Small and Rural Academic Library : Leveraging Resources and Overcoming Limitations

Small and rural academic libraries struggle with a unique set of technological and institutional barriers tight budgets, stagnant salaries, small staff, and limited access to current technologies can prevent these active academic librarians from fully participating in professional development. Feelings of isolation, concerns about institutional support, and worries about the perception of the LIS profession within the community can also be issues.



Through the use of case studies, research, and practical interviews, The Small or Rural Academic Library: Leveraging Resources and Overcoming Limitations explores how academic librarians in such environments can keep pace with, create, and improve modern library practices and services, network with colleagues, and access continuing education and professional development opportunities. Additionally, this book acts as a resource on matters of human resources and management concerns that are unique to LIS professionals and paraprofessionals who serve at small campuses and in rural communities.

Kaetrena Davis Kendrick, MSLS, is a graduate of the historic Clark Atlanta University School of Library and Information Studies. Currently, she is Assistant Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, where she has expanded outreach, grown instruction, introduced and promoted teaching and learning technologies, and implemented data collection and scholarship curation initiatives on her small campus. Her research interests include racial and ethnic diversity in the LIS field, professionalism, ethics, and the role of digital humanities in practical academic librarianship. In addition to publishing articles on these topics, she is the author of Global Evolution: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography of International Students in US Academic Libraries (Chicago: ACRL, 2007) and Kaleidoscopic Concern: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography of Diversity, Recruitment, Retention, and Other Concerns Regarding African American and Ethnic Library Professionals (Chicago: ACRL, 2009).

Deborah Tritt, MLIS, MSIT, is an instruction/reference librarian and assistant professor at the University of South Carolina Aiken's Gregg-Graniteville Library. She is also the archivist for the Gregg-Graniteville Archives and oversees the library's digital collections. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Georgia, possesses a Master of Library and Information Science, and a Master of Science in Information Technology. Her research focuses on issues surrounding the practice of librarianship in small and rural academic libraries and emerging technologies in libraries.