challenges facing academic librarians with examples from lebanon

Challenges Facing Academic Librarians With Examples From Lebanon

by

Houeida Kammourié-Charara

InfoCommons Librarian Lebanese American University

Lebanese Academic Library Consortium Coordinator

Elsevier LibraryConnect Seminar

RNL, Beirut, April 17, 2012

Introduction

The invasion of digital information in our era is affecting and changing every single aspect of our lives; how we receive/provide information, teach/learn, interact with each other, and even how we communicate and play, etc.

This tumultuous environment affected also libraries and librarians which cannot stay away from change.

While change is inevitable, it is coupled with several challenges. This presentation discusses the challenges facing academic librarians in general with some examples of Lebanese libraries’ experience in the digital world.

April 17, 2012 Elsevier LibraryConnect Seminar@LAU

©Houeida Kammourié-Charara 2

Transformation of Libraries

The "Great Age of Libraries,“ began in the late 19th century. This age was characterized by building huge collections and using scientific approaches to manage them.

In the last two decades, with the advent of Internet, there were expectations that libraries will die. They didn’t, instead they transformed from just being buildings; to be “vast collections of online resources that users can access from campuses, offices, or coffee shops halfway around the world” (Strong, 2011).

The digital information which was usually perceived as an additional format for resources, is currently evolving to be the only format.

This shift is a response to the increasingly changing preferences of today's user to the online form of resources.



Collections

“For many in the academic community, the phrase “transforming library collections” conjures visions of electronic access from anywhere to everything – books, journals, reference works, manuscripts, audio files, films” (Strong, 2011). Today all the attention goes to Electronic resources, which are relatively new compared to print publishing history.

Exploring the change in collections deserve a thorough study, however it is worth noting Ownership challenge: Libraries do own information (digital) that they purchase, but they no longer store it; Thus how to convince traditional librarians to spend money on materials that are not available physically in the library?

Another aspect of libraries collections is the Open Access Resources which also need separate discussion by itself.



Librarians Generations

Lancaster identified four generations of library staff:

– Traditionalists (born before 1946)

– Baby Boomers (1946-1964)

– Generation X (1965-1981), and

– Millennials (1982-2000??) – all of who have distinctive motivations, professional expectations, and communication styles (Strothmann, & Ohler, 2010).

Millennials are also known as Digital natives and this generation is apparently going to be the majority in a decade or two.

According to Lancaster Generation X are often characterized as technologically savvy, efficient at multi-tasking, they look for professional development and want to have a voice in decision-making; they will leave organizations that fail to meet those needs. X’s “generally show a marked dislike for organizational cultures based on seniority and hierarchy and like to solve problems through teamwork and experimentation” (Strothmann, & Ohler, 2010).



Top Issues for Academic Libraries as Reported by ACRL “Focus on the Future Task Force”

Hisle listed 7 top issues facing academic libraries (ACRL report, 2003);

Today all the challenges are still current, with more emphasis on some topics:

1. Recruitment, education, and retention of librarians

2. Role of library in academic enterprise

3. Impact of information technology on library services

4. Creation, control, and preservation of digital resources

5. Chaos in scholarly communication

6. Support of new users

7. Higher education funding



Recruitment, Education, and Retention of Librarians

ACRL report stated that the need to find quality leadership for libraries is a core issue. After recruitment, there is also the need to ensure education of newly hired librarians and reeducating existing ones, by helping them acquiring skills and knowledge that support their new roles in the digital information age, especially roles involving teaching and library promotion.

Hiring librarians entails better understanding of their education; How relevant is a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science (MLIS) to academic librarianship?

It is worth noting that low salaries and lack of diversity in the profession are problems that have to be addressed collectively and need special attention.



LIS Important Dates

Library and Information Science (LIS) is becoming an increasingly technology-driven profession. It moves away from “simply redefining traditional library roles to a new and completely redesigned job profiles (Riley-Huff, & Rholes, 2011)

2000/ Kaliper report: High impact of technology in libraries

2000/ LIS programs to address more information problems

2004/ Markey: Improvements in the number of IT-related courses

2004/ Gorman: LIS faculty marginalized in favor of Information Science

2006/ Trend in filling librarian positions with professionals with no master’s degree in library science.

