and guide the development of equitable workplaces that support the needs of library staff.

Implementing STEM-related Activities for School Aged Users

Published literature acknowledges the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in various educational institutions and its contributions to the future of a nation’s economy. This paper focuses on successful library STEM-based programs that were undertaken from August to September 2019 for school-aged users in a public library. This paper also explores users’ perceptions in attending STEM-based activities in the library as well as their feedback on how future library programs on STEM could further be improved. These findings seek to provide new perspectives for librarians, educators, teachers, and staff in creating opportunities for STEM-based initiatives in an informal learning environment.

Transcriptional and Post-Transcriptional Polar Effects in Bacterial Gene Deletion Libraries.

ABSTRACTSingle-gene deletions can affect the expression levels of other genes in the same operon in bacterial genomes. Here, we used proteomics for 133 Escherichia coli gene deletion mutants and transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) data from 71 mutants to probe the extent of transcriptional and post-transcriptional effects of gene deletions in operons. Transcriptional effects were common on genes located downstream of the deletion and were consistent across all operon members, with nearly 40% of operons showing greater than 2-fold up- or downregulation. Surprisingly, we observed an additional post-transcriptional effect that leads to the downregulation of the gene located directly downstream of the targeted gene. This effect was correlated with their intergenic distance, despite the ribosome binding site of the gene downstream remaining intact during library construction. Overall, the data presented can guide future library construction and highlight the importance of follow-up experiments for assessing direct effects of single-gene deletions in operons.IMPORTANCE Single-gene deletion libraries have allowed genome-wide characterization of gene function and interactions. While each mutant intends to disrupt the function of a single gene, it can unintentionally target other genes, such as those located in the same operon as the deletion. The extent to which such polar effects occur in deletion libraries has not been assessed. In this work, we use proteomics and transcriptomics data to show that transcript level changes lead to nearly 40% of deletions in operons affecting the protein levels of genes located downstream by at least 2-fold. Furthermore, we observed a post-transcriptional effect on the gene located directly downstream of the deletion. These results can guide the design of future gene deletion libraries and emphasizes the importance of follow-up work when linking genotypes to phenotypes.

Integration of Open-Source Software (Koha, Greenstone and DSpace) with Library Discovery System (VuFind): A Future Library Solution

This paper demonstrates the design, workflow and integration methodology of open-source ILS (Koha), Digital library software (Greenstone), Institutional repository (DSpace) with open-source library discovery software (VuFind). A methodology of integration has been explained using available standards and technology. Main purpose of this research is to demonstrate single-window search interface, harvesting of metadata and full-text of resources. Integration of open-source library software with the discovery system (VuFind) can result significant cost reduction when compared with commercial discovery systems.

Gamification as a tool for increasing the learning efficiency of future librarians

The article deals with gamification mechanisms to increase staff performance and diversify the mechanisms of professional learning to improve the training of future librarians. In this the article we conducted a survey among students-interns of the university library on their attitude to gamification in the learning process. The results revealed that respondents mostly positively evaluate gamification as a tool in the process of acquiring professional knowledge. The gamification tool is used to increase the effectiveness of learning and to facilitate the adaptation of students to the professional activities of librarians. The results of the research can be used to identify the effects of the gamification tool on improving the efficiency of training processes and the professional growth of staff in various fields.

Instantiation, Actualization, and Absence: The Continuation and Safeguarding of Katie Paterson’s Future Library (2014–2114)

ABSTRACT Over the last two decades, the conservation field has developed new frameworks for works that recur in multiple manifestations, such as many time-based media, installation, and performance artworks. Within these frameworks, authenticity is gauged primarily on a manifestation’s perceived compliance with the artist’s directives or specifications for the work. Such models have proven difficult to apply in practice when faced with artworks in protracted states of creation, that have an existence outside the walls of the collecting institution, and whose manifestations are dispersed and distributed in space and over time. This article examines how Future Library (2014–2114) – a century-long public artwork by the Scottish artist Katie Paterson – confounds the two-stage model of an artwork’s creation, and the conventional understanding of the artwork instantiated and made present in discrete, physical objects or events. Drawing upon Deleuze's philosophical writings, I characterize the varied ways in which an artwork or object of cultural heritage may be made present and may undergo change, while forever remaining partial, deferred, and absent. This article considers how the scope of what falls within the conservator’s gaze might be widened, and how an artwork’s conservation and creation might be understood as interdependent and concurrent acts of safeguarding and continuation.

