Personal reflection points

• ■ How would I describe my (current or prospective) role as academic teaching librarian to those outside the LIS profession?

• ■ What do I believe it takes to be a successful academic teaching librarian?

• ■ What steps do I think people should take to prepare for an academic teaching librarian position?

• ■ What is stressful or challenging about my role as academic teaching librarian?

• ■ If asked to measure the contribution of academic teaching librarians to student learning and institutional goals, what factors would I choose to show this in a tangible way?

• ■ What (if any) are/were my preconceptions about the work of academic teaching librarians, and how do/did they compare to the reality?

• ■ If asked to recruit an academic teaching librarian for my institution, what are the attributes/skills/experience, etc., that I would look for to differentiate candidates?

• ■ What are my beliefs about how learning happens, and my role in facilitating this?

Introduction: who is the academic teaching librarian?

In the first chapter of this book, we explored the major conceptual, technological and operational shifts that have transformed the professional landscape of the academic teaching librarian in the 21st century, and reflected on what these changes might mean for us as practitioners, regarding how we approach our teaching and engage with our students. Chapter 1 highlighted six current ‘critical issues,’ including the ongoing debate on the evolution of terminology and meaning, and how definitions and models of information and digital literacy have changed over time to reflect more complex, situated and socially constructed frameworks and practices, with a corresponding effect on teaching and learning approaches.