2006/ McKinney: Comparison between “ALA Core Competencies” and what is currently learned in ALA-accredited curricula

2007/ New areas of emphasis in LIS, including specializations such as Geographic Information Systems.



LIS in Lebanon

While change in librarianship is obvious, “many LIS programs are still operating on a two-track model by combining traditional librarians and information managers” (Riley-Huff, & Rholes, 2011).

LIS is a major challenge for Lebanese Librarians at the national level. As far as we know two MLIS programs are currently offered, one in the Lebanese University (LU) and the other one in Beirut Arab University; Assessment will be done in few years after graduates will join the labor market. One MLIS student graduated from LU and the other one is working on her thesis.

In an email sent to Lebanese Academic Library Consortium (LALC) members Randa AlChidiac former LALC Chair sent a message notifying members about new MS and MA programs in Library Science at University of Balamand. Alchidiac, R., (personal communication, April 4, 2012).



Retention of Excellent Professional Staff

While hiring good caliber librarians is hard, retaining them is harder. “Of all a library manager’s responsibilities, none are more important than attracting, developing, and retaining excellent professional staff” (Strothmann, & Ohler, 2010).

In Lebanon few academic libraries are competing to attract the best candidates. Sometimes they target expatriates or foreigners to fill in high positions. By neglecting retaining good employees, academic libraries administrators may find themselves loosing good staff, which sometimes is hard to replace, in a very competitive environment.

The ACRL Recruitment and Retention Wiki (2009) summarizes the key factors in retention as:

– Effective hiring, Collegial workplaces, Mentoring programs, Support for professional development, Good workplace communication, Good benefits besides salary, and Deliberate retention planning (Strothmann, & Ohler, 2010).



Recognition of the Library

Providing good benefits to librarians- thus helping their retention- is related to the recognition of the library and its important role in the university.

Accordingly, it is important to increase the awareness among campus decision-makers, such as high administration, deans of schools, etc. of the libraries’ role in providing valuable yet unique information.

This can be done by promoting the library services, resources and facilities, and by providing specialized, customized and personalized services, e.g., reports of usage statistics for a particular discipline or across a certain timespan (Frumkin, & Reese, 2011), or compilation of resources in a specific topic in a research guide, etc.



Librarians Role

In the digital age the librarians’ role as knowledge providers has become more significant than before; with the shift of libraries to online (both collections and services), it become essential that librarians make a “conceptual shift by focusing on their own skills and activities rather than on their libraries” (Plutchak, 2012) to cope with the digital change.

"Libraries are just buildings, or gatherings of objects, or an abstract diagram on an organization chart, but libraries don't do anything - people do” (Plutchak, 2012). It is the librarians and their professional and paraprofessional colleagues who get things done.

Excellent Librarians made Great Library Reputation

Nowadays academic librarians don’t sit behind desks and wait for faculty, students and staff to approach them; they go to them instead.



New Skills for Librarians

Libraries in the digital age need stronger technological type of librarianship. While professional positions in the past were monopolized by library schools graduates, we are perceiving currently a trend in the academic libraries to hire IT people to fill in library positions that require advanced computer skills.

Riley-Huff, & Rholes noted that not all librarians with technology roles start out in those positions, therefore a role transformation should be examined. Several librarians with more traditional roles have transformed their skills to be able to undertake new roles more technology centric.

Plutchak stated that the easiest way currently used by libraries “in order to address the challenges of dealing with digital materials is to create one position Electronic Resources Librarian (ERL) and get some smart and energetic librarian who can handle everything associated with digital. And then the rest of us can continue doing the essential jobs that we are doing and not have to worry about all that weird stuff”.



Role of Library in Academic Enterprise

Librarians have to maintain the importance and relevance of the academic library as the center of activities of the university. They also need to emphasize the importance of their teaching role mainly in information literacy instruction. “We must find ways to promote the values, expertise, and leadership of the profession throughout the campus to ensure appreciation for the roles librarians do and can play. Librarians must demonstrate to the campus community that the library remains central to academic effort” (Hisle, 2002).

Librarians should market themselves as coordinators between all university departments since they come from a wide range of academic backgrounds, and many hold advanced degrees in disciplines in addition to a Master of Library Science. They are better placed “to recognize connections among disciplines, both in scholarship and in trends” (Pressley, & Gilbertson, 2011).



