Challenging the “Jacks of All Trades but Masters of None” Librarian Syndrome

Dr. George Fowler earned his PhD in higher education at Old Dominion University and his MS in library science at the University of North Texas. He was a member of the 2012 UCLA Senior Fellows cohort and is currently the University Librarian at Old Dominion University. Samantha Hines got her MS in library science from University of Illinois in 2003 and has worked in a variety of libraries. She is the Associate Dean of Instructional Resources for Peninsula College in Port Angeles, WA. She is a prolific scholar and frequent conference presenter on issues of library instruction, copyright and publishing, and library management.

• 1. “Vital Assets”: Libraries as Partners in Community Development; Julie Biando Edwards 2. Inside-Out Library Services; Julie Biando Edwards 3. Where the Users Are: Reconsidering Information Provision Through Roving Models of Service; Matthew R. Griffis 4. The New "Jack of All": The Evolution of the Functionality and Focus of the Academic Librarian in New Spaces and New Roles; Lynn A. Sheehan, Elizabeth A. Martin 5. Responding to Change: Reinventing Librarian Identities in the Age of Research Mandates; Ann Glusker, Nina Exner 6. Academic Librarian and Practitioner Collaborative Research Model: A Diagrammatic Metaphor; Amy Hatfield Hart 7. "Other Duties as Assigned”: Academic Librarians’ Perceptions of the Impact of Instructional Tasks; David Brennan, M. Elizabeth Davidson 8. The Role of Public Librarians in Supporting Physical Activity; Noah Lenstra

US librarians challenge the modern tradition of status-quo librarianship, some scanning their topic and others diving deep. Looking mostly at academic and public libraries, they consider such aspects as vital assets: libraries as partners in community development, the new Jack of All: the evolution of the functionality and focus of the academic librarian in new spaces and new roles, responding to change: reinventing librarian identities in the age of research mandates, and the role of public librarians in supporting physical activity.