“What We Do Every Day Is Impossible”: Managing Change by Developing a Knotworking Culture in an Academic Library

Abstract

Change, transformation, the reassessment of services and professional capabilities are key concepts in the language of academic libraries today. We suggest that two intertwined rationales -technical development and the marketisation of the public sector along with a customer approach -are driving the change that is challenging academic libraries to rethink their work and services. In this article, we first discuss embedded librarianship and knotworking in libraries as participatory approaches to the arrangement of academic library work and services. Second, we presented the findings of the Knotworking project and its follow-up interviews and suggest knotworking as a method with which librarians can collaboratively analyse their own work and develop services with researchers and thus respond to changing working environments. Third, we discuss changes in the work identity of librarians.

Creating Institution-Wide Awareness of, and Engagement with, Open Scholarship

“…With more online resources, library users may believe they never need to visit a library or engage with a librarian to find what they seek. Postgraduates and academics are the most likely to "escape" from libraries, with some believing that they no longer need library services as they have access to everything they need via Google Scholar (Kaatrakoski & Lahikainen, 2016). This has led to librarians adapting services from collection-centric to user-centric, which allows them to be more proactive and integrated in their roles, to feel empowered to leave the physical library, to forget the jargon of scholarly communication, and to create innovative services where their users need them (Kaatrakoski & Lahikainen, 2016).…”

“…The second phase of the expansion of OS focused on reaching out to others because, as noted previously, in an era of user-centred librarianship, librarians need to be proactive and integrated into the work of researchers (Kaatrakoski & Lahikainen, 2016). In the first quarter of 2019, the role of Research Relationships Manager was created.…”

An integrated understanding of librarian professional identity

“…Therefore, a portion of it must be self-claimed (Bak, 2002; Cravey, 1991; Croxton, 2015; Fraser-Arnott, 2016). To do so, however, there must be sufficient impetus which prompts personal belief in and acceptance of the profession, its values, missions, goals, responsibilities, culture, and so on (Bak, 2002; Bossaller et al , 2017; Fraser-Arnott, 2016; Fraser-Arnott, 2017a; Kaatrakoski and Lahikainen, 2016; Marshall et al , 2009; Sare et al , 2012).…”

“…Whereas some identities are transferable, others are more apt to blur (Branch-Meuller and de Groot, 2016; Greyson et al , 2013; Kaatrakoski and Lahikainen, 2016; Linton, 2016; Perini, 2016; Wilson and Halpin, 2006). An identity blurs when it is perceived to be developing towards a state that is different enough to call into question the pre-existing professional identity (Greyson et al , 2013).…”

The Role of Academic Libraries in Scholarly Communication. A Meta-Analysis of Research

“…Let us now move to studies describing actions already taken. Kaatrakoski and Lahikainen (2016) investigated the results of a Knotworking project at the Helsinki University Library which provided them with conclusions to consider the idea of embedded librarianship. As has been explained by the authors " Embedded librarianship is a built-in process in which librarians are increasingly more engaged in research activities and become partners with researchers and other members of the research communities" (Kaatrakoski & Lahikainen, 2016, p. 516).…”