Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Envisioning Our Preferred Futucb: New Services, Jobs, and Directions: 8 (Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library)

Volume 8 of the series Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library is focused on new services, directions, job duties and responsibilities for librarians in academic libraries of the 21st century. Topics include research data management services, web services, improving web design for library interfaces, cooperative virtual reference services, directions on research in the 21st-century academic library, innovative uses of physical library spaces, uses of social media for disseminating scholarly research, information architecture and usability studies, the importance of special collections and archival collections, and lessons learned in digitization and digital projects planning and management. Data management services are highlighted in the context of a consortium of smaller liberal arts and regional institutions who share a common institutional repository. Survey research plays a role in a number of chapters. One provides insight into how academic libraries are currently approaching web services, web applications, and library websites. A second survey is used to explore the role of librarians as web designers, and provides detailed information related to job titles, job duties, time percentages related to duties, and other duties outside of web design. Comments of those surveyed are included and make interesting reading and a deeper understanding of this new function in libraries. More generally, is a survey study exploring how librarians feel about the changes that are currently happening within the profession, as well as how these changes have personally affected their job duties and their current job assignments. Case studies are include one that features QuestionPoint in the context of a cooperative virtual reference service; another shows how research and scholarship can be disseminated using social media tools such as blogs, Twitter, ResearchGate and Google Scholar, among others; a other studies explore the importance of user engagement and buy-in before moving forward on digitization; and one shows how information architecture and usability emerge from the redesign of a public library website and whose successful completion involves user surveying, focus groups, peer site reviews, needs analysis, and usability testing. Two chapters deal with the changing legal context: the importance and understanding of copyright and author rights in the 21st-century academic library, and the basics Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). It is hoped that this volume, and the series in general, will be a valuable and exciting addition to the discussions and planning surrounding the future directions, services, and careers in the 21st-century academic library. Review [The book] will provide an examination of special collections in the 21st century and a specific case study on digitization that may inform a library's digitization program. The topics are current and the writing is clear and easy to understand. Academic librarians thinking about how their role might evolve in the near term will find this book to be a useful tool and conversation starter.... I would recommend this book to libraries that are currently exploring new roles, services, and directions on their campus, and would highly recommend this book to those that are exploring a topic covered in a given chapter within the book. The chapters...will provide worthwhile perspective and additional information on a topic of concern. Front-line librarians and managers in content areas will find relevant information about their specialty, and library administrators will find the book useful as an overview of current work in emerging areas of interest.--Technical Services Quarterly As the eighth publication in the series on Creating the 21st-Century Academic Library, this volume looks at how academic libraries are changing through new jobs and services. It contains 14 papers that present a combination of case studies, original survey research, a