Librarians examine how libraries and librarians work with many different constituencies to meet the challenges of change in the 21st century. Among their topics are library collaborative networks forging scholarly cyber-infrastructure and radical collaboration, online video tutorials and interlibrary resource sharing as a model for understanding the role of internet video in library science and education, academic library collaboration to strengthen open government data and expand librarianship, and collaboration between researchers and academic libraries: road to research data country-wide consortium and innovation of library services.
– ProtoView Reviews
Technology-Centered Academic Library Partnerships and Collaborations is an insightful look at academic libraries, technological innovation, and collaborative measures. Under the editorship of Brian Doherty, a Dean of the Jane Bancroft Cook Library at New College of Florida and the University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee, contributors to this compilation have undergone a stringent process of inclusion to find research and case studies that offer contemporary, unmitigated empirical and conceptual options in technological partnerships for academic libraries.
The book commences with the usual "Front Matter"; the addition of a "Detailed Table of Contents" aids the researcher in evaluating content. The “Back Matter” incorporates “Biographical Reference,” “About the Contributors,” and an “Index” for further study or documentation. Chapters include multiple writers and in addition to the research topic, extended study is possible through “Future Research Directions" and strong reference sections.
Academic libraries must seek the latest methodologies and tools to be progressive with twenty-first century education. This resource provides professional support, organization needs, and information resource development in the context of collaboration. Librarians are notorious in their efforts for resource sharing, and models like the Boston Library Consortium (p. 194) are creating innovative modules of what partnerships in today’s libraries look like.
Challenges and benefits of collaboration, and the necessity of reaching beyond physical space, bring library services to the forefront of technology-centered relationships. Technology-Centered Academic Library Partnerships and Collaborations examines place (Boston, Caribbean, Estonia, New York, etc), school type (liberal arts, online, etc), and specific scenarios including library service in times of disaster (p. 126). The samplings of collaboration demonstrate a new paradigm of librarian, faculty, and outside partnerships in the community.
Librarians are leaders in interdisciplinary studies, technology, and innovation, and they foster curriculum with technology (3D printing, p. 89). With less fiscal tenacity, libraries are finding partners in academic libraries, communities, government, and business. Colleges and universities, more than ever, need to educate for the work force and “it is imperative that both faculty members and librarian work to ensure that graduates not only have the distinct disciplinary skills that they need to succeed in their field of choice, but that they also have the applied learning skills that employers seek” (p. 96). Technology-Centered Academic Library Partnerships and Collaborations will support collaborative efforts between academic libraries and the global community; offering a multiplicity of avenues for learning and research through resource sharing means improved technological education and greater influence on employment of highly skilled workers beyond graduate studies. This volume will be well used by faculty members, IT, librarians, researchers in education development, technologists, and university administrators.
– Janis Minshull, ARBA Reviews