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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe one example of an academic library using existing internal expertise and targeted events to provide training for liaison librarians in support of new scholarly communication initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – This article presents a case study of how a medium-size academic library without a designated scholarly communications librarian or office presented a series of open access (OA) training opportunities for the liaison librarians in preparation for the official launch of the institutional repository and the campus’ inaugural participation in OA week. Findings – The multiple opportunities to engage with the topics in diverse ways resulted in librarians being more comfortable with discussing OA with their departmental faculty. Opinions of OA were changed as a result of attending the events. Participants found the activities to be useful and were engaged enough with the topic to ask for specific areas where they would like more training opportunities. Look to other colleagues both on campus and in the broader region to tap their expertise or explore professional organizations or free webinars. Taking the initiative to organize events that require minimal effort can have a big impact. Practical implications – Librarians have limited opportunity for in-depth training to gain new competencies and re-tool their skills to match current demands; this article demonstrates that utilizing internal expertise to provide a variety of training can positively impact participants’ attitudes and confidence. Originality/value – This article presents methods and rationale for librarians to facilitate similar professional development opportunities for building new scholarly communication competencies in support of the emerging research and scholarly publishing trends.

This article investigates the adoption of new innovations for internal reference desk communication and knowledge managementin academic libraries, specifically the use of social software tools. Actual implementations of the free blog software Wordpress from two university libraries are described including charts detailing advantages and disadvantages of the methods. In the context of the diffusion of innovation and organizational lag theories, the analyzed outcomes confirm that while social software tools are being used, relatively few institutions have exploited them for improving in-house processes. Without clearly articulated long-term gains, adoption of administrative innovations will follow the pattern of organizational lag.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how one-shot library instruction sessions for large lecture classes can effectively be "flipped", and can incorporate active learning activities as part of both online and face-to-face classroom. Design/methodology/approach -This case study discusses the challenges of using flipped classroom methods with large enrollment courses and investigates the use of technology to facilitate the active learning components. Situated in flipped classroom pedagogy literature for both information literacy instruction and large lecture classes, the paper synthesizes practical information through the analysis of design and implementation. Findings -Lecture classes present unique challenges for utilizing flipped classroom methods, but the obstacles can be overcome with a bit of preparation and faculty buy-in, balanced with the proper utilization of technology. Originality/value -The paper offers other librarians practical design and implementation information for using flipped classroom methods, specifically for classes with large enrollments, filling a gap in the library literature that presently lacks examples of flipped classroom pedagogy being utilized for information literacy (IL) instruction with lecture classes.