All librarians who work at college libraries have earned a master's degree in library science or in library and information science. Most academic librarians have earned additional graduate degrees and have been professional librarians for many years.
All SUNY Adirondack librarians:
- assist students, faculty and staff at the reference desk for several hours a week, helping them find quality information using books, databases, the Web or other sources;
- participate in college-wide committees and programs;
- consult with faculty and staff on campus-wide projects;
- evaluate and purchase new material. Each librarian is responsible for purchasing material in particular subjects.
Individual librarians specialize in:
- teaching information literacy skills to classes: the SUNY Adirondack Library teaches more than 140 sessions each year to students;
- producing tutorials, worksheets, handouts, research guides and other teaching material for students and faculty;
- writing, editing, continually updating and managing the library's website;
- managing the library's budget;
- purchasing the library's books in specific subject areas for students to use in their research assignments;
- purchasing appropriate databases and multimedia material for faculty to use in classes;
- cataloging the library's material so library users can find items easily in the library's databases;
- answering questions about copyright law;
- offering presentations and workshops for students, faculty and staff;
- working with specialized software to make the library's books and full-text articles accessible to users;
- representing the library at college-wide events;
- managing the library's staff;
- ...and lots more! The tasks are often changing.