A Preliminary Investigation of Technical Services Librarians’ Contributions to Library Guides in Academic Libraries

ABSTRACT Online library guides are one of the bridges that librarians build to connect users to available resources and services. Since the time when library guides were conceived in the pamphlets and book lists of the early days, a historical brand bearing public and instructional services librarians’ merit and reputation has been watermarked in their presentation. In the internet age, have technical services librarians also played a role in contributing to library guides in academic libraries to assist students’ learning and faculty teaching? If so, do technical services librarians who are working as faculty tend to produce more library guides than ones as professionals? Do librarians working in six functional areas, namely, Acquisition, Cataloging &Metadata, Collection Development, Continuing & Electronic Resources, Preservation, and Technical Services (Solo) have similar contributions to library guides? What types of library guides do they tend to produce more? Any recommendations for future library guide work which technical services librarians will engage in? This research examined 233 colleges and universities and examined 296 academic libraries, attempting to find answers to these questions.

Awareness and Expectations of E-books: A Study in Tallinn Health Care College

Purpose The current study aims at measuring patron awareness, readiness, usage, and preference regarding electronic books among students and lecturers at Tallinn Health Care College. The results will help the college design future library collections, promote e-books more effectively to reach as many patrons as possible, and encourage patrons to use more e-books. Methodology An online survey was developed and made available via the institution’s Study Information System. The questionnaire was sent to 1,696 college patrons (including 1,606 master’s degree and higher education students, and 90 academic staff members). Three hundred and forty-six completed questionnaires were returned, and responses were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Results The survey indicated that most of the respondents are aware of what an e-book is and have used them at least once. Most of the respondents preferred the college to purchase books in both printed and electronic format. The most popular reasons for preferring e-books were not needing to physically borrow the book, having 24/7 access from home, and the ability to download and read e-books on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. The main reasons for disliking e-books were having to read on a screen, the costs involved, the limitations when printing pages, and the concern that the battery may become discharged during reading. Open access is also highlighted as an alternative to guarantee the availability of scientific information for patrons because the University of Applied Science libraries in Estonia do not get financial support from the government. Originality/Value Although the college regularly surveys library users’ satisfaction with its services, the patrons’ attitudes toward e-books has never been studied. The results are valuable to the college. First, the Library Working Group was established by the Estonian Rectors’ Conference of Universities of Applied Sciences to change the state funding scheme for acquiring high-quality scientific, scholarly information. Second, there is more emphasis on making open-access e-books more visible on the website, and the addition of new e-books is announced through the college’s social-media channels. Third and most important is that the subject Foundation of Research for first-year students will be taught by the college library staff. This gives them the opportunity to encourage and guide students to use e-books.

Attitudes and Perceptions toward Design Thinking in Graduate-Level Library Education

This study aims to understand educators’—specifically those in positions of authority in graduate-level library education programs—perceptions of and attitudes toward design thinking and methods in graduate-level library curricula by investigating the following research questions: What is the current landscape for the integration of design into the LIS curriculum, from the program director’s perspective? What do these directors think about the competencies required for future librarians, and where does design fit into those competencies? What are the possibilities for a future degree focused on reconceptualizing the field from a design perspective rather than the traditional library science? Thirteen MLIS program directors and people in equivalent positions at ALA-accredited programs in the United States and Canada were interviewed to investigate these queries. The conversations suggest there is a growing openness to design education that may contribute to the diversification of the curriculum so that graduates’ competencies more closely reflect recommendations in the literature and address the needs of employers. They also reveal dichotomies in how LIS program directors define and integrate design education into LIS curricula, such as barriers of bureaucratic concerns versus interest in experimenting with design courses available elsewhere in their universities, or even the potential for a dual library science/library design degree option. The article concludes with recommendations for next steps in advancing design in library education so as to prepare graduates for the growing number of user experience, public programming, or even more traditional teaching librarian positions where a design thinking approach leads to effective practice.

