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Faculty status for academic librarians is an issue that has been the subject of much debate in recent decades. The purpose of this paper is to examine the key points raised during this debate, in the hope of achieving a suitable resolution.

This paper begins with an overview of the issue of faculty status for academic librarians from an historical perspective and then continues with a review of literature from the past three decades. The pros and cons of granting faculty status are examined, as well as alternate models, followed by a proposed recommendation.

While there are a number of concerns regarding the value of faculty status for academic librarians, such as disagreement with the basic tenet that librarians are primarily teachers, the weight of the evidence seems to support the granting of faculty status to academic librarians. This status provides academic freedom, recognition of librarians in their role as educators, and financial benefits and job security and is supported by the Association of College and Research Libraries, the Association of American Colleges, and the American Association of University Professors.

While this paper is a review of selected relevant literature, only a small portion of the literature was of an empirical nature. There is a need for more studies which directly measure the impact of faculty status for academic librarians on the librarians themselves and the students, faculty, and institutions they serve.

The paper shows that with faculty status, academic librarians receive the same rights and privileges as other faculty and participate in college or university governance, thereby increasing the integration of the library with the institution.

With a focus on Canada, but framed by similar and shared concerns emerging in the United States, this chapter examines the current status of what constitutes and defines academic freedom for academic librarians and the rights and the protections individual, professional academic librarians have with respect to the freedom of speech and expression of their views in speech and writing within and outside of their institutions. It reviews the historical background of academic freedom and librarianship in Canada, academic freedom language in collective agreements, rights legislation in Canada versus the United States as it pertains to academic librarianship, and rights statements supported by Canadian associations in the library field and associations representing members in postsecondary institutions. The implications of academic librarians using the new communication technologies and social media platforms, such as blogs and networking sites, with respect to academic freedom are examined, as well as, an overview of recent attacks on the academic freedom of academic librarians in the United States and Canada. Included in this analysis are the results of a survey of Canadian academic librarians, which examined attitudes about academic freedom, the external and internal factors which have an impact on academic freedom, and the professional use of new communication technologies and social media platforms.

The paper gives brief background information on the evolution of university education in Ghana since 1948. It then attempts to explain the concept of status and the parameters of academic librarianship. The main objective of this paper was to find out the current status of librarians in Ghanian universities. To achieve this, data were gathered from the three older university libraries in the country through a questionnaire. It was found out that there was no consensus on the status of universities in Ghana. It then gives several suggestions to improve on the academic status of librarians in Ghana.

An account is presented of the struggle for academic status by university librarians in Tanzania. The literature on the academic status of university libraries in Africa is reviewed. The arguments for, and benefits, of, academic status to both librarians and users are discussed in relation to the general African and specifically Tanzanian situation. An assessment is made of the challenges and prospects for the realisation and consolidation of academic status.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the findings from the qualitative strand of the National e‐Book Observatory (2007‐2009) project, relating to the promotion of e‐textbooks in UK universities by the library, academics and publishers. A complementary paper on the ways in which students and academics locate e‐books provided by their library will appear in a future issue.

Following the provision by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK of collections of e‐textbooks, the project used deep log analysis, benchmark surveys and focus groups to develop a rich picture of library e‐collection management and use by students and academics. Focus groups were undertaken with library staff, academics and students; the dialogues were transcribed and analysed using NVivo7 software.

The qualitative studies found that libraries were using a range of promotional tools, although these were not always finding their targets. Often libraries had no formal promotion strategy for e‐resources. Although little in evidence, the value of academic commitment and promotion was emphasised. Promotion by publishers and aggregators is both to libraries and directly to academic staff. Students felt that they were largely unaware of promotion beyond the presence of e‐books in the catalogue, and in some cases stated explicitly that they thought more should be done to promote library e‐resources to them.

The paper offers pragmatic guidance on promotional methodologies.

The project describes the first major, national usage study of e‐books in higher education. The paper contributes significantly to the literature in discussing the importance of promoting e‐books to students and staff.

Many Australian universities have identified information literacy as a required graduate quality. As the scope of resources on which student learning is based expands, the definition of educator is broadening and requires the involvement of a range of non‐academic professional staff in the educational process. Information literacy‐related activities largely define the educative role of the librarian and forge faculty‐librarian partnerships. The paper is based on the premise that collaboration between librarians and other educators is the key to the integration of information literacy within the total educational process. The author draws on both personal experience and that of Australian colleagues to examine the faculty‐librarian relationship, explore the contentious territories of professional credibility and identity, and analyze changes in Australian higher education that impact on the educative role of librarians.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and present a global perspective of digital pedagogies in relation to technology and academic librarians.

The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology was used in this study.

Based on the data, academic librarians must develop a foundational understanding of 21st century pedagogies and digital skills to teach in an online environment.

This review paper considers the emergent teaching role of the academic librarian within the digital environment. The themes in the findings highlight the importance of digital pedagogical knowledge and digital fluency of academic librarians as a teacher within the digital environment in higher education.

This paper aims to present recently published resources on library instruction and information literacy providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations, reports and other materials on library instruction and information literacy published in 2018.

The paper provides a brief description of all 422 sources, and highlights sources that contain unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and anyone interested as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and emphasize the impact of academic computer game studies programs on library services and collections.

A review of the literature related to the relationship between gamers, game studies, and libraries, precedes discussion of the background of academic computer game studies programs. The potential challenges and opportunities concerning collection development, information literacy instruction, and reference within academic libraries are addressed along with highlights of emerging best practices.

The paper provides analysis of game studies as an emerging academic discipline and of the scholarly communication within this field. It also highlights emerging practices within academic librarians serving students and faculty in this field.

Because game studies is a new discipline, best practices to meet users' needs are just beginning to be established for academic libraries. Further research is needed in the area of information‐seeking behavior, perception of game studies' students and faculty, and their information literacy skills.

This is an opportunity for librarians who serve students and faculty in game studies to learn about the history of this discipline and what several academic librarians are currently doing to meet their needs in collection development, information literacy instruction, and reference services.

While discussing the history of game studies as an academic program, the paper also highlights the issues related to library services and collections for the emerging academic discipline of game studies in an effort to support academic librarians who work with game studies students and faculty.

The purpose of this viewpoint paper is to consider how academic reference librarians might be guided by non‐academic librarians as their roles shift and/or expand in a many different directions.

Connections between the work of academic reference librarians and the work of public, special, school, law and medical librarians are drawn. Areas where expertise can be garnered are identified.

Several relevant areas of expertise from non‐academic library fields are identified as being potentially useful to academic reference librarians, depending on the priorities of their individual institutions. As an example, the public library “service response” framework is applied to the academic library setting.

As academic reference librarians are being asked to take on a wider range of roles on their campuses, this paper offers a possible framework for professional development.

The future of academic reference librarians has not been viewed in the light of adopting expertise from colleagues in other types of libraries on such a broad scale, and with a view to creating a suite of services best suited to individual environments.