Article Note: On 2020 Top Trends in Academic Libraries

This article is a summary of what the ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee considered to be "top trends" for 2020 for academic libraries. It was looking at the two previous years. Keep in mind this was written before COVID-19 hit. Still some things still apply in the COVID-19 era. This article can be a refresher or an update tool for librarians who may not have kept up on these topics. 

Some things I took away from the article: 

• Change management was a trend. At the time they emphasized a "need for preparing a workforce for uncertainty and ambiguity." Given the COVID-19 era, that is quite an understatement now. Library administrators need to be working on this and doing their best to help their workforce function and be trained to work in these uncertain times. 
• Learning analytics was a trend, and it has become yet another buzzword in academic libraries. The idea is to collect student learning data related to library use in order to understand students better. The idea, supposedly, is to then learn from that date to serve students better and of course, the ever popular making sure the stakeholders know our value. However, "many academic librarians are growing every more skeptical of the value of LA, especially as their use relates to student privacy, student agency, library ethics, and student trust in libraries as institutions." To be honest, when it comes to LA, student privacy and other concerns are rarely if ever considered nor mentioned as we send out yet another survey or assessment tool to collect yet more data. 
• Something to add to information literacy instruction: ". . .libraries should 'consider using information literacy instruction as a vector to introduce algorithmic concept and their ethical implications." 
• Social justice, critical librarianship, and critical digital pedagogy were identified as a trend. These are just a continuation as these have been around for more than two years now. 
• Definition of critical librarianship: "'Critical librarianship acknowledges then interrogates the structures that produce us as librarians, our spaces as libraries, our patrons as students, faculty, and the public.' It is grounded in 'a librarianship that. . . disrupt[s] the status quo, that center[s] a commitment to social justice and social change, . . . and that grapple[s] directly with the problems of power concentrated in the hands of only a few.'"
• As often the case, things like this have good ideals can often become too much theory and not enough practice. The movement as been criticized "for being inaccessible, exclusionary, elitist, and disconnected from the practice of librarianship." Criticizing critical librarianship is certainly not something popular nor something seen very often. 
• Streaming media was a trend, and it has become a bigger trend in the COVID-19 era as professors scramble to put as much of it as they can in their courses, which for the libraries often means scrambling to find content, help the faculty put it up in their online classes, and making sure copyrights are not violated, something that faculty rarely care about when they do things like streaming stuff they get off Netflix. "With increasing support for online and hybrid courses, as well as flipped classroom pedagogy, the appeal and desirability of streaming content is clear." More so in the COVID-19 era. 
• Student wellbeing is identified as a trend. Like what? We did not care about students before? Anyhow, stories about students struggling in the COVID-19 era have been on the rise, so naturally colleges and libraries doing stuff, or at least giving good lip service, on student wellbeing has been on the rise as well. Wellbeing is one of those keywords you hear when concerns arise about things like retention and success. 
• Again, keep in mind, this was written before COVID-19: "As a result, institutions are increasingly looking at supporting students holistically and promoting student wellbeing as possible contributors to their success and retention. Libraries are well-positioned to help, due to their central locations, longer operating hours, and perception as a safe space, with some stressing the importance of collaborating with campus partners, social service agencies, and professionals." 
• Things like longer operating hours are not the case in many libraries, including hours. During an academic term, we went down from opening until midnight to closing at 9p. Decreased traffic in the library meant we could not justify later hours. Much of our services also went virtual, and so have other campus services.
  

 

Citation for the article: ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee, "2020 Top Trends in Academic Libraries: a Review of the Trends and Issues Affecting Academic Libraries in Higher Education." College & Research Libraries, 81.6 (2020). (Link to article: https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/24478/32315). 

Some items from the Notes I would like to look over later: 

• Mary Lee Kennedy, “Research Libraries as Catalytic Leaders in a Society in Constant Flux: A Report of the ARL-CNI Fall Forum 2019” (Association of Research Libraries and Coalition for Networked Information, January 2020): 18, https://doi.org/10.29242/report.fallforum2019.
• Gwen Evans and Roger C. Shonfeld, “It’s Not What Libraries Hold; It’s Who Libraries Serve: Seeking a User-Centered Future for Academic Libraries,” January 23, 2020, https://sr.ithaka.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/OhioLINK_ILSUserCenteredFuture_1.23.20.pdf.
• April Hathcock, “Learning Agency, Not Analytics,” At The Intersection, January 24, 2018, https://aprilhathcock.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/learning-agency-not-analytics/.
• Kyle M. L. Jones, “‘Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should’: Practitioner Perceptions of Learning Analytics Ethics,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 19, no. 3 (July 2019): 408, https://doi.org/10.1353/pla.2019.0025.
• Emily Drabinski, “What Is Critical about Critical Librarianship?” Art Libraries Journal 44, no. 2 (April 2019): 49.
• Davin Helkenberg et al., “Education for the Common Good: A Student Perspective on Including Social Justice in LIS Education,” Journal of Education for Library and Information Science 59, no. 4 (October 1, 2018): 270.
  
•  Nicole A. Branch, “Illuminating Social Justice in the Framework: Transformative Methodology, Concept Mapping, and Learning Outcomes Development for Critical Information Literacy,” Communications in Information Literacy 13, no. 1 (March 2019): 4–22.
• Karen P. Nicholson and Maura Seale, eds., The Politics of Theory and the Practice of Critical Librarianship (Sacramento, CA: Library Juice Press, 2018).
• Mary J. Wise, “Naps and Sleep Deprivation: Why Academic Libraries Should Consider Adding Nap Stations to Their Services for Students,” New Review of Academic Librarianship 24, no. 2 (April 3, 2018).
• Ian Godfrey et al., “Supporting Student Retention and Success: Including Family Areas in an Academic Library,” portal: Libraries and the Academy 17, no. 2 (2017).
• Samantha G Hines, “Connecting Individuals with Social Services: The Academic Library’s Role,” Collaborative Librarianship 9, no. 2 (2017).
• Elizabeth Ramsey and Mary C. Aagard, “Academic Libraries as Active Contributors to Student Wellness,” College & Undergraduate Libraries 25, no. 4 (October 2, 2018): 328–34.