Impact of Information Technology on Library Services

There is no doubt that instructional and information technology departments have a impact on traditional library services and sometimes there is some overlapping. The best example to describe the impact of IT is shown clearly in the Reference work.

In todays world the reference “librarian can visually walk a user through a search in an online database while simultaneously using a text window to explain what he or she is doing” (Strong, 2007). She/he communicates with users via e-mail, instant messaging, video conferencing, chatting, etc.

Online reference allows us to offer assistance 24 hours a day seven days a week. Reference departments at LAU are covering the online chatting during the libraries working hours, excluding night shift currently.



Services

Services offered by the library make its collections accessible and available to users. Within the invasion and aggressive competition of some discovery initiatives such as Google Scholar, libraries need to have their holdings discoverable and accessible mainly through their Catalogs; therefore catalog should be user friendly and enhanced with catalog enrichment tools.

Since Digital native users are in a hurry; and they want the information yesterday in a “one stop shop”; Therefore we need to have a place where they can do and have: Searching/browsing the net; research assistance; printing, technical assistance, meeting point, ILL/DDS, group study, coffee vending machines, comfortable seats, friendly staff, etc.

All of the above have an answer in one word & one place:

INFOCOMMONS



Facilities:“Face-Lifting” of Library Spaces

A major challenge facing libraries nowadays is providing library spaces that fulfill the needs of the digital native users. In most of the times the libraries infrastructures do not accommodate new trends. The “increased emphasis on collaborative and group learning have created an increased demand for flexible learning spaces that provide access to the most up-to-date information technology and are “zoned” for sound and activity” (Strong, 2007) .

LAU RNL remodeled floor 8th in its new building (2006) to satisfy its users by providing comfortable space where users can do research, meet, eat, and drink. This area is called InfoCommons Area and a new position was created to manage this new space.

Lately RNL inaugurated three group study rooms in order to respond to an increased demand for study areas. A lot still to be done, but improving library facilities cost money that is not available all the time.



Creation, Control, and Preservation of Digital Resources

Libraries are challenged by “Methods to determine what should be digitized, to find resources to do the work, and to develop appropriate bibliographic control mechanisms for digital materials offer complex challenges” (Strong, 2007).

The growth of digital information has simply exceeded libraries ability of preservation. There are a lot of valuable information currently published on blogs, wikis, and social networking media, some are not available in any other medium, such us the Arab Spring diaries. Strong stated that libraries should be allowed to preserve Web sites that are not commercially available, otherwise they wont be available for future generations if not preserved whether in institutional repositories are digital archives.

We may add another challenge in this area of the world: Arabic script that is not fully OCR’d . Several attempts were carried out, but none, as far as we know, was 100% successful. Al-Raida, which is a bilingual journal published by LAU is searchable in its English part but not in the Arabic one.



http://www.lau.edu.lb/centers-institutes/iwsaw/publications/al-raida/



Knowledge Management

“Knowledge management is the process of capturing a company’s collective expertise wherever it resides in databases, on papers, or in the people’s head and distributing it to wherever it can help produce the biggest payoff” (Yaacob, Jamaluddin, & Jusoff, 2010).

Many of the experience in the management of information knowledge and skills of librarianship can be applied to knowledge management.

The library’s challenge in managing and digitizing the knowledge can be undertaken by providing a repository of all of those knowledge resources, both internal and external.



Knowledge Management Examples

LAU Libraries started several digitization projects that cover unique knowledge, namely:

– Tender Stitches - Ottoman Embroideries

– Les Peintres du Liban: Collection containing selections from the works of three major Lebanese painters: Saliba Doueihy, Bibi Zoghbé, & Omar Onsi

– Fuad Rifka: Collection of his personal papers donated to LAU, and

– Lebanese American University (LAU)

In addition to those collections the libraries are digitizing all theses submitted after 2003 and making them available online.

April 17, 2012

Elsevier LibraryConnect Seminar@LAU ©Houeida Kammourié-Charara

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http://contentdm.lau.edu.lb/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15255coll3




Chaos in Scholarly Communication

“Librarians advocate the need for fair scholarly communication models as copyright laws change or are reinterpreted and challenges to fair-use in a digital context continue to be made ”(Hisle, 2002).

Digital information is “regularized” via License agreements signed between libraries and publishers. Very often those agreements are to the benefit of the publishers. Few cases in the literature showed that librarians were able to impose their conditions through negotiations of the license terms.

