Developing the New Learning Environment: The Changing Role of the Academic Librarian

Citation

James, S. (2006), "Developing the New Learning Environment: The Changing Role of the Academic Librarian", Library Review, Vol. 55 No. 8, pp. 537-538. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530610689419

I have just submitted the first draft of my next forward plan for my Library. Two themes stand out from this: one is the prominence of electronic library developments in just about every direction; the other is the need to align the riches of this electronic library with the University's virtual learning environment. Not a straightforward process by any means, despite the willingness and goodwill between the staff of the two departments concerned. Apart from anything else, the staff of the two departments concerned are almost incidental actors when set beside the real players of this game: the students and the teaching staff. And if our professional environment is changing rapidly, so too are our students: full‐time students who still manage to juggle full‐time employment, part‐time students, distance learners, overseas students, short CPD courses and the rest. And our task is the simple one of catering to all their differing but perfectly genuine needs with limited resources and at least a semblance of equity for all.

That is our present and future context, and these are the issues explored in this timely book. Like Gaul it is divided into three parts. Part 1 offers “Perspectives on the policy framework”, that is a selection of the things going on in the wider academic world which set the context for present and future change. Peter Brophy gives a wide‐ranging and informed (and happily concise) critical review of the issues. Other papers look at pedagogies, learner support issues, literacies and learning (the plural term is significant) and design and delivery of technology‐enhanced learning.

Part 2 comprises a further five papers looking at how we might put all this into practice in our services: academic teams, responding to e‐learning, information literacy education, the inclusion agenda, and an overview by Philip Payne of “how library management can support the development of new learning environments.” Finally, Part 3 offers reflections by the two editors: “(E)merging professional identities and practices” in which they reflect on the overall contributions and their implications for the future roles and identities of libraries and librarians within new learning environments.

The contributors, and the editors, are all practitioners (with one or two researchers) in institutions at the leading edge of these developments. They all have something useful and important to tell us, and in a well organised volume not only are we given their various messages, but it all builds into a convincing picture of where we are and, more importantly, where we are going. Our Rubicon may already have been crossed, and I wonder how many librarians have noticed; I wonder indeed how many got wet in the process. Perhaps, though it is not we who are crossing the Rubicon but the students and teachers: we have the choice of swimming behind (and probably sinking without trace) or keeping up and holding hands as we cross: only that option gives us a viable future.

This is a timely and important survey: it should be read by anybody who hopes to have a career in academic librarianship for the foreseeable future, for if they do not heed the messages it offers, there will be no meaningful career.