Research Guides: ASD's Scholar Support Desk Handbook: What is Access Services?

Access Services - Learning More

Defining Access Services
Literature, Conferences, & Organizations

What is Access Services?

Within the scholarship and research of academic librarianship, that particular department and set of associated functions known as "Access Services" often proves difficult to define. However, here are a few helpful quotes.

“Access Services develops and provides services that connect library users to library resources. Access Services is the primary point of contact for library users. It strives to make the library user’s experience positive and rewarding.”

A Framework for Access Services Librarianship: An Initiative Sponsored by the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Access Services Interest Group

“Access Services is the administrative umbrella found in academic libraries where the circulation, reserves, interlibrary loan, stack maintenance, and related functions typically reside. Access services functions are central to the daily operations of the academic library...Access services is a sum of many disparate parts, and its encompassed operations impact every user of the academic library.”

Krasulski, M. J., & Dawes, T. A. (2013). 21st Century Access Services On The Frontline Of Academic Librarianship . Association Of College And Research Libraries, A Division Of The American Library Association.

Access Services at FSU Libraries

At FSU Libraries, this institutional role falls to Access Services & Delivery, which consists of three major components:

Service Desks / Circulation

Collections Access

Library Express Delivery

These teams over see our robust suite of retrieval, delivery, and reserves services which include:

Library Materials Request

Curbside Pick-Up

Library Express Delivery

Course Reserves

Study Spaces

Loanable Technology

Literature

ACRL Framework for Access Services Librarianship

This framework is a culmination of a three-year effort by Access Services professionals across the United States to define and describe a framework for Access Services librarianship.

Journal of Access Services

The only peer reviewed academic journal dedicated to Access Services

Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserves

Dedicated to the research and scholarship of resource sharing in academic libraries

Twenty-First-Century Access Services: On the Front Line of Academic Librarianship

A crucial book in the study of Access Services.

Conferences

Access Services Conference

The nation's only Access Services focused academic conference. Hosted by Access Services in Libraries Incorporated every year in Atlanta, Georgia.

Professional Organizations

ACRL Access Services Special Interest Group

Discussion Lists

Lib-CircPlus

A national list-serv dedicated to questions and conversations concerning access services in academic libraries

Selected Reading & Presentations

ASD Presentations at the Panhandle Academic Library Conference

2021 - Access Services in Response to Covid-19

2020 - Finding a Counter Rhetoric

Slides
Notes
Ideology and Rhetoric of Undergraduate Students Workers in Academic Libraries - article discussed throughout the presentation

ACRL Access Services Interest Group: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism in Access Services

Presented on 2/25/21
A discussion on how to identify methods for continuing education/professional development in equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism in library work - Identify methods for outreach in equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism within university communities that can be led by library workers - Understand how to assess equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism programs and policies implemented in libraries.