Essentials of STEM Librarianship

Foreword by Carol Tenopir Amid overall falling enrollment figures for higher education, the growing success of STEM programs bucks the trend. Ensuring that these programs flourish has become a priority for administrators at the provost level and above. But this emphasis on STEM poses challenges for academic libraries, many of which have instead historically focused on the humanities and social sciences. This primer helps to fill that knowledge gap, demystifying the scientific teaching and research processes for LIS students and current academic librarians alike. Regardless of their background or level of experience, readers of this guide will gain an overview of the contemporary STEM teaching and research enterprise by learning about the roles and needs of STEM community members such as program administrators, tenure track principal investigators (PIs), non-tenure track teaching faculty, research staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students; become familiarized with the “research group,” the organizational structure through which these different personas come together to advance the university research enterprise; get pointers on building teaching and learning programs that enhance student success and designing research support services that integrate into STEM researchers' actual workflows; receive proven outreach strategies for engaging STEM communities; learn approaches for incorporating AI (artificial intelligence) and LLMs (large language models) into information literacy programs for scientists and engineers; and discover how library leaders can support both nascent and established STEM librarians to advance STEM education and research at their local institutions. Read more