Leading organizational change can be an enticing and exciting venture for library professionals. However, unforeseen difficulties can challenge even the most enthusiastic leader. This article explores one librarian's experience with organizational change and offers practical strategies for weathering obstacles to the success of new initiatives in…

Arizona State University (ASU) is known for both enormous size and scale, as well as excellence in research and innovation. These attributes are embodied in the ideal of the "New American University." ASU Library, as a partner in the New American University, has reorganized itself, completed a large-scale renovation of its main library…

The article written by three librarians who work in the Middle East, recount their experiences as library managers at academic institutions in Qatar, Afghanistan, and Iraq. While trying to provide services to the students and faculty of their academic institutions, they must also contend with security risks, such as kidnappings and bombings. They…

Library public services staff have primarily focused on providing services through interactions with their users. Although service quality and customer satisfaction are important in the delivery of these services, the emphasis and nature of the work have often been influenced by a library-centric philosophy rather than a user-centric philosophy.…

Special collections and area studies librarians face similar challenges in the changing academic library environment, including the need to articulate the value of these specialized collections and to mainstream processes and practices into larger discovery, teaching, learning, and research efforts. For some institutions, these similarities have…

Are librarians preoccupied with the future? There are countless books, articles, blog posts, webinars, and conference presentations filled with speculation about what libraries will become. This is understandable with the emergence of new roles for libraries and librarians as we determine our identity across the digital landscape. This essay…

In this article, the author presents observations learned while "on loan" from Northwestern University (NU), Evanston, Illinois, to the campus library in Doha, Qatar, (NU-Q) Middle East. The author's ongoing experience is helping her see how important global exposure can be to a library professional's attaining a deeper and wider level…

"portal: Libraries and the Academy" has as its mission to address library and information services in a campus-wide context, focusing on librarians' engagement with learning services, joint technology initiatives, cross-disciplinary and cross-functional research, faculty partnerships, and scholarly publishing and public policy, but…

This essay notes the emergence of learning as a key factor in academic library planning. It argues for an improved, learning-oriented planning process by noting the dangers that arise from the priority usually given to fixing dysfunctional space and from the traps of mistaking the "things" of learning for learning itself and of thinking…

Academic libraries have always been deeply associated with their collections, but the nature of those collections has changed radically as we have entered the digital age. As libraries continue to evolve, they will focus strongly on special collections while adopting a goal of providing access to as much other content as possible. The collection…

In this essay, we embrace a vision of the future of academic libraries where librarians confront and creatively address the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within our profession and actively pursue a social justice agenda within our libraries and in the communities we serve. This future requires that we acknowledge that many of our current…

For over 30 years, Duane Webster worked tirelessly and effectively in developing leaders in the research library community. Through his own efforts and example and through a group of colleagues he trained and mentored, the Association of Research Libraries was able to create a series of programs in leadership development that has had an impact on…

Trinity University has established effective strategies for engaging faculty, administrators, and staff in information literacy instruction and assessment. Succeeding in an area in which many libraries struggle, the Coates Library at Trinity University offers a model for libraries seeking to actively engage their campuses through 1) establishing a…

The transformation of information from a scarce to a superabundant commodity has driven three paradigms in the design of library space. These are the reader-centered, book-centered, and learning-centered paradigms. The first two competed inconclusively with one another throughout most of the twentieth century. Revolutionary changes in information…

During the period in which Duane Webster led the Association for Research Libraries (ARL), powerful commercial interests sought for their own financial purposes the information resources essential for providing education and performing research. Juxtaposed was the Internet with its inherent capacity to democratizing these resources. Commercial…