Mergers and acquisition between publishers/aggregators/vendors of the information industry is a substantial threat for libraries as it represents potential for monopolistic business practices.

The last years witnessed significant acquisitions of small publishers by “big ones”.

April 17, 2012


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Support of New Users

The rise of the Web as the first choice for student and faculty researchers, gave them the feeling that they can find everything by using search engines such as Google, Bing and others.

At the same time, libraries provide discovery tools, but literature and our daily interaction with students showed that discovery tools that we provide are not necessarily where our “users start their discovery journey” (Frumkin, & Reese, 2011).

Here comes the role of librarians by providing appropriate services and resources to new users -so called cut-and-paste generation-; Hisle mentioned their lack of literacy; their flexible ethics regarding plagiarism and copyright violations.




The multifaceted approach to helping students can be summarized by the title of a course an undergraduate librarian offers: “How I Learned to Stop Just Googling…Find the Really Good Stuff!” (Strong, 2011)

Frumkin, & Reese noted that new users are bringing their own digital lifestyles to their research workflows, which are not part of their academic library’s offerings. To attract those new users, libraries need to provide services and resources compatible with their expectations and digital lifestyles.

Libraries need to bring all new technological devices to their users, and to provide the information in the preferred medium. LAU Libraries are circulating eBook readers such as AmazonKindle, Sony, etc. and mobile devices such as iPad’s in order to attract users.




Mobile apps. are starting to pave their way in the majority of academic libraries in North America and we are seeing timid attempts in Lebanon.

Several publishers are currently building application for mobile technology and smart phones. We may discuss Mobile applications today with ScienceDirect demo.

It is worth mention the “Cloud-based technology” that is device independent. This cost saving system (while some challenges still remain), is here to stay. The significance of this development to the academic librarian is a total shift to computers and the internet by everyone in the user community (Thomas, Satpathi,& Satpathi, 2010).



Web 2.0: Social Media

Web 2.0, also known as Library 2.0, is the user-centred web, “where blogs, wikis, social networks, multimedia applications and dynamic programming scripts are being used for collection, contribution and collaboration on the web. The primary principle is share the resources collectively”(Thomas, Satpathi, & Satpathi, 2010).

It is important for librarians to experience Web 2.0 tools from a user’s perspective and use these tools in modernizing library services.

Libraries that didn’t apply Web 2.0 yet, are facing the challenge of the arrival of the Web 3.0 or Semantic Web which is an extension to the Web that adds new data and metadata to existing Web documents, extending those documents into data.

Where Web 2.0 is focused on people, the Semantic Web is focused on machines. “Semantic Web is smarter and can understand what you want”(Thomas, Satpathi, & Satpathi, 2010).



http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/data.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/metadata.html

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/D/document.html

Social Media Tools

Libraries can use several social media to promote their services & resources:

1. Twitter: To send tweets about library activities and news

2. Facebook: To promote resources and announce activities and events; LAU Libraries page

3. Picasa and Flickr: To share photos

4. YouTube: To post videos about the Library, e.g. RNL YouTube video

5. SlideShare: To share presentations (e.g. given in conferences), documents and professional videos

6. Google Maps: To show conferences attended by librarians

7. Pinterest is a pinboard-style social photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests (Wikipedia), and many more.

Several academic libraries have their own twitter and Facebook accounts where information about library resources and activities are posted, e.g., LAU Libraries Facebook page was created on November 11, 2008 and has now 1,170 Likes.



https://www.facebook.com/pages/LAU-Libraries/45399139516

https://www.facebook.com/pages/LAU-Libraries/45399139516

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EURcfs8Z_f4

http://www.slideshare.net/houeidakam/

http://pinterest.com/

Higher Education Funding

Due to global economic crisis libraries were also affected by lack of funding mainly for library programs, salaries, and resources. “Creative thought and action will be required to compensate for the already low pay of librarians, as well as the rising costs of materials and technology” (Hisle, 2002).

Here again Lebanon is not an exception, professional librarians’ salaries rarely (if never) bypass the 5 digits in USD. As for libraries collections budgets “it is imperative that libraries demonstrate their value in relation to the investment of resources that their institutions provide them”(Frumkin, & Reese, 2011).

This challenge needs further investigation and cannot be covered in one slide.



