The State Library of Iowa is a library service in the American state of Iowa. Founded around 1840, it is based in Des Moines and is run by the Iowa Department of Education. The State Library supports local libraries in the state and itself acts as a resource for the state government and its citizens.
This paper is based on the Evolving Library Practice toward the Sustainability of Supporting Open Access panel presented at the 2024 NISO Plus Global/Online conference on September 17, 2024, and brings together four perspectives on how academic research library practices are evolving in response to developments in the global open access landscape. The authors discuss current pain points in library support of open access publishing and explore how we might collectively work toward scalable and sustainable open access workflows.
Front Matter, Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 40, no. 1/2.
Library and Information Science (LIS) programs in the U.S. are continuously assessing the educational needs of their students against the daily realities of library practice. This process is reflected in the American Library Association Core Competences of Librarianship. The constantly evolving nature of this programmatic document testifies to the changing nature of the contexts in which librarians conduct their work. LIS research often reveals gaps between expected professional competencies of librarians and LIS pedagogy and curriculum. This paper focuses on some of these gaps as evidenced by the three co-authors’ ongoing research on Midwestern public libraries. In doing so, the paper contributes to the scholarship on best practices in public librarianship and librarian education. The authors articulate a key implication of their research for the competencies of library professionals in a complex world of environmental, economic, and political challenges. Finally, they describe an assignment sample by means of which LIS students can learn how to address social justice needs in the community; demonstrate how to practice cultural humility when planning for collections, programs, and services; and apply Evidence-Based Practice processes for identifying, assessing, and addressing community needs.
Jane Milosch and Nick Pearce’s standalone 2019 Collecting and Provenance: A Multidisciplinary Approach packs a lot into a relatively compact package while leaving plenty of room for additional work and encouraging the growth of provenance as an interdisciplinary field of study. The compilation takes the form of twenty-eight chapters spread over four parts, best read with time allotted for contemplation between the parts. Bookended by methodologies and ethical questions, this is a dense but approachable interdisciplinary work with broad appeal.
This is an intentionally selective compilation of resources and ideas on innovation in academic libraries. The goals of this article are: to demystify innovation in academic libraries by providing a foundation for those wanting to learn more about it; encourage librarians to explore different types of innovation; introduce practical ideas for implementing library workplace innovation (as well as supporting innovation on campus); and provide provocative ideas to help spark creativity locally.
