As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, ACRL announces the release of “New Roles for the Road Ahead: Essays Commissioned for ACRL’s 75th Anniversary” authored by well-known bloggers and thought leaders Steven J. Bell, associate university librarian at Temple University, Lorcan Dempsey, vice-president of OCLC research and chief strategist, and Barbara Fister, academic librarian at Gustavus Adolphus College. The collection also includes an introduction by Nancy H. Allen, dean and director at the University of Denver; and an afterward by Lizabeth Wilson, vice provost for digital initiatives and dean of university libraries at the University of Washington in Seattle.
In a series of twenty essays in three sections, “Framing the Road Ahead,” “Shifts in Positioning,” and “Responding to Opportunity: Creating a New Library Landscape,” Bell, Dempsey, and Fister share their thoughts on the world in which academic libraries will thrive, ways libraries are responding to change, and new roles for libraries and librarians. The essays include reflections on ways academic libraries can succeed in a changing higher education environment, take advantage of opportunities, and think about the best ways to deliver both ongoing and innovative services to students and faculty.
ACRL members provided commentary on the draft of the report, much of which was incorporated into the final work. Bell states that “just like this publication, which is something that was made better by a group of people coming together to achieve much more than we could have as individuals, ACRL depends on academic librarians working together to make sure the generations that follow us will be doing great things for higher education many years from now.”
The authors will discuss “New Roles for the Road Ahead” at their ACRL 75th Anniversary Invited Panel to be held at the ACRL 2015 conference from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., on March 26, in the Oregon Convention Center Portland Ballroom 251/258.
“New Roles for the Road Ahead: Essays Commissioned for ACRL’s 75th Anniversary” is freely available on the ACRL website.
