An indispensable resource for librarians of all roles, the case studies in An Introduction to Staff Development in Academic Libraries demonstrate the necessity and value of integrating the library's mission statement and strategic plan with bold approaches to staff orientation, training, mentoring, and development.

Librarians and information workers the world over are faced with the constant challenge of remaining abreast of developments in their field. Rapid changes in technology and workplace roles threaten to make their skills obsolete unless they undertake constant professional development. This international collection presents a comprehensive overview of current continuing professional development theory and practice for those who manage and work in library and information services. Papers by academics and practitioners describe numerous innovative responses to emerging continuing education and training needs, including workplace learning; individual learning and learning organisations.

This inspiring book will enable academic librarians to develop excellent research and instructional services and create a library culture that encompasses exploration, learning and collaboration. Higher education and academic libraries are in a period of rapid evolution. Technology, pedagogical shifts, and programmatic changes in education mean that libraries must continually evaluate and adjust their services to meet new needs. Research and learning across institutions is becoming more team-based, crossing disciplines and dependent on increasingly sophisticated and varied data. To provide valuable services in this shifting, diverse environment, libraries must think about new ways to support research on their campuses, including collaborating across library and departmental boundaries. This book is intended to enrich and expand your vision of research support in academic libraries by: Inspiring you to think creatively about new services. Sparking ideas of potential collaborations within and outside the library, increasing awareness of functional areas that are potential key partners. Providing specific examples of new services, as well as the decision-making and implementation process. Encouraging you to take a broad view of research support rather than thinking of research and instruction services, metadata creation and data services etc as separate initiatives. Dynamic Research Support in Academic Libraries provides illustrative examples of emerging models of research support and is contributed to by library practitioners from across the world. The book is divided into three sections: Part I: Training and Infrastructure, which describes the role of staff development and library spaces in research support Part II: Data Services and Data Literacy, which sets out why the rise of research data services in universities is critical to supporting the current provision of student skills that will help develop them as data-literate citizens. Part III: Research as a Conversation, which discusses academic library initiatives to support the dissemination, discovery and critical analysis of research. This is an essential guide for librarians and information professionals involved in supporting research and scholarly communication, as well as library administrators and students studying library and information science.

This Handbook of Library Training Practice and Development addresses new aspects of service provision both in the UK and abroad, and provides an up-to-date review of the current developments which are becoming increasingly important to librarians through the influence of the electronic age and the widening of areas of professional involvement. It will be invaluable to those responsible for the development of staff as well as providing a crucial insight for anyone new to this career path or looking to develop their knowledge within it.

British university libraries have begun to face major financial, technological, and organizational challenges. Cuts in funding, the spread of new technology, and changes to the provision of university education as a whole are combining to fundamentally alter the circumstances in which university libraries operate. This valuable new book provides a thorough understanding of the major trends that have emerged during the past decade and projects them into the future to assess their likely effect over the next few years. By focusing on the most important developments in the areas of finance, staffing, collections, services, automation, and relations with other libraries, author Toby Burrows exposes the forces that threaten the very nature of the British university library. The changes affecting British universities as a whole are also analyzed since these broad influences have been a major cause of change in libraries and are essential to an understanding of that change. The future of the British university library depends on its ability to clearly articulate a coherent vision of its own future; this book takes a crucial step toward this goal. Dr. Burrows conducted the research for this book during the 1986/87 academic year as Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies at University College in London.

Contents Preface 5 Acknowledgments...............................................................9 List of Abbreviations................................................................11 1. Introduction................................................................................15 2. Review of Related Literature......................................................36 3. SDP: Concept and Its Evolution.................................................76 4. Provisions and Effectiveness of SDP.....................................105 5. Analysis and Interpretation of Data..........................................142 6. Conclusions, Findings and Recommendations......................258 Appendix - 1......................................................................296 Index..................................................................................303