What's the buzz?

Citation

Mitchell, E. and Watstein, S.B. (2015), "What's the buzz?", Reference Services Review, Vol. 43 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-04-2015-0021

What's the buzz?

Article Type: Editorial From: Reference Services Review, Volume 43, Issue 2

As we are going to press with this issue, there are several recent publications that our colleagues are talking about. We will highlight a few of these news items that are relevant to our readership, and then focus on the issue at hand – Volume 43 Issue 2.

Readers interested in the current higher education environment for academic libraries would not want to miss the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Environmental Scan 2015. Every two years, the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee release an environmental scan of higher education, including developments with the potential for continuing impact on academic libraries. Providing a broad review of the current higher education landscape, with special focus on the state of academic and research libraries, the 2015 environmental scan outlines trends and issues which impact “the rapidly changing environment in which libraries provide resources and services as well as the evolving roles for library staff”. The importance of documenting and communicating our libraries’ value in strategically supporting and advancing our institutions’ missions continues to be emphasized. The 2015 environmental scan is freely available as a PDF on the ACRL Web site: http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepapers/EnvironmentalScan15.pdf (accessed April 8, 2015).

Also from ACRL, check out the publication of “Not Just Where to Click: Teaching Students How to Think about Information”. Edited by Troy A Swanson and Heather Jagman, “Not Just Where to Click” explores how librarians and faculty work together to teach students about the nature of expertise, authority and credibility. The first part of the book addresses librarian, faculty and student epistemologies and beliefs, and the second part switches gears from the conceptual to the practical. Here readers will find useful approaches for motivating students to explore their beliefs, biases and ways of interpreting the world. “Not Just Where to Click” is available for purchase in print, as an e-book, and as a print/e-book bundle through the American Library Association (ALA) Online Store, in print and for Kindle through http://Amazon.com

Does every academic library need a digital humanities center? Jennifer Schaffner and Ricky Erway explored this question for OCLC Research in 2014[1]. Fast forward to 2015. Readers interested in where digital humanities and libraries meet – in practice, pedagogy and projects, will appreciate another ACRL publication – “Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists”, edited by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Laura Braunstein and Liorah Golomb. “Digital Humanities in the Library: Challenges and Opportunities for Subject Specialists” is available for purchase in print, as an e-book and as a print/e-book bundle through the ALA Online Store, in print and for Kindle through http://Amazon.com

Last but hardly least, the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative have been at it again! The New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Report: 2015 Higher Education Edition is here! This is required reading for academic librarians seeking to track or learn more about emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching and creative inquiry in education. As in previous editions, key trends, significant challenges and important developments in educational technology are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years. The Horizon Report is an invaluable resource for strategic technology planning, and we suggest, strategic space and service planning. The Report is freely available as a PDF on the NMC: http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2015-nmc-horizon-report-HE-EN.pdf

In this issue of Reference Services Review, our authors explore theoretical and the practical approaches to challenges and opportunities on the library horizon or already at the library door. Antunez, Aagard and Sand, in their article on degree-seeking older adults, and Mills, Paladino and Klentzin, in their piece on student veterans in the academic library, focus on library services to specific populations – providing insights with application to the broader community. Wakimoto and Bruce write about the increasingly important role of collaboration between archivists and librarians, while Bridget Farrell suggests ways to enhance the complex relationships among librarians and their non-librarian co-tenants – writing centers, technology services, tutoring services.

Several articles in this issue further our understanding of effective approaches to information literacy. Walk explores the question “How would professors teach information literacy to prepare high school students for college?”, which is of particular interest to those of us working with first year college populations as well. Radcliff and Wong take a different approach to teaching students how to evaluate sources, in a model that incorporates understanding how an argument is structured; this article was based on the authors’ presentation at Library Instruction West 2014. Foley and Bertel’s article on using iPads to explore the library describes an active lesson that incorporates teamwork and technology, while Lai’s program promotes awareness of digital resources outside, rather than within, the library. Swoger and Hoffman mine the reference transaction as a way to assess and improve student information literacy skills.

Anderson’ uses quantitative analysis of Tumblr statistics to determine how this platform is currently being used by libraries and special collections/archives in the USA; the results of her study “will assist librarians in determining if this is a social media tool that is useful and valuable, as well as providing observations on best practices”. Robert Farrell and William Badke’s thoughtful piece (which was originally presented at Library Instruction West in 2014) explores approaching information literacy instruction situated within the disciplinary community of practice.

Eleanor Mitchell and Sarah Barbara Watstein

Note

1.http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SC8FFCM (accessed 8 April 2015).