The traditional role of academic research libraries has always been to compile, organize, archive, and preserve books and journals to enable users to access them when they need to. This role has evolved over the past few decades, but never faster than it has with the Digital Era.

Once set up as a means of a collection of literature, the research library now includes multimedia formats of data and has become the go-to place for researchers in need of knowledge. Because of the importance of the academic research library, it is being used to strategically advance institutional goals.

Serving Students and Faculty Members

Prior to recent decades, the research library was a source of information and stability that stayed relatively consistent on an annual basis. It was a place to serve students and faculty members who needed a quiet area to head to in order to complete their work, access knowledge for their courses, and study in a calm environment.

Those in need of resources knew how to head into the library and access its archives of indexes, journals, and printed collections of knowledge. And if help was needed, the librarians were always available to aid in choosing the right book, cataloging everything accessibly, and ensuring that the environment stayed quiet and the works in their care stayed preserved.

Today’s technology has required that the role of both the librarian and the library evolve into innovative jobs. Students and faculty are still able to be served, but the ways in which this occurs have morphed into a hybrid of both digital and print resources, requiring changes to the academic library that must be addressed.

The Evolution of the Research Library and Librarian Roles

The need for a constant, stable environment remains, so libraries still must maintain that safe space component. But this has been met with a shift in the core day-to-day components of running a research facility in an academic institution.

To help advance the institution’s goals of continually improving the quality of education students receive and the innovative research that comes out of the university itself, the research library and librarian roles have evolved.

To that end, stakeholders have given academic research libraries the ability to redirect their priorities to become technologically current. Funds have been allocated to allow librarians to redesign how the learning and research spaces are set up, improve access to fast wireless accessibility, and increase program licenses so that all students who require access to specific licensed information can obtain it.

Librarians no longer must choose only from periodicals and scholastic journals in print, but they also need to stay up-to-date with online publishers, too, particularly in order to guide students in narrowing down their selection of resources to relevant information.

Librarians also have become instructors, teaching students and faculty content such as which electronic resources are available to them, how to access that information specifically in the library environment, and working with scholars to aid them in research that can help the institutions meet their goals.

Better Instruction Results in Advanced Goals

The top research universities in the nation understand that in order for them to continually meet and exceed their goals, the quality of their instruction must always be improving. This requires them to ensure that all areas of education are addressed, from top-performing instructors to the most innovative equipment - including resource books - available for access by researchers.

As an integral part of any high-performing institution, the research library works in tandem with students and faculty to help turn individuals into innovators of science and technology, healthcare, and citizenship. Through the institution’s academic plan, there are directions that are focused on, but no matter which area becomes the main mission of a university, the academic research library continues to be an integral component to meeting and advancing those institutional goals.

Using Impactio to Advance Your Own Goals

As a connected member of your university, you probably want to work towards the overall mission of the institution, but you also want to advance your own goals. Impactio can help you do both of these at the same time.

Impactio is an all-in-one platform designed with research experts in mind, so it takes away the stress of finding a program that takes you from start to publication and beyond with your work. Easily insert your profile information into premade templates, turn your citation and publication numbers into charts, graphs, and tables, and finalize your work with professional PDF documents and web pages ready for publication!

When it comes to advancing goals, partnering with Impactio lets you insert your information to get it out to your readers quickly so you can get back to doing the research that makes an impact on society.