Professional Development Reading List 2023

My professional development reading list for 2023. Most of the topics have to do with topics in academic librarianship.

Future of Libraries

Malpas, C., Schonfeld, R., Stein, R., Dempsey, L., & Marcum, D. (2018). University Futures, Library Futures: Aligning Library Strategies with Institutional Directions. OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. 6565 Kilgour Place, Dublin, OH 43017.

Introduction to the concept of Institution Typology where 2 dimensions are considered: educational directions (Research, Liberal, Career-directed) and enrollment profile (Traditional, New-Traditional) and learning experience (Residential, Flexible). This is a re-look at how higher educational institutions in the United States can be classified.

I found the Library Service framework interesting. Library services are defined as outputs that libraries produced in order to serve their constituents. I noticed that traditional library resources such as campus spaces and collections are not considered services. The nine key areas are:

1. Convene campus community: Provide spaces and facilitate programs for the community to generate engagement, outreach, and inclusion.
2. Enable academic success: Support instruction, facilitate learning, improve information literacy, and etc.
3. Facilitate information access: Enable discovery and usage of information resources of any format or ownership; provide for preservation of general collections.
4. Foster scholarship and creation: Deliver expertise, assistance, tools and services that support research and creative work.
5. Include and support off-campus users
6. Preserve and promote unique collections
7. Provide study space: Provide physical spaces for academic collaboration, quiet study, and technology-enhanced instruction and learning.
8. Showcase scholarly expertise: Promote research excellence and subject matter expertise of scholars and other affiliates, include repository activities for open access preprint materials.
9. Transform scholarly publishing: Drive toward modernized formats, revamped business models, and reduced market concentration.

ChatGPT and Libraries

Curtis, K. (2023). The Efficacy of ChatGPT: Is it Time for the Librarians to Go Home? The Scholarly Kitchen. Retrieved 22 February 2023 from https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

A guest post documenting the writer’s first impressions of ChatGPT after using it for literature consultation. He found out that ChatGPT fake citations. What on earth!

Tay, A. (2023). How Q&A systems based on large language models (eg GPT4) will change things if they become the dominant search paradigm – 9 implications for libraries. Musings About Librarianship. Retrieved 22 March 2023 from https://musingsaboutlibrarianship.blogspot.com

This article saved me time gathering information about ChatGPT myself. Situating it in the larger context of Large Language Models research and exploring the implications on academic librarianship. The article covered a lot of ground, and I think I need more time to unpack them.

Collection Development

Tanasse, G. (2021). Implementing and managing streaming media services in academic libraries. ACRL/Choice.

This article offers an overview of the streaming video landscape in academic libraries in the US. It serves as a useful benchmark for NTU Library’s collection policy for and acquisition of streaming videos.

I am interested in formal assessment programmes that assess usage data and impact. Unfortunately, the study did not pursue the methodologies used by those who reported that they have formal assessment.

It also showed that NTU Library and US academic libraries faced the same set of challenges:

1. Barriers to the discovery, access, and use of licensed content. If users have difficulty finding and locating video content, it is fruitless to procure so many. Ease of discovery and access must be considered when acquiring video titles.
2. Communication and promotion of streaming videos. The study highlighted the problem of promoting the patron-driven acquisition model – unsustainable costs. This mirrors NTU Library’s experience with the PDA model (not just videos). My personal opinion is that promotion should focus on titles that the library own.
3. Licensing limitations. The dominance of individual licensing for films limits the quality of video content libraries can acquire. For example, the 2020 Oscar winner for best documentary: My Octopus Teacher is only available on Netflix.

Discovery

Simon Robins (2022) Full-text retrievals and EBSCO Discovery Service: Assessing usage of e-journals across multiple platforms, Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship, 34:2, 89-107, DOI: 10.1080/1941126X.2022.2064105

Interesting point of view. It is basically refuting the conclusions by many library researchers that the low referrals from Discovery layers to publisher platforms meant that users are not using Discovery layers to find the papers they need but are using Google and Google Scholar. Their study show that EDS allow users to download the PDFs directly without having to leave EDS.

I wonder if we can replicate this experiment at NTU Library and see how Primo VE performs.

Resource Management

Park, J.-R., Brenza, A., & Richards, L. (2020). BIBFRAME Linked Data: A Conceptual Study on the Prevailing Content Standards and Data Model. Linked Open Data – Applications, Trends and Future Developments. DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.91849

A good introduction for beginners to Bibframe as a platform agnostic framework for bibliographic description in the web environment. It outlined and explained the problems existing standards such as MARC, AACR, RDA face in a networked environment. Although the framework shows promise, it has its own set of challenges. For example, lack of a super-entity, its ability to support widespread interoperability.

Human Resources

Tillman, R., 2023. Indispensable, Interdependent, and Invisible: A Qualitative Inquiry into Library Systems Maintenance. College & Research Libraries 84. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.84.1.121

Provide insights into how systems librarians view and feel about their work. The sample size is very small so it is difficult to make any generalizations. I suspect many systems librarians resonate with the findings. It is a good start. A good extension would be to survey systems librarians about what would help to make them less invisible.

We have come to the end of this post. If you have found it useful, let me know. It is a form of encouragement.

Featured Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20 from Pixabay