Changing the Scope of Library Instruction in the Digital Age

The current digital age is impacting the contents and delivery of instructional service in many ways. Instructional sessions not only describe various features of a resource, but these sessions also bring issues like the ethical use of information, copyrights, and the value of open knowledge to light. Librarians are required to help users to learn use these tools. Changing the Scope of Library Instruction in the Digital Age provides emerging information on data visualization tools, creating effective instructions, and instructional design in library sciences. While highlighting the challenges of effectively training new and seasoned librarians in these various aspects of data technology and teaching methods, readers will learn the importance of giving librarians the tools they need to complete their new responsibilities. This book is an important resource for entry level and seasoned librarians, researchers, and instructional design specialists seeking current research on up to date library instruction in the modern technology age.

Swati Bhattacharyya earned her doctoral degree from the School of Information Studies, Syracuse University, USA. She has been a practicing librarian for more than thirty years in libraries of different subject domains. Her workplaces include libraries of a large industrial organization and government research laboratory in the area of metallurgy, both from India. She was the librarian at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIMC), India during 1994 – 2016. Under her leadership, the library of IIMC has undergone a massive transformation and is now a complete hybrid library. Currently, she is the Business Librarian at the University of California Riverside, USA. Dr. Bhattacharyya was a recipient of the Fulbright award in 1991 and a British Council Visitorship award in 1992. She represented India at the Indo-US Workshop on Open Digital Libraries and Interoperability, Ballston, VA, USA, June 22-25, 2003. During her Ph.D. study at Syracuse University, she was installed as a member of Alpha Sigma chapter of Phi Beta Delta (Honor Society for International Scholars) in 2007, and received The Student of Promise Fund scholarship of the school in 2013. Dr. Bhattacharyya received Emerald Research Fund – Indian LIS Category award for 2009 and secured the third position in the international paper contest conducted by American Society for Information Science & Technology in 2011. She has several publications to her credit, and has spoken extensively within India on various issues. She takes a keen interest in understanding the relationship between Information Technology and users as well as practicing librarians. This edited volume is the outcome of her attempt to understand various issues that librarians are concerned about in providing library instructions in the current digital and technology-laden environment and to share that understanding with fellow professionals.

K. Rama Patnaik has a Doctoral Degree in Library and Information Science from the Andhra University of Visakhapatnam, India and the Master’s and Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science from Andhra University. Her Thesis on “Marketing of Library and Information Services in Indian Libraries: Present Trends and Future Perspectives” was adjudicated as an excellent thesis by School of Information Science, Michigan University in 2002 She had secured gold medals in both Master’s and Bachelor’s programmes of Library and Information Science. She is with IIMB for more than eight years now and before joining IIM Bangalore, she was with two leading National Law school libraries. Dr Patnaik was a member of Member of “Study Group on Libraries in Higher Education” as part of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission, Chaired by Dr. Kasturi Rangan from 2009-2011 and currently a visiting fellow with Council for Social Development, Southern Regional Centre, Hyderabad. She is regular resource person for all the workshops conducted by Council for Social Development under the aegis of ICSSR (Indian Council of Social Scient Research) for user instruction sessions to faculty and research scholars. She was awarded Emerald LIS Research Fund Award (2000 UK pounds) for best research proposal among South Asian Librarians in 2012 for writing a research proposal titled “Raising the bar for fair use access to electronic resources: Are we signing away our rights? An analysis of license agreements and its impact on role of libraries in management education in India” and Junior Research Fellowship by University Grants Commission India for qualifying national level test NET/JRF for pursuing her Doctoral studies. She has published 14 papers in national and international journals also course writer for INFLIBNET e-pathshala, University of Hyderabad and B R Ambedkar open University Programmes. Her areas of professional interest are Integrating Technology in Information services, current trends in Management of electronic resources, and creating subject profiles using Libguides.