The Future Role of the Academic Liaison Librarian: A Literature Review

Abstract

Students continue to seek quick answers and instant gratification in their information searching. Google and other search engines are a natural solution. Now Google Scholar aids the possible demise of systematic searching of specific “library” databases. Federated searching via metasearch engines as a library solution often appears cumbersome and unsatisfactory. Librarians need to embrace all the new searching methods, assisting the development of Google Scholar and promoting it alongside subject databases and federated searching at the appropriate level. This paper concludes with the challenges posed to the way librarians teach information literacy today.