Many think of libraries as quiet book archives from another era. In reality, their role in higher education has never been more vital.
In a world where students move seamlessly between screens and study spaces, libraries provide an anchor. More than collections, they serve as curators of knowledge, connectors across disciplines, and trusted guides for students and faculty.
Librarians took center stage in two recent JoVE webinars, with speakers including Andrea Anderson (University of Iowa) and Barbara Rockenbach (Yale University). Our speakers highlighted the same point: today, libraries are adapting faster than ever, taking on broader roles to meet new, evolving academic needs.
Their insights offer a window into how libraries are redefining their mission. By balancing digital and physical tools and expanding their reach into areas like media and AI literacy, librarians are strengthening how students and faculty learn, research, and connect.
Supporting Students in a World of Endless Information
Students raised in a tech-first world arrive with confidence online, but often have uneven research habits. As Andrea noted, source recognition is a real hurdle: “Most students in my classes do tend to struggle to distinguish between source types, because everything kind of looks the same when it’s in a digital format.”
Librarians provide structure to the flow of online information, showing how credibility, context, and method differ across journals, news, databases, and so on.
At The University of Iowa, The Perch is a curated reading space with newspapers, magazines, and journals designed to give students hands-on practice recognizing different information formats. This physical interaction slows students down and encourages comparison and reflection. When these students later move into online research training, they can build on what they’ve learned in print and develop stronger digital practices.
Combining Physical and Digital with Intention
At Yale, even as most reading now takes place online, students still come to the library for community, expertise, and proximity to collections. That balance has led to a number of practical changes that Barbara outlined in her session.
Signage and maps have been simplified, and help desks made more visible so students can navigate easily. Study spaces now range from quiet areas to collaborative rooms and video call-friendly booths, reflecting diverse ways of working. Librarians and staff are located in glass-front offices where they are approachable, with quick referrals to subject experts. Finally, print is emphasized for discovery and deep reading, while digital access supports teaching, sharing, and remote use.
Together, these changes show how physical and digital services can complement each other when libraries make their spaces welcoming, their staff visible, and their resources easy to use.
Librarians as Literacy Guides
Information literacy remains core, but it now sits alongside media, data, digital, and AI literacies. Andrea’s team extends their reach by meeting students where they already spend their time. That means designing first-year seminars around real-world issues, using short “flash lectures” to keep attention focused, and building assignments that draw on platforms students already know—such as videos, podcasts, and social media. By connecting instruction to familiar formats, librarians make abstract skills concrete and immediately relevant.
Andrea also tackles everyday concerns through workshops on data privacy. By adapting open-licensed resources from other libraries, her team reduces prep time while tailoring content to familiar student experiences, including social media, dating apps, and wearable tech.
AI is approached in the same pragmatic way: not as a shortcut or replacement for critical thinking, but as a teaching opportunity. Using campus-approved tools, Andrea shows how students can generate keywords, map subtopics, and explore angles on unfamiliar subjects. But every activity returns to librarian expertise: checking credibility, providing context, and showing where human judgement counts most.
How JoVE Supports Libraries
Libraries connect students to resources like JoVE videos, which include animations and practical demonstrations that meet student expectations for intuitive, multimedia learning. These materials don’t replace librarian expertise, but expand the range of formats available to faculty and students, supporting clearer understanding in teaching, training, and research in today’s digital landscape.
Beyond resources, JoVE invests in its librarian partners through regular newsletters with updates and initiatives, and global webinars that share new perspectives.
JoVE also works closely with its Library Advisory Board, made up of librarians from universities, colleges, hospitals, and government agencies. The group offers guidance on how resources can better serve subscribers, helping ensure that library needs directly shape ongoing improvements.
✨ The Lunch & Learn Initiative
JoVE has launched an ongoing series of Lunch & Learn sessions for librarians in different cities around the world. These small gatherings, hosted by local team members, create spaces for open conversation.
The focus is on what’s working on each campus, where support is most needed, and how JoVE can collaborate with librarians on instruction, discovery, and access. They’re also a chance to share updates, hear directly from peers, and strengthen networks across institutions.
🎬 In the Works
Alongside these exchanges, new resources are taking shape! An Information Literacy video series is currently in production, directly informed by input from librarians to address emerging needs in teaching and research.
Practical Takeaways for Librarians
Here are some concrete ways librarians can put the ideas from our recent webinars into action:
- 📌 Use students’ language: Swap out jargon like “Boolean operators” for the terms they actually see on screens (e.g., “AND/OR/NOT”). This makes sessions feel more accessible.
- 📌 Integrate familiar tools: Instead of asking learners to put phones away, use them for quick polls or interactive activities.
- 📌 Meet students where they are: Design workshops around real-life issues that resonate, such as online identity or data privacy.
- 📌 Make staff approachable: Smart design choices, like glass-front offices, help students feel less intimidated and more comfortable seeking help.
- 📌 Support diverse study styles: Provide a balance of quiet spaces, collaborative zones, and online areas so learners can choose environments that fit their work and preference.
JoVE supports these efforts by equipping librarians with video-based resources and practical insights to share with faculty, students, and researchers, broadening the tools available for teaching and discovery.
Final Thoughts
Academic libraries are proving that their value lies not in the past, but in how they adapt. As Andrea and Barbara have demonstrated, librarians who balance digital and physical strengths, build relationships, and meet students on their own terms remain indispensable to higher education.
The next step is to keep these conversations going by sharing practices, exchanging feedback, and shaping services together to support academic communities.