Academic Libraries and Engagement: A Critical Contextualization of the Library Discourse on Engagement

Affirming the research party reference model

“…Our goals for Research Parties matched closely with the goals of student engagement and libraries outlined by Schlak (2018, p. 137). We hoped to provide a space where students could engage more deeply in their own learning, where we could build relationships with students instead of simply providing them with information and where the work of librarians becomes more visible.…”

“…These comments reflect an extension of the students’ information needs in that they left the Research Party with more than they expected, such as assistance deciphering an assignment, clearer thinking, and a willingness and understanding about how to seek help. This level of engagement is reflective of Schlak’s (2018) understanding of librarian-student engagement where librarians are educators and of Simmons’ (2005) argument for librarians as mediators of academe. In these comments, students were reflective of their own learning process, and, though perhaps not explicitly, expressed a broader understanding of the assistance librarians provide.…”

“…Student engagement is a useful lens through which to examine reference services that are supplementing traditional reference services. Schlak (2018) performed a literature review of the landscape of student engagement in higher education and then contextualized the definitions in terms of the emerging library literature around engagement. His work revealed four facets of how academic libraries are articulating their efforts: engaging students with information literacy and their own learning; empowering librarians as educators and “knowledge players”; providing space and services for student engagement; and moving from transactional interactions to partnerships and relationship building (p. 137). …”

From the Outside in: Bringing Student Engagement to the Centre

“…Engagement has been a term with a myriad of definitions, even within libraries (Schlak, 2018). This case study demonstrates how the University of Manchester Library Student Team (UMLST) moved from a link to the student body to an integral part of the Library itself.…”

Databrarian ed? Preparing Information Specialists for Participation in an Open Datafied Society

“…Kwanya et al (2015, 4) note the 2.0/3.0 shift from information as commodity to 'information as conversation', reflected in the ACRL (2015) Framework for Information Literacy ('scholarship as conversation'); Hvenegaard Rasmussen (2016) describes the participatory library shifting from collections to connections, from access to participation, from one-way communication to dialogue and from clients to partners; while Nguyen's (2015) model has three central components (Community, Empowerment and Experience) and the eight subcategories include connection, sharing and partnering. The legacy of the participatory library is manifest in a renewed interest in internal, local and global collaboration, including 'all-in' deep and radical models (Atkinson, 2018;Horton, 2013;Neal, 2011), a strategic focus on engagement and embedded librarianship (Díaz, 2014;Schlak, 2018;Shumaker, 2012) and growing deployment of participatory design methods, library anthropologists/ethnographers and user experience (UX) librarians (Fried Foster, 2014;Priestner and Borg, 2016).…”