**Selected for 2026 Doody's Core Titles in Library and Information Science**
Actively diversifying the content to increase its relevance to an international audience, this practical handbook provides a one-stop-shop with accompanying time-saving templates that can be easily adapted to help aid the daily activities and processes often faced by those working in information, knowledge, libraries and related disciplines.
The Solo Librarian: A Practical Handbook provides an internationally applicable and practical handbook that shows a timeline of key activities that happen throughout, in this example, an academic year. Sections provide examples on Acquisitions, cataloguing, updating library guidance (before academic year start - September), Student and Staff Inductions (September/October), Quarterly Business Review to review updates and library usage (Oct – Dec), Library cover over student/staff holiday period (Dec), Quarterly Business Review (Jan – Mar), Quality standard(s) re-accreditation (April), Research methods/study skills webinars (April), Library cover over student holiday period (April), Quarterly Business Review (April –June), and much more.
The idea behind this practical handbook is to provide guidance and templates to cover responsibilities, challenges, benchmarking, acquisitions, classification, archiving, copyright management, and so much more.
- Becoming a solo librarian can be a daunting prospect. This book relays, as a solo librarian practitioner, the lessons the author has learnt, whilst creating and sharing guidance that assists others finding themselves in a similar role and/or a small team with limited help but with a mandate to connect to global trends and progress in the field of librarianship and information science
- This Internationally applicable and practical handbook, however, provides a logical process of creating library provision and the services involved
- The solo librarian yearly planner and timeline of activities, supporting guidance and templates provided will be downloadable (via the eBook version) and can be adapted and utilised further to help aid the daily activities and processes often faced by library and information service(s) staff that include those working in information, knowledge, libraries and related disciplines in the UK and internationally
Lucy Roper is Information Governance Manager, University College of Estate Management (UCEM) in the UK.