Role of Library Associations

Library associations are playing a primordial role in educating librarians and providing professional development opportunities to them at both global and international levels. The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), the American Library Association (ALA), and the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), have a lot of initiatives in this regards.

At the national level the Lebanese Library Association (LLA) has a great challenge in keeping the professionals and paraprofessionals exposed to new technologies and trends in librarianship.

However this is not an easy challenge, since there is no planned yet systematic approach on the part of LLA in its development program. It all depends on the enthusiasm of a few enterprising people (Thomas, Satpathi,& Satpathi, 2010).



To Summarize

• Library collections are changing, both in format and philosophy

• Libraries buildings need to accommodate digital natives need

• Academic libraries need to relate the value of their core services to their

communities

• Libraries are moving from collection-based organizations into service-based entities

• Librarians need to acquire technical skills by increasing the number of technology

courses in LIS

• Libraries are in the first stages of understanding the importance of social media

• The larger challenge is finding our way to our users in the electronic environment

at their point of need (Strong, 2007).



Conclusion

Finally academic libraries nowadays need to expect and embrace change, with all the challenges and opportunities that come with it; they must be prepared to deal with it, if they want to keep pace with the university they serve.

This will lead us to the following question: Can a library survive without maintaining technological currency? According to Estabrook “Librarianship without a strong linkage to technology (and it’s capacity to extend our work) will become a mastodon. Technology without reference to the core library principles of information organization and access is deracinated” (Riley-Huff, & Rholes, 2011).

I cannot by mention Plutchak who said: The great thing about this is that we can experiment like crazy. We do not have to worry about getting it "right" -Undoubtedly, many of our experiments will go nowhere, will be seen to be dead ends and wrong turns, but:

Qui ne risque rien, n’a rien!!!!!



Thank you

Q&A A copy of this presentation will be available

online on slideshare


Please feel free to contact me @

[email protected]




mailto:[email protected]

References

Albanese, A. R. (2003, March 15). The top seven academic library issues. Library Journal, 128(5), 43. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from ProQuest database.

Credo Reference Blog. (2010, March 16). Challenges facing libraries: Our Take. Retrieved April 3, 2012, from http://blog.credoreference.com/2010/03/challenges-facing-libraries/

Frumkin, J., & Reese, T. (2011). Provision Recognition: Increasing awareness of the library‘s value in delivering electronic information resources. Journal of Library Administration, 51(7/8), 810-819.

Hisle, W. L. (2002). Top issues facing academic libraries: A report of the focus on the future task force. College & Research Libraries News, 63(10). Retrieved April 3, 2012, from http://www.ala.org/acrl/proftools/recruiting/topissuesfacing.

Plutchak, T. S. (2012, January). Breaking the barriers of time and space: The dawning of the great age of librarians. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 100(1). Retrieved April 2, 2012, from ProQuest database.

Pressley, L., & Gilbertson, K. (2011, May). Librarians as experts: using the web to assert our value. Computers in Libraries, 31(4), 19-23. Retrieved April 2, 2012, from ProQuest database.



http://blog.credoreference.com/2010/03/challenges-facing-libraries/










http://www.ala.org/acrl/proftools/recruiting/topissuesfacing

References Riley-Huff, D. A., & Rholes, J. M. (2011). Librarians and technology skill acquisition: issues and perspectives.

Information Technology and Libraries, 30(3), 129-140. Retrieved April 2, 2012, from ProQuest database.

Strong, G. E. (2007). Challenges Facing California’s Academic Libraries. Retrieved March 29, 2012, from http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mn9c0w3

Stronthmann, M., & Ohler, L. A. (2011). Retaining academic librarians: by chance or by design?. Library Management, 32(3), 191-208. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from Emerald database.

Thomas, V. K., Satpathi, C., & Satpathi, J.N. (2010). Emerging challenges in academic librarianship and role of library associations in professional updating .Library management, 31(8/9), 594-609. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from Emerald database.

Yaacob, R. A., Jamaluddin, A., & Jusoff, K. (2010). Knowledge management and challenging roles of academic librarians. Management Science and Engineering, 4(4), 14-23. Retrieved March 30, 2012, from Academic Search Complete.

Website:

Webopedia http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2007/Semantic_Web.asp

Accessed April 15, 012.

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http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3mn9c0w3









http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2007/Semantic_Web.asp

