Like many industries, the academic library has seen global changes due to the emergence of new technologies. This has forced many institutions to rethink how they manage the administrative tasks of collection, curation, and acquisitions, fundamentally changing the role of the librarian. Today's librarian is more likely to assist students and patrons in accessing educational resources than to perform administrative tasks. This presents a challenge for many educational institutions that are forced to redeploy staff or redistribute tasks due to different skills required. But far from seeing this as a problem, some forward-thinking academic institutions are seizing the opportunity to redefine the role of the librarian. Traditionally, academic librarian roles are filled by candidates with a Master's in Library Science (MLS). But some universities are starting to see the benefit of hiring candidates with PhDs to help provide specialized knowledge to support students. The goal is to make the librarian a more integrated part of the learning process. So, instead of simply facilitating learning, librarians will become valuable liaisons who can provide expert knowledge in the field to help students achieve their goals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay So where does that leave the management duties of the traditional librarian role? How curation and selection will be handled in the future Software vendors and publishers have a role to play in ensuring that curation and ordering methods are reliable and robust. All library management systems should be able to provide accurate information about the books and publications currently available on the system along with any new books that will be published. Traditionally this information is used by librarians to make purchasing decisions. However, because librarians have limited knowledge in each discipline, this can lead to the purchase of books that contain duplicate information compared to books already held by the library or that do not provide the depth of coverage required to support the curriculum. This problem can be solved by collecting more detailed metadata from publishers. Library management systems can then use this metadata to provide more accurate information to faculty members. This allows faculty with specialized knowledge to make more informed decisions about books that are added to the library. Using this system, potential book purchases could also be made available for students to review before a purchasing decision is made. After all, they are the ones who will use these books the most. So it makes sense to involve them early in the acquisition process. The advantages of this system are twofold. It eliminates the librarian from the time-consuming task of administrative care and acquisitions. And it allows the library to purchase books that are more suited to the curriculum. This reduces spending on books that are rarely used or provide little value and gives librarians more time to carry out student support activities. As the academic library evolves, it is critical that any library management systems in place are able to keep up with technological advances. A system unable to adapt to the future risks compromising the standards of education for students and.
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