IFLA Journal

This article presents a comprehensive look into the evolving landscape of libraries in Singapore. Some 190 years ago, two institutions – the National Library of Singapore and the National University of Singapore Library – were instrumental in laying the foundation for libraries in this Southeast Asian island state. Since then, Singapore has seen a proliferation of libraries that include public, academic and special libraries. Supported by government policies and strategies, libraries have remained important in the lives of Singaporeans. In order to adapt to technological developments as well as changes in user demands and behaviours, the nation’s libraries have had to come up with new ways to manage their collections as well as serve the needs of their users. This paper examines the history of libraries in Singapore before throwing the spotlight on library innovations, paying particular attention to digital products and services that include library management systems, e-resources, digital devices as well as the utilization of social media to engage users.

Worldwide the library and information profession has been the focus of competing social and political agendas that have contributed to the shape of the profession. From the late 19th century to the present in countries aligned to the former British Dominions and Colonies (today part of the Commonwealth of Nations) these external influences were predominantly from two cultural arenas, that of the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). The result in many Commonwealth countries been two competing and at times contradictory models for LIS pedagogy which have been labelled the British and American ‘models or patterns’ of education. The convergence of these two influences has had a role in shaping LIS education and has left a complex legacy. This paper will examine how the legacy of this convergence continues to shape the aspirational agenda of local professional communities and will discuss how this has influenced the delivery and the educational model for librarianship. This paper will examine as a series of case studies how the legacy of this convergence has shaped the aspirations of the LIS profession and influenced the delivery and the educational model of librarianship in a number of Commonwealth countries.

Academic as well as public libraries nowadays have to face constant change. This paper gives an overview about leadership competences needed to succeed with deliberate large-scale changes in libraries. Most of the needed competences can already be imparted during undergraduate studies toward a bachelor’s degree in library and information science, as can be seen in the example of the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg. The critical success factors of every change project are information, communication and participation. Two qualitative studies concerning leadership in academic libraries and leadership in academic and public libraries in times of change, as well as a quantitative study in an academic library concerning the influence of a transformational and a transactional leadership style of the top management on the middle management as well as on team members including the influence of the organizational culture, emphasize the importance of these success factors, especially the communication competence of leaders in times of change.

As digital access to all sources of information continues to expand at an accelerating rate, libraries around the world are working to transform themselves in response to their changing role in the communities they serve and support. Academic libraries face particular challenges as a generation of students enters university having embraced online, mobile, anytime, anywhere access to information. At the center of an academic community that increasingly values intellectual collaboration among faculty and students, and learning in and out of the classroom, the 21st century academic library must continually recreate itself as a place that fosters curiosity, engagement, collaboration, and lifelong learning. Typical 20th-century capital investment cycles in academic libraries in the United States were characterized by large-scale once-a-generation investments in facilities expansion and enhancement. In the first decade of the 21st century the drive to transform is greater than ever before, but there is less capital funding available, increasing the pressure on institutions to reduce the capital investment cycle time in order to remain responsive to rapid changes in technology, pedagogy, scholarship, and user expectations. The end of any project is the start of evaluation and planning for the next cycle of change and investment. This paper will explore and discuss library efforts at two major academic institutions in the United States, one receiving public funds and one private, to develop innovative ways to evaluate library spaces, functions, services, operations and maintenance. The speakers will highlight projects intended to operationalize capital investment, shorten cycle times and provide incremental interventions, within a general framework of planning big and implementing small. Data encompass exit counts, occupancy rates, and peer comparisons; data sources include surveys, focus groups, and simulations. Particular projects and initiatives will address user needs, program innovation, and facilities enhancement, with the aim of continually refreshing and renewing library spaces that enhance learning, inspire scholarship, and foster community.

The context of major changes that are envisaged for the bibliographic standards environment demands a reflection on the nature and specification of MARC and its adequacy for the integration of bibliographic discovery systems into the larger world of networked information and systems. From this starting point, this paper provides an overview of the evolution of UNIMARC and the practices of its maintenance, collecting knowledge that may be useful as a first contribution to inform future steps in redesigning bibliographic data standards.

This paper demonstrates a set of techniques development by the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester (USA) which have facilitated a tight alignment between the services, collections, facilities, and digital presence of the Libraries with the academic needs of the undergraduate students, graduate students and faculty at the University of Rochester. At the heart of what has come to be called the ‘Rochester method’ is a belief that a greater understanding of the academic work practices of a university or college community can reveal unintentional misalignments between a library's services and user needs, as well as overlooked opportunities for a library to provide new services. The focus and study of academic work practices has been achieved through the adoption and adaptation of methods from anthropological and ethnography, which are then applied to the study of segments of a university community. The process begins with the identification of a question, such as “what does a student do between the time a research paper is assigned and the paper is complete?” A suite of research methods are then developed to explore the question, such as in situ interview, photo elicitation exercises, design charettes, and academic diaries. The application of those study methods results in data in various forms including photographs, drawings, interview transcripts, and blue-sky descriptions of ideal tools, spaces, and services. Diverse teams of staff from across the library study the data and develop findings. At this point in the cycle, those findings require an organizational response that results in real change which can vary from improved marketing, altered physical facilities, new services and web tools. The success at the University of Rochester has demonstrated that a greater understanding and appreciation of the academic needs of library users is not overly difficult nor costly to obtain. While the findings of the Rochester studies are unique to the unique community of the University of Rochester, the methods of study can and have been applied successfully to the study of library users on other campuses.

Public libraries in the Netherlands face growing scepticism about their value to communities and society at large. The digitization of media, information and communication gives rise to questions about the library’s function, as it still is based mainly on physical service provision. Furthermore, the current economic recession causes local, regional and national governments to critically question every euro spent on cultural institutions. In this climate, there is a growing need for public libraries to show their worth – not only in an economical, but also in a more sociological sense. As standardized measurements for these values are still lacking, a research program was started to develop these outcome measurements. In this paper, we sketch the rationale behind this program and the steps the Netherlands Institute of Public Libraries is taking to develop a measurement instrument geared at validly and reliably demonstrating the societal value of public libraries. Results from the first stages of the research program will be presented: a theoretical framework of the (possible) impact of libraries on Dutch society, based on the findings of a literature study and qualitative research. The findings help us identify and conceptually enrich five domains of possible impact: cognitive, social, cultural, affective and economical. This outcome framework will guide the development of a measuring instrument.