Learning environment points to educator role for librarians.(Developing the New Learning Environment: The Changing Role of the Academic Librarian)(Book review)

Byline: Kim Thomas

Learning environment points to educator role for librarians

' book review

The job of the academic librarian is not what it was. The growth of the Internet, the development of electronic databases and the move towards mass higher education have all created a new set of demands for the modern librarian.

This book, Developing the New Learning Environment: the changing role of the academic librarian, includes contributions from academics, librarians and e-learning specialists, and looks at some of the challenges the new learning environment brings.

These are wide-ranging. In a chapter called 'Literacies and learning', Dorothy Williams of the Aberdeen Business School stresses the need to develop new pedagogical approaches that encourage learners to engage more critically with information sources. In Williams' view, the librarian's role is becoming closer to that of an educator, who can help learners evaluate information as well as find it. In 'The inclusion agenda and its impact on practice', Sconul members Joan Chapman, Gail McFarlane and Stuart Macwilliam look at the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act and other policy initiatives, and use case studies to show how librarians can support disabled learners more effectively.

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