Editorial: Library learning for the future: sustaining, reinventing and revitalizing how, when and where librarians support learning

The information, skills and habits that users and students can gain with librarian intervention and partnership support and facilitate lifelong learning. The authors in the current issue described how librarians at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse assessed reference desk interactions based on library program student learning outcomes, rather than a traditional user satisfaction scale, and also illustrated how teaching could and should occur in reference desk interactions, going beyond basic transactions. Both academic and public libraries can support continued learning by providing high-quality information, providing training in various literacies and connecting users with community programs.

Collaborating to Remove Barriers to Success

This article begins with a brief description of access and affordability and their relationship to equity, diversity, and inclusion within the higher education sector today. Because the authors work at a Jesuit Catholic institution, awareness and appreciation of the call to uphold access and affordability at Jesuit institutions are also important. COVID-19 institutional and library impacts are summarized, followed by the identification of pandemic-created opportunities for the library to demonstrate commitment to institutional values and align with institutional and library strategic directions and priorities. Descriptions of initiatives launched in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years to advance access and affordability are provided, accompanied by profiles of campus partnerships that ensured the success and sustainability of these initiatives. Finally, the authors consider the challenges and benefits of constructing and maintaining campus partnerships to improve access and affordability for students and the components of effective campus partnerships.

Editorial: “Emerging” from COVID and moving forward

Focusing on professional development, what strategies have we implemented to support librarians in a changing learning environment? Looking in the rearview mirror, back to March 2020, academic librarians have adjusted how they support students, researchers, faculty and administrators. To our question of how we can better support success in today's complex and demanding learning environment, Kline presents both a clear and urgent rationale for librarians to use systemic methods and an action-oriented approach to better understand their graduate students and provide better supports.

Editorial

Library value during COVID-19 and beyond: shifting, pivoting, and moving forward In June 2020, Christopher Cox, Dean of Libraries at Clemson University, predicted the significant ways academic libraries will shift in terms of collections, services, spaces, and operations as a result of the pandemic. Instead of returning to normal, librarians will be returning to a “new normal” -- one where in-person classes and service interactions may be impossible or no longer preferred, where collections in physical format may be a barrier to access, and where collaborative study is shunned in favor of social distancing in buildings that can only safely house half the people they used to. The pivot to online learning and remote services provided academic, research, and public libraries with myriad opportunities to demonstrate our value to the academy and our communities.

Editorial

Access and service are Garvey’s concerns;her article “Virtual Reference Amid COVID-19 Campus Closure: A Case Study and Assessment” adds to the growing literature on the surge in virtual reference during the COVID-19 period. [...]Zhu is also interested in service design and delivery, inviting readers to join him in reflection on space planning for a Center for Digital Scholarship in China. Looking ahead, at the formidable challenges that remain in front of us, the editors suggest that the advancement of equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism should be embedded as a fundamental component of everything we do, including financial investment, practices, policies, protocols, service design and delivery, culture, advocacy, and leadership.

Editorial

Potential topics relevant to the current crisis include, but are not limited to, inventive provision of both remote and on-site services;remote teaching, learning, and research support;building campus connections and student engagement;creative redeployment of staff and opportunities for growth;innovative technology solutions for remote work;responsive organizational strategies for diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA) and evidence of their impact;supporting faculty and staff work–life balance and mental health;maximizing and managing collections funds during a budget crisis;and library space planning and utilization in an era of physical distancing. Many of our colleagues and peers have developed tools, launched innovative programs, or refocused services to challenge patterns of power and grow equity. Note 1.Here, we riff on J. B. Ruhl’s blog post “Is the 21st century going to be one ginormous long-tail event?” published in the Law 2050 blog, a forum for envisioning the future of law, legal practice, and legal education. https://law2050.com/2014/10/13/is-the-21st-century-going-to-be-one-ginormous-long-tail-event/ (accessed 6 December 2020).