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Going Boldly Beyond the Reference Desk: Practical Advice and Learning Plans for New Reference Librarians Performing Liaison Work
PERSPECTIVES ON... ! Going Boldly Beyond the Reference Desk: Practical Advice and Learning Plans for New Reference Librarians Performing Liaison Work by Richard A. Stoddart, Thedis W. Bryant, Amia L. Baker, Adrienne Lee, and Brett Spencer Available online 16 June 2006
Our article provides new reference librarians with practical recommendations and learning plans so that they can succeed as liaisons. Drawing from our experiences as new librarians, we explain how to practice continual learning, stay on top of the constantly changing environment of a liaison, pilot different techniques, and assess liaison work.
Richard A. Stoddart is Reference Librarian/Government Information Coordinator, James Earl Carter Library, Georgia Southwestern State University, 800 Wheatley St., Americus, GA 31709-4693, USA [email protected]; Thedis W. Bryant is Collection Development and Acquisitions Librarian, James Pendergrast Memorial Library, Albany State University, 504 College Drive, Albany, Georgia 31705, USA [email protected]; Amia L. Baker is Reference and Collection Development Coordinator, Walker Management Library, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA [email protected]; Adrienne Lee is Information Services Librarian, Cook Library, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive #5053, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA [email protected]; Brett Spencer is Reference Librarian, Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, University of Alabama, Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0266, USA [email protected].
The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 32, Number 4, pages 419–427
pon launching their careers in academic libraries, many new professionals look forward to serving patrons at a reference desk, a recognizable service and fairly comfortable venue for most librarians. However, many new librarians may feel uneasy or nervous when they find out that they must also serve as a subject liaison to one or more academic departments on campus. The role and duties that a librarian has as a subject liaison may differ greatly from one institution to the next. In general, however, liaisons are assigned to extend and promote the library’s services to a particular department or group on campus. This demanding role may involve crafting a variety of library services— collection development, bibliographic instruction, research consultations, and Web pages—into a customized package for the students and faculty of a department. Serving as a library liaison thus offers an opportunity to truly meet the unique needs of a definable group of patrons. As other authors have noted, this service ‘‘if effective, is probably the single most worthwhile activity that a subject librarian can engage in.’’1 Yet, it also poses a great challenge for beginners just coming out of library school. Many new reference librarians have studied database searching, reference interviewing, and even collection development, but most schools do not offer a course specifically on the subject of liaison work. As new librarians ourselves, we would therefore like to provide new librarians with practical guidelines and learning plans so that they can succeed in their liaison missions.
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‘‘...new librarians may feel uneasy or nervous when they find out that they must also serve as a subject liaison to one or more academic departments on campus.’’ The Reference and User Services’ Association (RUSA) has created a statement, ‘‘Guidelines for Liaison Work in Managing
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Collections and Services,’’ that outlines the general expectations of liaison work and calls upon librarians to perform outreach. These Guidelines sketch the broad contours of a liaison system and suggest a few approaches for outreach activities, but the exact details of liaison programs are left to each individual library. One part of the Guidelines asks libraries to help support and train liaisons: Institutional support should develop or enhance the liaisons’ knowledge and skills via continuing education, in-service training, mentoring arrangements with senior selectors, letters of introduction to target audiences, formal and informal gatherings, official documents (policies, procedures, organizational charts), release time for developing liaison relationships with external groups, orientation to related operations (including fiscal and technical services, provision of professional literature and access to electronic support groups).2
RUSA thus calls for strong administrative support for the efforts of individual liaisons, and many libraries have broad mandates for liaisons in their mission statements. However, new librarians may find that they do not receive specific guidance when it comes to getting a handle on outreach. In our experience, we have found that many training or orientation programs at academic libraries lack modules about liaison duties (with the exception of basic collection development tasks like ordering a book). Furthermore, unlike procedures for working at a reference desk, a detailed explanation of liaison duties often fails to find a place in many policy and procedures handbooks. The need for more information to provide advice pertinent to the training needs of new liaison librarians is clearer today than ever before. Traditionally, library outreach and liaison work have focused on collection development, but with many libraries facing shrinking budgets and rising costs for serials and databases, librarians may not find very many opportunities to interact with faculty this way. Increasingly, librarians must find creative ways to reach out to faculty through library instruction, customized class Web pages, and other types of specialized library services. In this age where Internet search engines compete heavily with libraries as prime information providers, liaison librarians must continually remind their clientele about the advantages of the library and the services they offer. Because of these increased pressures on libraries, new librarians need effective liaison and outreach training in order to be convincing advocates for their library on campus.
‘‘Increasingly, librarians must find creative ways to reach out to faculty through library instruction, customized class Web pages, and other types of specialized library services.’’ The professional literature does offer some studies on the structure and benefits of the liaison system, but only a few that specifically target the training needs of new liaisons. A recent article by Macaluso and Pertruzzelli (2005), provides a strong framework from which to organize a library liaison program, including a suggested toolkit of liaison skills.3 Moore (2004) stresses the importance of librarian–faculty cooperation and uses
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the analogy of fishing to suggest ways that librarians can ‘‘reel’’ faculty into a productive collaboration.4 In ‘‘Librarian–Faculty Relations in Collection Development,’’ Chu (1997) notes that good collaborative relationships have four characteristics: resiliency, stiffness, strength, and reparability.5 Tucker, Bullian, and Torrence (2003) outline their own successful model for faculty and librarian collaboration.6 A number of articles take an administrative view of the liaison system, including the creation 7 and assessment of liaison systems.8 In a short piece for Against the Grain, Kinder and Montgomery (2002) examine the roles of a liaison from both a faculty and librarian perspective.9 Neville, Williams, and Hunt (1998) describe the nature of the College of Charleston’s liaison system, which varies considerably depending on the academic department. The authors outline specific duties for both the faculty and librarian’s role in book buying.10 While the above referenced works are valuable in understanding the role of library liaisons, they do not provide the necessary starting point for new librarian to begin to undertake this important task. There are a few other works that more readily lend themselves to self-teaching programs for new liaisons. In 500 Tips for Academic Librarians, Brown, Downey, and Race (1997) include a section with a bulleted list of quick tips for new liaison librarians.11 Tucker and Torrence (2004) offer advice ‘‘from the trenches’’ about collection development in general for new librarians and a useful subsection on liaising. In addition, they furnish a number of good ideas for adjusting to a new library, learning more about a subject area, and understanding patron needs that definitely help new liaisons.12 The aforementioned ‘‘Librarian Liaison Toolkit’’ by Macaluso and Petruzzelli also provides good figures and suggestions in shaping your liaison activities. New liaisons may glean some useful ideas from any of these works, but they would still benefit from having a more cohesive, in-depth learning plan designed especially for them. They need counsel that takes into account the varied duties of liaison that go beyond collection development. In our article, we attempt to focus more broadly on the liaison responsibility, examining collection development, instruction, and other types of work as they relate to this function. By doing so, we can provide a more thorough examination of the librarian’s role as ambassador of the library. While offering some advice not found in earlier works, our article also differs from many previous ones in that we consist for the most part of new librarians at several different types of academic libraries. Although experienced librarians can contribute much to the growth of their new colleagues, we believe that new librarians can also help a great deal because they have the experience fresh on their minds and can readily point out challenges to their beginning colleagues. The article grows out of the experiences of our own first years as new librarians in liaison roles and highlights many of the most successful tactics—as well as the less successful—common to all our liaison work. Our diverse set of experiences emanates from work at two large public universities, a smaller college, and a specialized library at a large private university. While our article offers widely applicable tips and cautionary advice from a varied pool of fresh experience, it also takes an onthe-job learning approach to liaison work. In doing so, we suggest several lists of questions to ask your faculty and colleagues. These questions help you garner information and learn more about your department and library, thereby enabling
you to craft your own outreach strategy. As we mentioned earlier, a number of articles offer liaison techniques, but none can serve as a completely comprehensive guide to doing liaison work in your particular college or university. We are unable to provide, in advance, all the advice that you will need to succeed in a particular setting, nor do we claim to have a formula that will instantly create a stellar outreach program. However, we can offer self-teaching suggestions that will help you learn the ropes of your own liaison job in an efficient, well-organized way. We advocate continual learning, awareness of the constantly changing environment of today’s colleges and universities, piloting different techniques, and assessing your liaison work through continual consultation with both teaching faculty and librarian colleagues. This approach seems realistic for liaison work when considering that each college or university is unique and requires a slightly different plan. In reflecting back on the twists and turns of our liaison experiences, a few common themes stand out to us. First, both traditional as well as the newer, Web-based methods have their place in academic outreach. Simple practices of hospitality and collegiality will win many converts to the library in your liaison departments. Web technologies can offer innovative approaches to liaison work, and new liaisons should experiment with applications of these technologies. Second, while borrowing a few ideas from our experiences can help jumpstart your outreach, we would also like you to know that building strong relations with academic departments takes perseverance. There will be breakthroughs in your outreach but also unexpected obstacles. Remember that good-humored determination and the ability to roll with punches sustain successful outreach. Therefore, try to think of the first year in a liaison role as a trial run. Third, bear in mind that your library colleagues and teaching faculty will most likely want to help you succeed, but they will often wait for you to approach them first. In many cases, you must boldly take the initiative. This decision to make meaningful contact with a liaison department will have to spring from your desire to provide the best service possible. We hope our readers will seize the day.
you map out a prudent strategy as you set out on your liaison mission.
PRACTICAL ADVICE AND LEARNING PLANS FOR NEW LIBRARIANS Make the First Step It speaks volumes towards your professionalism if you make the first step and introduce yourself to your liaison departments and various library communities. Be a go-getter and start reaching out. Do not be afraid of approaching faculty even as a new librarian on campus. If they earnestly care about teaching their students about research, they will welcome your initiative. Many academic departments have a faculty member designated as a liaison to the library so you may wish to start out by meeting with that person. You should also develop an e-mail list of the faculty or join a departmental listserv so that you can inform faculty about future changes in services, upcoming deadlines, or new materials. Start to read about the curricula and explore the department’s Web site. As you begin to approach faculty, ask about their professional activities and take an interest in what they research and teach.
‘‘It speaks volumes towards your professionalism if you make the first step and introduce yourself to your liaison departments and various library communities.’’
‘‘Simple practices of hospitality and collegiality will win many converts to the library in your liaison departments.’’
Some libraries offer training programs for new reference professionals; however, if your institution does not offer one, jump right in and start your liaison work. Learn by doing. For example, do not wait until the week before the spending deadline for your collection development money to start reaching out to faculty for their input. As a newcomer, you may not have a good response rate with this method because the faculty do not know much about you and may not be able to respond to you with such a short deadline. ‘‘Learn by doing’’ is a philosophy you should employ not only as a library liaison but also in librarianship in general. Build the Relationship
On this note, Alvin Toffler, the famous author of Future Shock, notes that ‘‘if you do not have a strategy, you will become permanently reactive and a part of someone else’s strategy.’’13 This principle applies to library liaisons. You will definitely want to do your best to react to the requests of your faculty and deal with any problems as they arise. Nevertheless, you will need a strategy that balances each faculty member’s needs with the needs of the whole department; makes the most efficient use of your time and resources; gives you input into decisions; enables you and your faculty to reach realistic, mutually agreed upon goals; and helps your library achieve its overall vision. Proactive diplomacy takes a substantial investment of time and energy (not to mention a little courage), but it also fosters the confidence necessary for a leadership role and prevents you from falling into a confused, passive state of mind that leaves the initiative in the hands of others. Accordingly, the following counsel will help
Outreach and collection development for academic departments is an ongoing process, not an instantaneous accomplishment. Building a strong working relationship requires time and effort. Whenever you meet new people in most settings, they do not immediately become your best friend. It takes time to nurture the relationship and foster trust, and the same is true with academic relationships. Be patient, build momentum, and learn how to sustain your efforts. Relentlessly giving attention to your departments in straightforward ways will build rapport with the faculty. For example, librarians at Rutgers University found that their faculty responded well to liaisons that showed a strong interest in their department and their research. They felt that simple things like notes and phone calls congratulating them on awards, grants, and publications made a big impression as well as attendance at departmental events and lectures.14 In addition to these techniques, find a reason to e-mail your liaison faculty at least once every two weeks if not more. Tell them about a new service
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or remind them about an old service. Each time you contact them, you not only inform them about library services, but you also remind them that you are there and that you can help them. Keep these things in mind and check the growth of your faculty relationships periodically, considering ways to strengthen them. Your collaborative projects will likely start off small. You might order a few books for a faculty member or teach one instruction session. Be grateful for these projects but also strive to build upon them. Once you succeed in collaborating in a few ‘‘tune-up’’ projects, think of more advanced projects such as assessing a portion of the collection or teaching a series of classes for the department. Eventually, you may formalize a written plan for information literacy or collection development in collaboration with your faculty. Be Open Minded in Your Approach Whenever you sit down to brainstorm your approach to outreach, be open to new ways to reach and serve your communities. Scour the professional literature for novel approaches to outreach. What ideas will work in your setting? Think of how churches, businesses, or other organizations reach out to their respective target groups. Can you apply their practices to library outreach? Keep yourself open to new venues of information access and formats. How can these tools enhance your liaison services? Try new ideas and if those techniques prove unsuccessful, rework them or try something else. There is nothing wrong with trial and error to discover what works best. In some ways, a liaison librarian is an inventor: you must envision possibilities, rethink services, and seize upon opportunities. Do not be afraid to use technology if it will enhance your services to your department. Learning how to do things, like building a Web page or participating in a distance education class, will benefit both you and your department. If you do not have advanced Web skills yet, remember that you can often design library instruction modules in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, and teaching faculty can usually add these to their course management systems (such as WebCT or Blackboard) without much trouble. New types of software, such as Captivate or Camtasia, also allow you to design materials in PowerPoint and transfer them to the Internet with relative ease. But, once again, do not forget about those simpler, low-tech outreach techniques either.
A photocopied brochure of library services in someone’s mailbox may be just what it takes to get that faculty member’s attention. Whatever services you choose to advertise or venue you decide to pursue, consider each undertaking as a ‘‘pilot project’’ before making it a permanent tool in your outreach tool bag. Manage Your Time Wisely As much as you want to foster good relationships with your faculty, also be sure that you do not overwhelm yourself with your liaison duties. Outreach is just one of the many responsibilities that you have as a professional librarian, and you could invest an almost infinite amount of time and energy into it. Therefore, it is important that you learn to leverage your activities with an appropriate level of effort so that you will not become bogged down by over-committing yourself or your library. Do not offer more than you are capable of providing. Disappointing a faculty member by failing to deliver on your promises can significantly damage the relationship that you are trying to build. The fact remains that ‘‘dissatisfied customers tell more people about their experience than satisfied customers,’’ so be aware of the ripple effect that bad service to one faculty member can have on your relationship with the rest of the faculty.15 As a new librarian, emphasize quality of services over quantity and gradually strive to exceed the expectations of the faculty. Pay attention to deadlines and important dates so you would not have to scramble to complete projects. Set intermediate goals for spending your materials allocation. Keep book slips, faculty requests, and lectures from instruction sessions in an organized file system or you will find yourself flailing about the week before a deadline or when preparing to teach classes. You will find that you can conserve valuable time if you keep track of what you have already ordered and can borrow themes from a lecture from an earlier instruction session to help you teach an upcoming one. You will probably want to devote the most time to your outreach work during the month or so before the beginning of a semester. Most faculty prepare reading lists or syllabi during this ‘‘prime time’’ and will likely welcome your offers to purchase new resources or schedule library instruction. Also, make sure your faculty know about any spending deadlines that the library has established. You may also wish to make them aware of the
Table 1 Ideas on Time Management !Are there student workers who could help you perform some of the clerical work associated with purchasing materials or copying handouts for classes? !Are there spreadsheets or other types of software that can expedite book ordering? !Do your fellow librarians know of timesaving techniques that they can recommend? !Can the teaching faculty help you identify books for purchase? !If you order certain types of materials frequently, can you arrange for these materials to be ordered automatically? !Can you expedite your search for materials by focusing on certain publishers or series? !Are there ‘‘big ticket’’ items, such as multi-volume works, that your faculty want? If so, ordering some of these materials can take less time than ordering lots of smaller items. !Can you adapt fellow librarians’ presentations to your own instruction sessions? !Are Web tutorials, lesson plans, or presentations on the Internet adaptable to your setting? (Borrowing and adapting can save a great deal of time for you. Of course, always ask the creator before using their tutorial or presentation).
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Table 2 Learning Your Subject Area !Does the department have library requirements in the accreditation standards that they need to meet? !What are the core classes for the discipline? !What kinds of research and reading assignments do the faculty give to their students? (Remember that many faculty mount their syllabi online, and these documents offer a lot of insight into faculty and student needs). !How can the library contribute to the department’s strategic plan? !What are the research interests of each faculty member? !What topics are covered in the theses and dissertations of the department? (Many departments have a shelf with their old theses and dissertations. You can often find these materials in the library as well). !Are there adjunct faculty who have collection or instructional needs? (Adjunct faculty teach an increasingly larger number of courses in American universities. Administrative assistants in the department can help you find these part-time or temporary instructors). !What library services—collection development, library instruction, research consultations, Web projects, or other services—would most interest your department? !What types of information do the faculty prefer? (For examples, sciences and social sciences usually like journals and databases while the humanities often prefer books and microfilm collections). !What programs does the department or school stress? (For example, if your school has a business department but does not have a real estate component, then you may not need to emphasize these areas in your collection development and outreach strategy). !What kind of relationship has the department had with the library in the past? (You can sometimes find out about the history by checking old library assessment surveys or asking colleagues). !How does communication take place in the department? !What associations exist in your department’s profession?
average length of time that it takes for new books to arrive and how much notice you need before an instruction session. Please see Table 1 for questions to consider as you recruit others to help you and brainstorm creative ways to manage your time. Learn Your Assigned Subject Areas The sooner you acquaint yourself with your academic discipline and its organization on your campus, the sooner you will know how the library can meet faculty needs. If you lack an academic background in your liaison area, do all you can to learn about that subject. Identify sources (databases, encyclopedias, journals, etc.) in the library that can help you understand the topic. Used textbooks at bookstores can also offer a great deal of help in mapping out the landscape of a discipline. In addition, familiarize yourself with news sources, such as listservs, so that you know the developing issues in a discipline. Learning about the discipline will aid you in identifying relevant sources to add to your collection as well as make you more adept at answering reference questions. Having the ability to recognize the key figures, theories, and publishers will help you hone in on the best sources. In terms of reference interviewing, remember that each discipline has its own jargon and you will need to ‘‘talk their talk’’ in order to understand the questions that people ask you. Also, faculty will have greater confidence in your guidance if you converse with them in their language. Even though you may have excellent research skills, faculty and students will be reluctant to consult with you during research projects if you do not understand the very basic concepts of a discipline. Knowing some of the jargon will also help you come up with relevant search examples for instruction sessions. Aside from researching the profession, you will also want to research the particular department on your campus. Please see
Table 2 for a list of questions that will help you scope out the library needs of a department. Customize your services to the department based on the information that you gather. Remember their specific information needs in your communications. However, do not panic if you have more than one liaison department and you cannot possibly become an expert in each field. Librarians at Texas A&M found that, aside from collection development, the most valuable thing faculty felt their liaison did for them was to keep them informed about library services.16 At the very minimum, learn what services your department values and keep the faculty updated. Communicate with Faculty Effectively Ongoing and effective communication is the lifeblood of a vibrant liaison program. Strive to foster two-way communication. As a librarian liaison, you should act as a catalyst that stimulates dialog between the faculty and the library.
‘‘Ongoing and effective communication is the lifeblood of a vibrant liaison program. Strive to foster two-way communication.’’ In communicating with your clientele, you must determine what messages to send them and how to explain ideas and information to them. To do this, you will want to stay attuned to what goes on in your library and tell your faculty about the issues relevant to them. You should also consider the services that you as a liaison can reasonably promote and provide. Remember that
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many faculty do not know about many traditional library services so do not be afraid to reiterate these options and their benefits. In fact, you should probably remind them about the more tried-and-true services at least once a semester. Most liaison–faculty communication centers around one of the following categories: general library information, collection development, library instruction, research assistance, and Web services. Here are a few things to share with your faculty about each of these areas: General Library Information Alert your faculty to major changes in library facilities, arrangements of the collection, opening hours, or new procedures. Make your liaison population aware of who to contact and how to do so. Advertise exhibits or lectures at your library. Collection Development Let them know when the library receives books, additional database content, or other resources they would find of interest. Actively solicit requests for books, and do not forget to let faculty know that you can also order other materials like videos. Suggest that they mark book or video titles that they want in vendor catalogs (faculty often receive a lot of these) and send them to you. Explain any library policies about acquiring new
journals (many libraries cannot start new subscriptions without canceling others). Encourage them to let you know about databases that would help them with their research or teaching. Library Instruction In explaining instruction to faculty, note that you can tailor your presentation to their assignments. Many faculty may have had generalized tours or lectures when they were students, and they may not realize that librarians can also provide subjectspecialized library teaching to their classes. Be willing to consult with them on their assignments. In persuading faculty to bring their classes to the library, point out the benefits of library instruction: improving student papers, training students in research techniques, giving students lifelong learning skills, and acquainting students with a librarian that can give them oneon-one help. Research Assistance Almost all faculty know about the walk-in research service at the reference desk. Explain that you can also offer in-depth consultations by appointment. Let them know your usual hours at the reference desk or in your office. Offer to come to their offices for appointments (if your supervisor allows you to provide remote reference). Explain that you can help perform
Table 3 Fostering Communication with a Department !Offer brown bag workshops in the department or have an informal lunch with a professor. !Create posters or flyers with library information. !Ask one faculty member who you have a good relationship with to help you reach out to the rest of the faculty. !Request to speak at a department meeting so that you can explain all the ways that the library can serve faculty. !Ask if a department meeting can be held at the library so that you can showcase the resources in the library. !Speak at the new faculty orientation on campus. !Keep office hours in your liaison department. !Write articles about library services for campus newsletters. !Publish an e-newsletter dedicated to information literacy. !Present an information literacy workshop at a faculty retreat. !Post your business card in the departmental lounge. !Get to know administrative assistants since they often serve as the communication centers of a department. !Organize a research clinic for thesis and dissertation writers. !Host an open house at the library. !Ask how you can contribute to a department’s strategic plan. !Make in-person ‘‘office rounds’’ in your liaison department. !Meet with potential faculty during their interviews. !Create tip sheets and webliographies for online courses. !Mingle with faculty in campus seminars and colloquiums. !Invite faculty to collection development meetings in the library. !Make an effort to become involved with university committees as soon as possible. These groups offer a good way to meet faculty and make a positive impression on them. !Keep an eye out for new methods of communication (such as Blogs and RSS feeds) that continue to develop. !Participate in training offered for some topic pertinent to your liaison department. For example, if you are trying to reach faculty that teach distance education courses, ask to make a short presentation about this aspect of library services. Remember to take along brochures to hand out at the beginning of each workshop.
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Table 4 Soliciting Feedback from Faculty !What library services do you value the most? !Do you need any books or other materials right now? !Do you find that the collection has sufficient strength in your particular subfield? !Are the bibliographic instruction sessions covering those topics that your students need to know about? !Are there services at another academic library that you would like to see implemented at our library? !If you could change one thing about the library, what would it be? !Are your students getting what they need from the library?
literature reviews, train research assistants, find grant possibilities, or locate materials at other libraries. Encourage faculty to give your contact information to students if they have questions about research.
Please see Table 3 for formal and informal ideas on fostering communication.
