I am ACRL Member of the Week

Inquisitive, creative, unconventional.

I have been reading my copy of "Common Ground at the Nexus of Information Literacy & Scholarly Communication" because some colleagues and I recently launched a workshop series to encourage our librarians to further integrate scholarly communication tools and concepts into instruction. This was largely inspired by the ACRL Intersections of Scholarly Communication and Information Literacy workshop, taught by Molls and Watts, which we attended earlier this year. I have also been wading through the legislative history for the Copyright Act of 1976. Did you know that copyright transfers were not standard in author agreements prior to this Act taking effect? Perhaps the better question is whether the transfers were the legal necessities to publication they were characterized to be… What say you, copyright librarians?

Community of Practice.

ACRL Speaks Out is one of my favorite examples of advocacy because I see enormous value in active engagement to increase our professional visibility and influence. These efforts communicate support for our community in ways that are timely and responsive, and are opportunities to express our professional values and ethics.

I strive to build connections and establish the relevance of the library to our community. The evolving nature of the academic research library necessitates that we are many different things, but I do not know that we can or should endeavor to be all things, to all people. My Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion efforts emphasize connecting audiences to the library as place, people, as well as content.

I believe that much of academic library outreach is an investment in the long game. Beyond engagement to fulfill the requirements of our existing users, there is the need to anticipate the demands of the future. This underscores to me the importance and utility of strategic planning. It is up to us to determine if we wish as a profession to be proactive or reactive. As Gandhi once said, “We need not wait to see what others do.” Let us plan to be proactive.