Book Review: Rebekkah Smith Aldrich's Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library's Future in an Uncertain World

Book Review: Rebekkah Smith Aldrich's Sustainable Thinking: Ensuring Your Library's Future in an Uncertain World

Information ethics and the corporatist academic enterprise: critical implications for education of library and information workers

Examines information ethics in the 21st century University and cautions that it is in danger of following the path of information literacy in service of the state. She addresses disturbing trends that influence the type of information ethics education that future library and information workers currently receive in North America, including new managerialism; market values set by students as customers and their market demand for courses; a vocational orientation to train people for jobs without a context of a broader education; civil discourse and respectful workplace policies used in a way to fundamentally threaten academic freedom; growing national security; the race for internationalization; and, the unbundling of academic work. Toni’s words prompt us to discuss the extent to which social responsibility in library and information education can survive repressive tolerance. And she argues for the human condition to feature prominently in our field’s contributions to the future landscape of migrant and digital information labour.

Teaching and assessing students of information literacy in a single session—The case of the University of the West Indies Mona library

Assessing the performance of information literacy (IL) students can be a daunting task for librarians globally. Most IL sessions are taught in 1 to 2 hours where any meaningful assessments are difficult to achieve. This research demonstrated how this feat was achieved in an active learning environment through the use of Google Forms. This mixed method study shows how this was effectively achieved to test both lower and higher order skills in a 2 hour session to one hundred and seventy-two foundation writing course students.The research tested a rarely examined feature of Google Forms which is the tool’s effectiveness in enabling comprehensive assessment, facilitating active learning, and identifying instructional errors in an IL instruction session. The findings show that Google Forms can be used to teach and administer a quiz using both multiple-choice as well as open-ended questions to assess both low and higher order learning skills in IL. Students were able to actively respond to questions while they were being taught, the data gathered and analyzed and used to inform future library instruction. It also showed that Google Forms are useful not simply to administer multiple-choice quizzes at the end of teaching but can be used in executing real-time assessment and support active learning. Because Google Forms support the easy creation of charts and downloading/exporting of statistics, results of assessments can be shared among librarians, faculty, and students to motivate and encourage digital pedagogy. It allows for greater collaboration with faculty in the cooperative teaching of students in single sessions where there is usually difficulty in having dialogue with faculty once a session ends. This case study is based on a limited number of students; thus, the findings of this research may not be generalized but the methodology and some skills in teaching the concepts encountered by librarians may be replicated.

Inquiry learning


 
 
 Inquiry learning is a concept familiar to Brazilian librarians, who have been expressing concern about their contribution in innovating the learning process. It is therefore necessary that future librarians experience this learning strategy during their education. This study aimed to investigate: 1) how library students exposed repeatedly to strategies of inquiry learning react; 2) the difficulties they encounter in the process; 3) and what types of learning they acquire. Data were collected through in depth interviews with undergraduate library students taking an Information Literacy Course. Data analysis was based on Kuhlthau’s ISP model (2004) and in the five types of learning (Kuhlthau; Maniotes & Caspari, 2012) Results, that cannot be generalized, show that students reacted positively to the strategy, although they reported several difficulties. In conclusion the repetition of the inquiry learning process became important for students to feel more secure and confident and for their difficulties to be minimized. On the whole the acquisition of the five types of learning was observed.
 
 

Neglected to Indispensable: Lessons from beyond Access for Global Public Library Reform and Development

ABSTRACT Beyond Access was the first major global attempt to connect the international development and public library worlds. Taking the form of a series of projects in a dozen countries meant to help catalyze library development around national goals, the program operated from 2011 to 2018. Starting from a point at which libraries in most low – and middle-income countries were neglected, disused and staffed by librarians with outdated skills, it effectively launched public libraries into national dialogue in some countries and failed to do so in others. This article explores the conditions and actions that led to effective projects and what lessons for future library development efforts might be gleaned from the program’s work. In Myanmar and Georgia, the program attracted new investment into public libraries aligned with central government digital strategies. In Bangladesh and the Philippines, the program integrated public libraries into education efforts where they had been previously ignored. With more than a quarter million public libraries in low – and middle-income countries, there remains vast potential for library systems to reinforce their relevancy in the 21st century, attract new resources, and provide vital services. Library leaders around the world can build on the experience of Beyond Access to help inform initiatives to revive libraries around modern needs.

