Twenty-First-Century Access Services : On the Front Line of Academic Librarianship (Second edition)

Access services is the administrative umbrella typically found in academic libraries where the circulation, reserves, interlibrary loan, stacks maintenance, and related functions reside.

These functions are central to daily operations and the staff are often seen as “the face” of the library.

But while access services impact every user of the academic library, these functions can be unseen and often go unnoticed and uncelebrated.    This thoroughly revised edition of 2013’s seminal Twenty-First-Century Access Services highlights the expanded duties of these departments; the roles these services continue to play in the success of the library, students, and faculty; and the knowledge, skills, and abilities these library workers need.

In four parts it explores: Facilitating Access Leading Access Services Assessing Access Services Developing Access Services Professionals  Chapters take in-depth looks at functions including circulation, stacks management, resource sharing, course reserve management and controlled digital lending, user experience, and assessing and benchmarking access services.

The book also contains the full text of ACRL’s new A Framework for Access Services Librarianship: An Initiative Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Access Services Interest Group and a look at how it was developed and approved.  Twenty-First-Century Access Services demonstrates access services’ value, defines their responsibilities and necessary skills, and explores how access services departments are evolving new and traditional services to support the academic mission of their institutions.

It is geared toward both access services practitioners and library and information science graduate students and faculty.