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A review of the trends and issues affecting academic libraries in higher education ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee The ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee is responsible for creating and updating a continuous and dynamic environmental scan for the association that encompasses trends in academic librarianship, higher education, and the broader environment. These top trends include:   Communicating value Academic libraries must prove the value they provide to the academic enterprise. Librarians must be able to convert the general feelings of goodwill towards the library to effective communication to all stakeholders that clearly articulate its value to the academic community Data curation Data curation challenges are increasing as standards for all types of data continue to evolve; more repositories, many of them cloud-based, will emerge; librarians and other information workers will collaborate with their research communities to facilitate t...

Making all the UK's publicly funded scientific research free for anyone to read could cost up to £60m per year, according to an independent study commissioned by the government. Professor Dame Janet Finch, who led the work, said "open access" was the future for academic publishing and that the short-term transition costs she had identified should reduce over time as more articles became freely available and the journal subscription costs currently paid by university libraries fell. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jun/19/open-access-academic-publishing-finch-report

An index, after all, is not a list or an outline or a concordance. in its highest incarnation, it is more like a map or tree showing the looping and scattered relationships of topics and subtopics throughout a book. The elegance and complexity of the best indexes require a level of thought and nuance and creative judgment that so far software has not been able to achieve. http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/05/01/book-indexing-part-1-is-a-computer-the-right-person-for-the-job/ Part 2- http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/05/09/book-indexing-part-2-infinite-loops-and-easter-eggs/ Part 3 -  http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/05/14/book-indexing-part-3-tips-for-do-it-yourselfers/

Darien Library, CT, launched a new Espresso Book Machine (EBM), which can print and create a bound book in a matter of minutes. The machines, manufactured by New York City-based On demand Books, have been installed in about a dozen bookstores and two academic libraries in the United States (at the University of Michigan and the University of Utah). Another library-specific use of the EBM would be to provide an alternative to interlibrary loan (ILL), in cases where printing a book is a more economical option. http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2011/11/publishing/espresso-print-on-demand-book-machines-making-inroads-at-public-libraries/  

When faculty (including librarians) embark on a new career at a college or university, they are filled with enthusiasm, expectations, challenges and – perhaps most markedly – unknowns. Institutions aim to smooth the transition for new faculty, offering orientation sessions and development seminars. Librarians have dual roles in this process, like we do in many things. As information professionals, we need to take an active role in helping to develop teachers. As instructors and facilitators of learning, we need to focus on our own enrichment.     Julia Watson   http://www.informedlibrarian.com/guestForum.cfm?FILE=gf1301.html