What Librarians Know

William Badke (Trinity Western University) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:24:16 -0500

On the surface, it appears from this study that librarians are out of touch with faculty research needs (or wants). I do not believe that this is the case. In my experience, most faculty who are users of electronic information systems have a very basic understanding of the capabilities of these rich new databases. This may not be a problem for science professors, whose databases focus more on citation-tracking than sophisticated use of thesauri, but professors in the social sciences and humanities tend to "googleize" their databases, missing the richness of controlled vocabularies and combinations of subject headings and keywords.

Librarians are immersed in information technology and have the time to learn the most intelligent ways to search the databases they offer. Faculty are not suffienctly availing themselves of this knowledge, preferring to go it on their own. In doing so, they may well be losing access to the knowledge that is their bread and butter.

The Changing Information Services Needs of Faculty

ckeller — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:01:42 -0500

The authors discuss recent studies conducted to gage the academic librarian's and faculty member's view on the increasing use and offering of electronic resources. One could conclude from the studies that the "transition to an electronic environment poses significant strategic and management challenges for higher education" and that there is a "need for libraries to take leadership in helping academia's transition to the new environment".

EDUCAUSE | EDUCAUSE CONNECT - The Changing Information Services Needs of Faculty - Comments

What Librarians Know

The Changing Information Services Needs of Faculty