Academic Librarianship: A Crisis or an Opportunity?

摘要

“Academic Librarianship: A Crisis or an Opportunity?" was a one day symposium held atnthe University of Toronto on November 18, 2011. The symposium provided a forum fornstakeholders to consider recent troubling events and developments in the academicnlibrary community. The hiring of postdoctoral fellows at McMaster University to replacenlibrarians, the strike by professional librarians at University of Western Ontario in 2011nand threats to the academic freedom of librarians at McGill University have all served asnbellwethers and have been rich topics for debate of late. The symposium was intendednto provide an opportunity to bring more coherence to the discourse and to considernfurther initiatives, increased activism, and to begin a process for providing greaternleadership around issues relating to academic librarians and academic librarianship.nThe day was organized around a series of panels. A number of key stakeholders spokento specific themes: 1) the role of national and provincial labour organizations and localnfaculty associations; 2) trends and challenges in education and curriculum at librarynschools; 3) the role of library associations and professional accreditation; and 4)nlibrarians on the front lines. The symposium emerged with a clear call to action: that it isntime to become more pro-active in a collective manner, and to use the tremendousninterest generated by this event as an opportunity to seek solutions to the challengesnfacing academic librarianship in Canada. There was overwhelming support for thencreation of a virtual forum to continue the discourse and to bring in those who areninterested and willing to become engaged but who were unable to participate in thensymposium.