Book Description

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.