Reinventing the Library for Online Education - Softcover

Stielow, Frederick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0838912087 ISBN 13: 9780838912089

Publisher: ALA Editions, 2013

Synopsis

Have changes such as cloud computing, search engines, the Semantic Web, and mobile applications rendered such long-standing academic library services and functions as special collections, interlibrary loans, physical processing, and even library buildings unnecessary? Can the academic library effectively reconceive itself as a virtual institution? Stielow, who led the library program of the online university American Public University System, argues most emphatically that it can. His comprehensive look at web-based academic libraries synthesizes the changes wrought by the Web revolution into a visionary new model, grounded in history as well as personal experience. He demonstrates how existing functions like cataloging, circulation, collection development, reference, and serials management can be transformed by entrepreneurship, human face/electronic communicator relations, web apps, and other innovations. Online education can ensure that libraries remain strong information and knowledge hubs, and his timely book

• Shows how the origins and history of the academic library have laid the foundation for our current period of flux
• Identifies practices rooted in print-based storage to consider for elimination, and legacy services ready to be adapted to virtual operations
• Discusses tools and concepts libraries will embrace in a networked world, including new opportunities for library relevance in bookstore/textbook operations, compliance, library/archival/museum functions, e-publishing, and tutorial services
• Offers a thorough examination of the virtual library infrastructure crucial for an online learning program, with a special look at the particular needs and responsibilities of online librarians
• Looks at the evolving relationship between higher education and copyright, and posits how educational technology will bring further changes

Bursting with stimulating ideas and wisdom gleaned from first-hand experience, Stielow's book presents a model for offering outstanding higher education library services in an increasingly online environment.

About this title

About the Author:

FREDERICK J. STIELOW, Associate Professor of the School of Library and Information Science at Catholic University, is best known for his work in archives and information resources management.

From Booklist:

Stielow contemplates the existential nature of academic libraries in this work. He believes the salvation of university libraries will be through “a reluctant transit from paper to ‘blended’ electronic operations,” and he investigates the question: Can the academic library move beyond its physical existence (buildings; interlibrary loans; special collections; processing) to a purely virtual existence? Nine chapters discuss how to prepare for the coming revolution and how to rewire librarians. Embedded librarians, online publishing, virtual campuses, and economics are all touched on, and the book ends with a colophon that introduces the fully online, for-profit American Public University System (Stielow is head of APUS’ Classroom/Research Information Services Department). This book will provoke thinking outside the box and is recommended for academic librarians interested in the topic. --Jerry Carbone

About this edition

• Publisher: ALA Editions
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0838912087
• ISBN 13: 9780838912089
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328