Book review: The Role of the Academic Librarian
Title of Book - The role of the academic librarian
Author - Langley, A, Gray, E & Vaughan, KTL
ISBN - 1843340577
Publisher - Chandos
Publisher Website - www.chandospublishing.com/
Reviewer Name - Anne Donnelly
Title - Librarian
Contact details - Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Sciennes Road, Edinburgh, EH10 5QE
Email - Anne.donnelly@ed.ac.uk
Review
My reaction upon receiving this book for review was one of pleasant surprise; its compact A5 size was far removed from the mighty tome its title suggested I could expect to receive. A brief initial skip through it yielded a collection of neat chapters, all of which broke down into useful sub-sections, with a handy conclusion and ‘further reading’ list. Indeed, The Role of the Academic Librarian has the look and feel of the many self-help guides which currently populate the shelves of our bookshops. With the exception of two library-centric chapters, much of this book would be useful in any workplace, covering as it does those broad areas which are specific not only to the library and information professional: time management, communication, meetings, networking, professional development and leadership. Similarly, the excellent ‘further reading’ with which each chapter concludes; although library and information science publications feature, there is a significant number of references from the business world in general. However, two substantial chapters – on collections development and public service in an electronic world – are of particular relevance, as they touch on those areas of professional practice which pose the greatest challenges. In both, the authors enjoin us to put the library user at the very centre of all that we do.
The authors, all from the United States, each have several years’ experience of working in academic libraries. The Role of the Academic Librarian is a generous and highly motivational sharing of their combined knowledge and experience with fellow librarians worldwide. While we all develop and learn within our professional lives, I think there are certainly times that we want to know what has been demonstrated to work and, just as important, what has been established not to work for others in a similar role. With no wish to sound facile here, I think this book offers a good collection of tips and tricks for people who do not have the time or inclination to spend hours ploughing through the literature or, indeed, years working things out through painful and/or expensive trial and error in the course of their professional practice.
I felt there were two principal strands to the The Role of the Academic Librarian: the development of the librarian as a well organised individual and the establishment of a good operational framework for the deployment of his or her professional skills. One is aware, of course, of the many challenges facing academic librarianship today: the growth of the higher education sector which it serves, issues relating to scholarly communication, the march of information technology, all frequently set against a backdrop of diminishing funds and resources. However, I felt that this pocket-sized offering represents an excellent, highly readable guide to meeting them. From the good organisation of oneself and one’s library, all else will follow, one feels assured! Returning to my earlier ‘self-help manual’ reference, I would say that this book is, indeed, a self-improvement manual for the information professional. In the frontispiece the publishers declare that the book, one of its Information Professional Series,* aims to provide an easy-to-read, practical but authoritative view of current thinking. I think this aim has been admirably achieved and in a highly readable way, too. A final point: the erudite and highly entertaining aphorisms with which the text is peppered will, in themselves, give much food for professional thought.
- See www.library-chandospublishing.com for a full listing of current and forthcoming titles in the series.