21st Century Access Services: On the Front Line of Academic Librarianship

Abstract

Access services departments in our academic libraries are literally and metaphorically at the front line of 21st century academic librarianship and in both tangible and intangible ways these departments, with their circulation desk roots, are making great strides to facilitate access in an ever changing higher education landscape. The co-editors will highlight the expanded roles of access services departments and discuss the role these services will continue to play in the success of the library, as well as place these services in the context of supporting the academic mission of the institutions of which the libraries are a part. They will demonstrate how this work is aimed at both access services practitioners and library and information science graduate students and faculty, who may be interested in learning more about access services operations.