Editorial

Citation

Ashcroft, L. (2013), "Editorial", New Library World, Vol. 114 No. 9/10. https://doi.org/10.1108/NLW-07-2013-0059

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: New Library World, Volume 114, Issue 9/10

At a recent Westminster Media Forum event, the future of ebooks and the role of libraries in that future were on the agenda. Academic publishing and libraries were seen as leaders within the ebook development. Text books are being developed that can take advantage of cross platform solutions, including ebooks that tie in with apps, social media and the web. In this issue, the paper from Stoop, Kreutzer and Kircz is a second part to their study in changing habits into reading and learning from screens versus print. This paper addresses changing presentations of educational texts on paper, LCD screen and through a mind map. They point out that screen technology and software developments are changing continuously and comment that the new way of reading and learning using electronic devices allows for fast and comprehensive delivery of materials, but also induces new ways of composing, structuring and mutually relating the various presentations of the underlying knowledge and instructions.

A recent survey by Jisc and Research Libraries UK involving UK academics found that a huge majority of respondents said they often look online for resources if they cannot find them in their institution’s library. A total of 40 per cent said that the internet is the starting point for projects – while only 2 per cent said they begin with a visit to their library. The results of this survey will help libraries to explore the changing needs of one of their key customer groups. Another aspect of change, that regarding higher education policy on services and staff in university libraries, is the topic of the paper from Hurst. This paper offers a survey of current trends in university libraries and identifies that library policy is likely to be subject to uncertainty and frequent change. It suggests that the culture of business improvement and performance measurement, which university libraries have followed their institutions in adopting, has implications for the culture of customer service.

Social networking has now a part in library roles and continuing professional development. Blogging has become part of professional life and professional Twitter pages are being developed. Many library professionals are becoming involved in LinkedIn, the professional social networking site, which enables useful contacts to be made. The paper from Del Bosque provides an overview of the perceptions of librarians regarding the use of social networking in their professional lives. The results of a survey administered to academic librarians provides insight into their opinions regarding privacy, boundaries and professional relationships. Although many respondents indicated that they primarily use social networking for personal reasons, professional contacts are finding their way onto friend and follower lists, and boundaries are becoming blurry and privacy issues more complicated.

In the UK, North Yorkshire libraries are preparing the next generation of library staff by taking on 20 new apprentices. The library services will help the apprentices to develop their skills. One of the first tasks set is to provide ideas to make libraries more appealing to young people and to develop projects to attract more young people through the doors. Succession planning is the focus of the paper from Gonzalez. This points out that one of the biggest challenges facing American librarians is a mass retirement of highly trained professionals, which will result in a significant loss of expertise and provides a case study of successful succession planning. This demonstrates the evolution of a higher learning institution that engaged in succession planning and became more effective at it over time, grooming an entire cohort rather than just one candidate.

The potential of an online portal for library professionals as a way of sharing best practice and connecting with experts has been highlighted by the Arts Council England. The Knowledge Hub (of the Local Government Association) is identified as a place for library professionals to share ideas and experiences by connecting with peers and experts and also to promote good practice and support improvement across local government and wider public services. Although there is currently limited use of library groups, there is potential for it to grow. In their paper Diffin, Coogan and Fu point out that documentation is crucial for a library system office and that it is also necessary for systems librarians to document procedures, organise documentation and to share knowledge. They provide a case study of the implementation of SharePoint as a portal to organise and share collective knowledge. This has been a successful portal for this team as a single, consistent interface for documenting and sharing knowledge and procedures and for developing the habit of documentation.

Research by The Prince’s Trust into the digital literacy skills of young people preceded a new campaign to engage young people in schools with science and technology. The research found that a lack of digital literacy skills is hampering young people with their chance of getting a job. The Trust works with the hardest to reach pupils, who may not have a computer at home and often do not have basic IT skills. A different level of digital literacy has been examined in the paper from Grgic in terms of the presence of Croatian school libraries on Facebook and analysing quality and quantity of interactions. This finds that some Croatian school librarians think that Facebook is an important tool in communication with their users but should consider using various Facebook applications to attract more patrons and should be active in educating users and other educators about the advantages of social networking.

Linda Ashcroft
Liverpool Business School, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK