Transdisciplinarity Revealed: What Librarians Need to Know

An invaluable book on the emergent field of transdisciplinarity that explains how it applies to library service and collections conceptually and identifies practical strategies for supporting transdisciplinary research conducted by faculty and students. Transdisciplinarity Revealed: What Librarians Need to Know supplies pragmatic advice for academic librarians on working with faculty and students to promote the skills necessary for successful transdisciplinary research. It shows how to overcome the obstacles created by the ways that libraries have traditionally organized information in subject silos, offering librarians conceptual and practical guidance on transdisciplinarity. This information will enable them to support research that transcends disciplinary limits to help researchers answer the complex questions of our world today. Part I provides an overview of the emergent field of transdisciplinarity that introduces readers to all key concepts and issues. Part II explains how transdisciplinarity applies to library services and collections, explores new strategies for supporting transdisciplinary research conducted by faculty and students, and describes how librarians can better address the unique challenges of working in the transdisciplinary research environment. Readers will come away with a full understanding of the distinctions between the four modes of knowledge production—disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinarity—and apply this knowledge to benefit their patrons' research efforts.