IN DEPTH
Making sense of the social turn in academic libraries
A new model of socially-engaged practice has emerged in higher education. Librarians are joining their professional peers in working differently together to improve access to resources through networks of relationships. Sheila Corrall explains the origins and key features of the relational library model that is taking hold across the globe.
THE social complexion of higher edu- cation has changed radically since the 1990s reflecting trends in our commu- nities, professions and economy. Business and public engagement, widening access and participation, lifelong and lifewide learning, open access to research, crowd- sourcing and citizen science, makerspaces and innovation collaboratories are all exam- ples of third mission activity, along with the “triple bottom line” of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social justice. Alternative terms for such influences include social or community engagement, public or collaborative turn, and digital and embodied activism. The digital shift has dominated the agenda for academic libraries since the onset of Covid-19, but we must also be mindful of the social shifts that continue to gather momentum and need be factored into the debate around library transformation. In 2017, I started collaborating with two American colleagues to chart a course to the social future of academic libraries, exploring frameworks and models to advance thinking and practice for our profession in the network society. Our project has involved conference presentations, journal articles and a mul- ti-authored book, including state-of-the-art surveys, conceptual overviews and real-world case studies1
. Here we share key findings from our research to date along with an initial 40 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Sheila Corrall (
scorrall@cantab.net) is an independent scholar, a retired professor of librarianship and a former university librarian.
sketch of the service model emerging from our investigations, namely Relational Librarianship.
Emerging library practices Library thought leaders have advocated a collab- orative relational style of service since the early 2000s, inspired by practices in other domains, including banking, business and journalism. Examples are personal, blended, embedded and engaged librarianship, which all shift traditional reference/subject librarian roles from reactive to proactive mode via closer working relations with library users. The personal relationship between librarians and users is often cited as a defining fea- ture of librarianship, but “personal librarianship” includes building relationships beyond point-of-
October-November 2023
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