Learning to Stop Worrying and Love the Library

• Type of Material: Book Chapter
• Authors: Jennifer Townes, Emory University; Jolene Cole, University of North Carolina School of the Arts
• Language: English
• Date: 2025-09-01
• Publisher: ACRL
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © The Authors
• License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Making Values-Based Decisions in the Academic Library
• ISBN: 979-8-89255-593-7
• Start Page: 37
• End Page: 51
• Place of Publication or Presentation: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Keywords: metrics, institutional culture, academic libraries, Covid-19
• Subject - Topics: COVID-19 Pandemic, 2020-2023; Academic libraries
• Research Categories: Library science

Abstract

In this chapter, we will explore what it means to turn away from “the way it’s always been done” and reassess challenges of the traditional “one-shot” session. Brought to a crisis point by the Covid-19 pandemic, librarians analyzed available metrics, institutional culture, and current research on critical librarianship to address librarian burnout. The findings not only led to a change in the instruction model, but also to a complete reinvention of a college information literacy program. Key issues addressed are limited ability to affect change within a deeply entrenched culture, institutional priorities that conflict with the needs of librarians, and the power imbalance between students and faculty in terms of student learning outcomes. Overall, centering students and empowering librarians to work from the margins seems to have decreased feelings of powerlessness and burnout among librarians.