Learning, Changing and Affecting

“Stone soup” is a reading association formed by over ten primary schools of Baohe District, Hefei, China. Sponsored by Chen Yixin Family Foundation, reading promotion activities of these schools got great effects and attracted wide attention in the recent ten years. The foundation suggested local government to set up the position of “librarian teacher” in the association schools and organized a series of professional trainings for the librarian teachers in order to develop library education in these schools. After the 18- month session training, the librarian teachers gained new understanding in school libraries and kept practicing their knowledge in building pleasant environment as well as item circulation process. They also established “Association of Librarian Teachers of schools in Hefei ” which aims at promoting communication between schools and facilitate development of school libraries. The association has accomplished the textbooks of “Stone soup” reading association and made efforts on setting up the curriculum of the course “Library” in schools. They also developed a program called “Basic Training of Librarian Teachers” to help more schools and teachers to rebuild their understanding in school libraries and make the libraries better with their knowledge, thus giving hope to the future library education in mainland China.

Role of information technology & the future of librarianship

There is a growing concern by scholars in the field of library and Information science on the way technology is gradually taking over certain jobs performed by librarians and Information professionals. This may be the reason why many of the scholars have submitted that the discipline of librarianship may cease to exist in a couple of years if nothing is done to solve the problem. In the light of this, this article seeks to identify ways in which technology has taken over certain aspects of the field of librarianship with the aim of proffering solutions and identifying other means in which the 21st century librarian can make himself relevant especially with the current dearth of employment opportunities. libraries, appear to be facing a very perilous predicament. Two of their major job responsibilities, developing subject collections and providing face-to-face reference service, are in rapid decline. Budget cuts, publisher packages for books and a transition to cost-per-use evaluations for journal subscriptions all clearly diminish the need for active collection development. Meanwhile, because of changes in information gathering habits, users increasingly approach reference librarians as a last resort. In addition, there seems to be a growing inclination among library administrators to question the importance of subject librarians in branch libraries. This is due to the well known fact that users have come to rely completely on electronic databases, notably Google and Google Scholar, and electronic journals. Keywords: Information technology, Libraries, librarians and librarianship.

Academic Achievement and/or Educational Attainment - The Role of Teacher Librarians in Students' Future

This paper aims at analysing 20 teacher librarians definitions’ of academic achievement and educational attainment targeting their students’ preparation for the future. Reflection is also done on how these teacher librarians see their roles and specific qualifications in relation with those concepts. This research work, belonging to a PhD program, is focused on School Libraries of Portuguese public elementary integrated schools, which were in the school libraries network till 2005. This research used a qualitative methodology both for data gathering and analysis techniques.

Training Course for Guizhou Teachers for the Establishment of Schools Libraries

In the past two decades, under the economic reform, in The Mainland China, the annual economic growth(GDP) is more than 10%, but in general ,in the western part of China most of the people are lived in poverty and uneducated. As a result, there are lots voluntary and charitable agencies in Hong Kong which help the Chinese people to get rib of poverty and let the kids in the villages receive education. They support the rural area to build schools and set up school libraries in order to enhence the educational standard in the rural area. In December, 2006, the Hong Kong Teacher-librarians’ Association was invited by the JIAN XING CHARITABLE FOUNDATION LIMITED, one of the charitable agencies to organise a four and a half days training course for the school teachers in Guizhou province, who will be responsiblefor the operation of the school libraries in future. With the help of the Jiangsu provinces Mr. Cheung Jing Wo, the course was successfully helded in Jin Sha of the Guizhou province.

Study of Future Public Library Trends & Best Practices

ABSTRACT In their dual roles as community hubs and knowledge facilitators, libraries of the future will experience major change: they will have fewer books and increased available physical space; they will shift from content warehouses to content creation enablers; they will serve new types of visitors including digital natives, knowledge creators, and entrepreneurial learners. These trends will affect four tools used to achieve library goals: technology, collaboration, physical space, and people. This article summarizes a literature review, performed on behalf of the Squamish Public Library in British Columbia, Canada, that examined these future public library trends.