Time is of the essence for librarians to review the pace of change occurring within higher education and how information will be provided in academic libraries to their vastly changing student population. The integration of technology in higher education has an impact on academic libraries in two direct ways: changing material formats and the scholarly communication options; and changing how information is delivered, beyond the classroom experience. The authors examine the depth of the format change issues, including changes in data preservation and conversion, personnel and facilities issues, and a close examination of scholarly communication and distance education issues facing our higher education and academic libraries.
PurposeTo report on New York Public Library's implementation of the Learning in Libraries initiative, which has the goal of serving New York City's children and teens more effectively.Design/methodology/approachBreaks the initiative down into phases, describing each phase with its goals and outcomes. Includes descriptions of what was needed for the project, and how initiatives were vetted for implementation.FindingsOverall, youth participation at the library increased between 4 and 15 percent, with the number of books read increasing between 1 and 34 percent. The greatest increase in participation was with teens, who had not been included in previous outreach initiatives.Originality/valueDocuments the process of developing a new library initiative and implementing it system‐wide.
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the teaching of library graduate students in an introductory course on the foundations of librarianship. To examine the specific skill of developing an ethical foundation in their future profession of librarianship, an examination is offered here using a multiple-step teaching strategy, introducing specific instructional materials, including a model of assessing ethics and a proposed integration of research skills with problem-based learning (PBL) as the suggested teaching delivery. As the experience proved to provide positive outcomes for student learning, the paper provides not only this operational examination but also the theoretical justification for further adaptation and usage of PBL as a teaching method in library and information science (LIS) education. Described are details LIS faculty should consider in implementing the method in teaching, especially on the topic of professional ethics.
Methodology/approach
This research project focused on exploring a new way of exploring the teaching of ethical behaviors in the library profession by examining real-world examples of ethics in trade news sources. It was therefore determined that the best strategy was to design a teaching activity that assists students in learning two sets of skills: information-seeking behavior and developing ethical boundaries and standards that a librarian would use in professional practice.
Findings
The process is often taught in a linear manner, but in practice, ethical situations are found and expressed in non-linear ways. In practice, the profession is rife with ethics, non-rules, non-lists and no checklists upon how to behave. Ethical dilemmas are extemporaneous, and yet decisions regarding them can be made from the guidance of professional associations and combined with thoughtful analysis.
Originality/value
Redefining any pedagogical activity in graduate teaching is, at times, more herculean than it seems at the start, yet with distilling the process into workable steps with appropriate protocols, we can successfully teach ethics in new ways. More integration of PBL is hereby advocated throughout LIS curriculum in a variety of contexts.
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