Electronic resources undergo various changes during their lifecycle from evaluation, to acquisitions, to renewal or cancelation. To keep users abreast of these changes, effective communication is necessary between the electronic resources librarian and the library team. Effective communication is equally important between the electronic resources…

For more than 30 years, Peter Senge's theory of learning organizations has influenced the study of leadership and organizations. Researchers have studied various components of his framework: team cognition and mental models, team learning, shared vision, systems thinking, and personal mastery. But few articles have explored what it looks like in…

Liaison (or subject specialist) librarians are routinely identified as essential to the sustained success of academic libraries. Yet despite the purported centrality of liaisons to the mission of their institutions, many libraries have struggled to define the role of the subject specialist. These attempts at definition have resulted in a…

After 40 years under one manager, the Circulation Department at the Richard J. Daley Library was long past due for a change. The challenge of reorganizing included interesting and interrelated aspects: changes to workflows and assignments, moving staff and functions inside the department and across departments, and a deep dive into the culture to…

This is the first qualitative phenomenological study to investigate the state of leadership in Saudi libraries. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 14 library leaders or section heads in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Library leadership was found to be strongly associated with management skills, visionary thinking, teamwork, and…

With the rise of digital scholarship, humanists are participating in increasingly complex research teams and partnerships, and academic libraries are developing innovative service models to meet their needs. This paper explores modes of coworking in humanities research by synthesizing responses from two qualitative studies of research practices in…

In the summer of 2013, staff in the Access Services unit of an academic library began a cross-training and collaboration project in an effort to provide continued library service to the campus community. The cross-training was established in an attempt to address a shortage of staff as a result of budget cuts. The cross-training resulted in the…

Changes and innovations in higher education learning and teaching acted as a catalyst for rethinking the way in which service was delivered to library clients at Australian Catholic University. The Single Service Point was piloted at one campus library in 2014 to develop a best practice approach to service delivery. The merging of cultures within…

Academic and research libraries have been increasing their efforts for a number of years to demonstrate their contributions to student learning outcomes in support of the institutional educational mission. Whether through one-shot instruction or credited classes, libraries invest a great deal of time and effort in instructional programs. A key…

This case study investigates how a team of librarians at Nova Southeastern University (NSU) worked together to assess and optimize their library's current instructional videos in order to create a mobile-first video hosting platform, known as LibraryLearn. Instructional library videos serve as invaluable resources for students who are not present…

This article describes the use of scenarios as a tool to assist a large distance learning library service in its strategic planning. Through a description of the scenario process from beginning to end, the authors detail the steps that the library director and the consultant took initially; their missteps; and the successful conclusion. This study…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of academic librarians on two topics: the delivery of services to students and faculty in a time of rapid technological changes and an organizational structure appropriate for delivering services to students in a time of rapid technological changes. Several researchers agree that to…

This case study analyzes the use of library school interns on subject-based teams for the social sciences, humanities, and sciences in the San Jose State University Library. Interns worked closely with team librarians on reference, collection development/management, and instruction activities. In a structured focus group, interns reported that the…

Eighteen scholarly papers and twelve abstracts comprise the content of the fourteenth annual Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, held annually at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri. The proceedings, authored by academic librarians and presented at the symposium, portray the contemporary and future face of librarianship.…

This article explains how the document management team (circulation and interlibrary loan) at the University of Maryland University College implemented Microsoft's SharePoint product to create a central hub for online collaboration, communication, and storage. Enhancing the team's efficiency, organization, and cooperation was the primary goal.…