This book provides strategic insights drawn from librarians who are meeting the challenge of digital scholarship, utilizing the latest technologies and creating new knowledge in partnership with researchers, scholars, colleagues and students.
The impact of digital on libraries has extended far beyond its transformation of content, to the development of services, the extension and enhancement of access to research and to teaching and learning systems. As a result,the fluidity of the digital environment can often be at odds with the more systematic approaches to development traditionally taken by academic libraries, which has also led to a new generation of roles and shifting responsibilities with staff training and development often playing ‘catch-up’. One of the key challenges to emerge is how best to demonstrate expertise in digital scholarship which draws on the specialist technical knowledge of the profession and maintains and grows its relevance for staff, students and researchers.
This edited collection spans a wide range of contrasting perspectives, contexts, insights and case studies, which explore the relationships between digital scholarship, contemporary academic libraries and professional practice. The book demonstrates that there are opportunities to be bold, remodel, trial new approaches and reposition the library as a key partner in the process of digital scholarship.
Content covered includes:
- the impact of digital scholarship on organizational strategies
- an insight into new services and roles, partnerships and collaborations
- case studies exploring new technologies to support research and development
- new approaches to service delivery
- re-visioning of space, physical and virtual.
This is an essential guide for librarians and information professionals involved in digital scholarship and communication, who wish to extend their awareness of emerging practices, as well as library administrators and students studying library and information science.
Table of Contents:
PART 1: A REVIEW OF THE LANDSCAPE 1. The university library and digital scholarship: a review of the literature – Lindsey Martin
2. Digital scholarship: scanning library services and spaces - Alison MackenziePART 2: THE AGILE LIBRARIAN 3. Librarian as partner: in and out of the library - Roz Howard and Megan Fitzgibbons
4. Novice to Expert: developing digitally capable librarians - Charles Inskip
5. Lean in the Library: building capacity by realigning staff and resources - Jennifer BremnerPART 3: DIGITAL SPACES AND SERVICES 6. Digital Scholarship Centres: converging space and expertise - Tracy C. Bergstrom
7. Building scalable and sustainable services for researchers - David ClayPART 4: COMMUNICATIONS AND SOCIAL NETWORKING 8. Social networking with the scholarly community: a literature review - Suzanne Parfitt
9. Developing Digital Scholars: from the Ivory Tower to the Twittersphere - Alison Hicks
10. Reflections on digital scholarship: so many reasons to be cheerful - Alison Mackenzie and Lindsey Martin
About the Author :
Alison Mackenzie is the Dean of Learning Services at Edge Hill University. Prior to taking up this post, Alison held the post of University Librarian at Bangor University, Wales, as well as a variety of roles at Manchester Metropolitan University and, in her early career, worked in art colleges and commercial practice. Alison has been an active contributor in the development of the profession having held roles on the SCONUL Board, and as Chair of the performance Measurement and Quality Strategy group. She is currently a member of the Northern Collaboration steering group.
Lindsey Martin is the Assistant Head of Learning Services at Edge Hill University and is responsible for the learning technologies managed and supported by Learning Services. She has responsibility for the virtual learning environment and its associated systems, media production, classroom AV, and development of staff digital capability. Lindsey has worked in academic libraries for the past 20+ years in a variety of roles. She has been active on the Heads of eLearning Forum Steering group (HeLF) for a number of years and is currently its Chair.
Review :
. . . a welcome addition to the literature about the on-going changes in academic librarianship . . . I would recommend the book for both teachers and students of library and information science, but also for practitioners who will find interesting projects carried out by their colleagues in different libraries.
Developing Digital Scholarship is a critically important read for all members of private, corporate, governmental, community and academic libraries who are charged with developing and/or upgrading digital elements of their library systems for the benefit of their patrons.
Coherent, well-edited, referenced and indexed, this collection hangs together, with little or no duplication. It is a very welcome addition to the sparse literature on digital scholarship. It offers a lifeline to librarians struggling to develop a coherent response to the challenges posed by the profound changes in scholarship found in modern academia. Anyone seeking to understand why, how and where libraries enable and enrich modern digital scholarship will find it useful.
Along with a definition and review of the existing literature on digital scholarship and librarianship, other chapters and case studies include both theoretical and practical discussions of personnel, spaces, services, and communication tools... this book provides a good framework for conversation for strategic planning purposes.
As computer-assisted academic research is often diverse, dynamic and even chaotic in nature, many academic libraries are currently struggling with the increasingly pressing challenge of developing useful and adequate forms of support for scholarship based on digital technologies. Developing Digital Scholarship provides a thorough and systematic overview of the different strategies and best practices that have been developed by leading libraries in the US and in the UK. The case studies that are included in the book offer valuable insights into the various ways in which librarians can manage innovative and experimental projects that often demand new areas of expertise and new models for interacting with academic staff. The book usefully highlights the new roles and the new responsibilities that are needed when librarians aim to facilitate data-intensive, interdisciplinary and collaborative forms of research. As such, it forms essential reading for all librarians engaged in the complicated process of supporting and promoting digital scholarship. At Leiden University Libraries, we are currently setting up a new Centre for Digital Scholarship, and the book has given us much inspiration for the development of new services.
Developing Digital Scholarship will be of interest primarily to library administrators who already have the context and resources to shape their institutions’ digital scholarship initiatives. It will also be useful for students who are still in the process of choosing a specialty or for practitioners desirous of broadening their skill sets. Most readers will respond to the book’s optimistic mindset, best captured in its final sentence: “The groundwork for success is rooted in the resilient attitudes and behaviours of individuals in relation to the digital environment.
Developing Digital Scholarship: Emerging Practices in Academic Libraries...combines literature review, theory, and case studies to advance our understanding of digital scholarship and the library’s role. The articles have an international bent, with authors from the U.K., Australia, and the U.S.The book will be of greatest interest to academic and other research librarians.
...this collection offers a broad overview of different expressions of digital scholarship and how this developing field impacts current library practice. Given the title and the focus on skills and case studies, this collection seems to be most appropriate for academic libraries in the early stages of implementing digital scholarship services; however, it may also present relevant research and new ideas for libraries in which these services are already well established.
