Positioning the Academic Library within the Institution: A Literature Review

Abstract

A strong position in the institution is vital for any academic library and affects its recognition, resourcing and prospects. Higher education institutions are experiencing radical change, driven by greater accountability, stronger competition and increased internationalisation. They prioritise student success, competitive research and global reputation. This has significant implications for library strategy, space, structures, partnerships and identity. Strategic responses include refocusing from collections to users, reorganising teams and roles, developing partnerships, and demonstrating value. Emphasis on student success and researcher productivity has generated learning commons buildings, converged service models, research data management services, digital scholarship engagement, and rebranding as partners. Repositioning is challenging, with the library no longer perceived as the heart of the campus but institutional leadership often holding traditional perceptions of its role. This review discusses literature on how academic libraries have been adapting, or might adapt, functionally, physically, strategically and organisationally to position themselves effectively within the institution.

Harnessing digital power for relevance: status of digital transformation in selected university libraries in Uganda

“…Librarians lacked the knowledge of which technology to implement in their libraries; otherwise, how can they implement something they did not know exists? Furthermore, other studies reported a lack of awareness hindered the implementation of digital transformation technologies such as RDM (Cox, 2019; Tang and Hu, 2019), LMS (Aregbesola et al , 2019; Buwule and Ponelis, 2017; Olatunji et al , 2020) and cloud computing (Meher and Maharana, 2015).…”

“…To remain relevant, they must respond to current trends and anticipate users’ future needs, and at the same time develop innovative initiatives to address those needs. University libraries in the 21st century engage in digital transformation by adopting technological trends, such as implementing innovations in scholarly communication, creating spaces for collaborative and creative learning, increasing attention to research data management (RDM), preservation and curation, promotion and use of mobile technologies and social media, acquisition of electronic resources and integration of ICTs (Anuradha, 2018; Cox, 2019; Ellis et al , 2014; Jain and Akakandelwa, 2016; Hamad et al , 2018). In addition, university libraries have implemented cloud computing technologies making them “greener” (Enefu et al , 2015) and smarter (Wada, 2018), integrated library management systems (ILMS) to enhance operational efficiency by integrating library functions such as acquisition, cataloguing, management, circulation and the online public access catalogue (OPAC) (Komolafe-Opadeji and Ojo, 2019; Ponelis and Adoma, 2018; Aregbesola et al , 2019) and discovery tools (Jantzi et al , 2016; Stukalova and Guskov, 2016).…”