The Academic Library in the United States

The Academic Library in the United States
Author: Mark L. McCallon
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2022-10-17
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1476645701

This book advances the belief that the library--more than any other cultural institution--collects, curates and distributes the results of human thought. Essays broaden the debate about academic libraries beyond only professional circles, promoting the library as a vital resource for the whole of higher education. Topics range from library histories to explorations of changing media. Essayists connect modern libraries to the remarkable dream of Alexandria's ancient library--facilitating groundbreaking research in every imaginable field of human interest, past, present and future. Academic librarians who are most familiar with historical traditions are best qualified to promote the library as an important aspect of teaching and learning, as well as to develop resources that will enlighten future generations of readers. The intellectual tools for compelling, constructive conversation come from the narrative of the library in its many iterations, from the largest research university to the smallest liberal arts or community college.

Internationalization and the North American University Library

Internationalization and the North American University Library
Author: Karen Bordonaro
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2013-08-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0810891840

This book offers a fresh perspective on understanding university library work with international users in North America. It investigates what librarians, international students, and international scholars perceive the role of the university library to be in internationalization in higher education. It also explores the phenomenon of internationalization itself as it is lived and experienced by both librarians and international users. Personal definitions and experiences of internationalization offered by librarians and international users include viewing internationalization as the broadening of knowledge on multiple levels, the idea of seeing oneself as part of a greater whole, and the building of international research connections. Both librarians and international users describe elements of internationalization such as exposure, awareness, engagement, empathy, and transcending boundaries. Inherent contradictions are present as well, such as the stronger emphasis on defining differences rather than similarities and the disconnect between inward and outward looking aspects of internationalization. Finally, this book connects theoretical perspectives concerning the phenomenon of internationalization to the practice of academic librarianship in North America. It does this by presenting what librarians in both the United States and Canada think about working with international users in terms of benefits, challenges, and best practices. Practical lessons learned include the need to move beyond focusing solely on the linguistic and cultural challenges of working with international users to also consider the positive aspects of working with them, such as widening worldviews and expanding personal knowledge.

The Internationalization of the Academic Library

The Internationalization of the Academic Library
Author: Emmett Lombard
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2021-11-28
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1000476073

The Internationalization of the Academic Library presents a theoretically informed, empirically grounded analysis of the process of academic library internationalization. Drawing on interviews with library personnel from around the world, Lombard analyzes internationalization at the departmental level of an academic library. Demonstrating that college and library personnel have positive intentions when it comes to internationalization, the research presented nevertheless reveals little commitment to an intentional, holistic role in the libraries studied. Drawing on internationalization expertise and models of prominent scholars, the book argues that libraries need to be more deliberate in their internationalization efforts and collaborate with other college personnel and departments outside the library. Lombard asserts that internationalization can facilitate a better understanding of the potential for transformation of a library’s mission, vision, and policy. The Internationalization of the Academic Library cuts across the fields of library science and higher education administration, ensuring that the book will appeal to researchers and students working in these disciplines. Library professionals around the world will also find much to interest them within the book.

Academic Libraries in the US and China

Academic Libraries in the US and China
Author: Hanrong Wang
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2013-06-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1780633564

Academic libraries have a long history both in the USA and China, with institutions developing along different trajectories, and responding to the rapidly changing library environment globally. Academic Libraries in the US and China compares current practices within Library and Information Science (LIS) in the USA and China, giving an historical overview of instruction, government documents, and outreach in academic libraries, as well as discussion and comparative analysis.An introduction leads to chapters on instruction, government publications, and outreach. Each topic is covered both for American and Chinese academic libraries. A conclusion then gives comparative analysis of US and Chinese academic libraries. - Provides a clear examination of the historical foundations of three key areas within the academic library - Includes examples of easy-to-implement current practices - Anticipates future trends

Academic Libraries in Urban and Metropolitan Areas

Academic Libraries in Urban and Metropolitan Areas
Author: Gerard B. McCabe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 288
Release: 1991-11-26
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0313079366

Solutions to the unique problems of academic libraries in urban and metropolitan areas are provided in this professional handbook. Issues faced by the administrators of these libraries can differ markedly from those encountered by their counterparts in residential college towns, with service demands emanating from both the surrounding community and their own academic community. Written by experienced urban university librarians, each chapter addresses issues unique to the in-city academic library. Reaching out to their communities to establish links with business, industry, and other libraries, the administrators of the urban/metropolitan libraries require a great degree of diplomacy and management skills. Service demands arising from urban high schools place additional pressures on limited resources. This handbook shows how the use of new technologies can assist the urban academic librarian in fashioning services for a nonresident faculty, as well as a usually older student body, comprised of many international and part-time students. The characteristics of city living and their impact on information-seeking behavior are discussed. Other topics covered are resource sharing, setting fees, staff and collection security, environmental pollution and space requirements.

Remaking the American University

Remaking the American University
Author: Robert Zemsky
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2005-07-11
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0813541123

At one time, universities educated new generations and were a source of social change. Today colleges and universities are less places of public purpose, than agencies of personal advantage. Remaking the American University provides a penetrating analysis of the ways market forces have shaped and distorted the behaviors, purposes, and ultimately the missions of universities and colleges over the past half-century. The authors describe how a competitive preoccupation with rankings and markets published by the media spawned an admissions arms race that drains institutional resources and energies. Equally revealing are the depictions of the ways faculty distance themselves from their universities with the resulting increase in the number of administrators, which contributes substantially to institutional costs. Other chapters focus on the impact of intercollegiate athletics on educational mission, even among selective institutions; on the unforeseen result of higher education's "outsourcing" a substantial share of the scholarly publication function to for-profit interests; and on the potentially dire consequences of today's zealous investments in e-learning. A central question extends through this series of explorations: Can universities and colleges today still choose to be places of public purpose? In the answers they provide, both sobering and enlightening, the authors underscore a consistent and powerful lesson-academic institutions cannot ignore the workings of the markets. The challenge ahead is to learn how to better use those markets to achieve public purposes.