Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology· 2013
Evolving academic library specialties
- 118citations
- 2013year
Short summary
Academic librarianship is adapting to new pressures by developing specialties like digital librarianship and data management, while maintaining its core professional jurisdiction.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Academic librarianship is evolving through the development of specialized roles.
- Key emerging specialties include digital librarian, institutional repository manager, and research data manager.
- The profession shows resilience, adapting to pressures by expanding into areas like teaching and open access.
- New roles present both opportunities and risks, particularly regarding professional boundaries and embeddedness.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The purpose of this review is to examine the shaping of librarianship in the academic context through the literature of career specialties, with A bbott's (1988) system of professions providing an analytic framework. The specialties investigated are systems librarian, electronic resource librarian, digital librarian, institutional repository manager, clinical librarian and informationist, digital curator/research data manager, teaching librarian/information literacy educator, and information and knowledge manager. Piecemeal literature based on job advertisements, surveys, and individual case studies is consolidated to offer a novel perspective on the evolution of the profession. The resilience of the profession's core jurisdiction is apparent despite pressures to erode it. Forays into teaching, and more recently into open access and data management, can be understood as responses to such pressure. The attractions but also the risks of embedded roles and overextended claims become apparent when comparing past and prospective specialties.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2013 · DOI ↗
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Field: Library and Information Sciences
Library and Information SciencesSocial Sciences