Web Services Basic webliographies can benefit faculty as much as Web tutorials. Point out that faculty can build links to library Web pages from their course sites. Comment on how librarians can work in tandem with faculty and campus computer specialists to develop Web teaching tools. When promoting Web services, target distance education instructors in particular. Sometimes, it is useful to quote other faculty in any brochures, e-mails, or newsletters that you send to your faculty (if it is OK with the professor that you quote). Hearing a fellow faculty member’s testimony about the benefits of collaborating with a librarian can convince your professors to use your services. Also, providing faculty with articles that offer examples of successful librarian–faculty collaboration can pique interest. Whatever you do, keep letting the faculty know that you can offer your expertise to help with their classes and research.
‘‘...informal communications can have a greater impact than formal forms: attending departmental events and campus social functions ‘‘puts a face’’ on the library and breaks down a lot of barriers and misconceptions.’’
Utilize Several Avenues of Communication Once you decide what issues to communicate with your faculty about, you will want to think how you can reach them. E-mail, face-to-face, campus mail, and listservs offer different avenues for sending information to department members. Keep in mind that informal communications can have a greater impact than formal forms: attending departmental events and campus social functions ‘‘puts a face’’ on the library and breaks down a lot of barriers and misconceptions.
Learn How to Handle Faculty Requests and Feedback Listen to your users as much as or more than you talk. Be prepared and even encourage them to give you honest feedback on how you and the library can improve services. Table 4 lists several questions that will help you probe faculty perceptions of your library. Sometimes, sending these questions out as short e-mail surveys can solicit feedback from your clientele. Or, you can slip these questions into informal conversations that you have with faculty throughout the year. Remember that avoiding defensiveness and paying attention to comments will open up channels of communication and keep you in touch with the actual feelings of your faculty. Occasionally, you may find that faculty hold misconceptions about a service the library provides. In cases like this, it is important to realize that the actual service may be working fine, but the library simply needs to do a better job of educating the faculty about the service and how it works. The critical thing to keep in mind as a liaison is to not ignore the responses you receive from
Table 5 Learning from Your Colleagues’ Experiences !What do you know about my department? !What is the culture on campus like? Is it collaborative or independent? Open to new ideas or tradition-bound? !How do teaching faculty perceive librarian on campus? !How do teaching faculty usually react to initiatives from librarians? !How often do you meet with your department (or contact them)? !To what extent do you involve faculty in materials selection? !How do you organize your book selection? !How do you deal with complaints from faculty? !What is the most/least effective technique that you have used in your liaison work?
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faculty just because they misunderstand a service. The fact that the service is being called into question may reflect a flaw in the library’s marketing of the service. Document all the materials requests that you receive from faculty. Remember that many libraries have procedures for rush ordering books that faculty request. When you take requests from faculty, let them know that you will try to order the materials and give them a rough timeline. Thank all of the faculty who make requests. Develop a strategy for dealing with requests that are outside the scope of your library so you are not caught off guard when you get one of these requests. One hard-hitting lesson that we learned: it pays to keep your library’s administration informed about requests from faculty for major purchases like databases. If you receive such a request from a faculty member, propose that the library purchase this database or at least document this request with your library’s administration. Even if you work in a library with a limited budget and doubt that your library can afford another database, you never know when your administration may suddenly receive some unexpected funds. You may be able to work out a costsharing arrangement between the library and the department or school in order to acquire an expensive resource. Also, if a faculty member complains about the library not having the database they wanted, your administrators will not be caught off guard or fault you for failing to alert them to the faculty member’s needs. If you hear of complaints from faculty about a library service, try to empathize with their situation and assure the faculty member that you will forward their request to the appropriate person. Let your supervisor know of any complaints so they will have your side of the story in case the faculty member approaches them directly. Take Cues from Your Peers Ask for advice from your fellow librarians about how to proceed with collection development or outreach on your campus. Your co-workers may have already laid some groundwork that you would not have to redo. Since they may know what works and does not work in the campus culture, they can help you avoid many pitfalls. You may also want to take advantage of outreach tools they have already created such as newsletter templates, webliographies, or other forms. Keep them informed about your liaison work, and ask them about their own liaison efforts periodically. Please see Table 5 for a few questions to ask colleagues that will help you mine their experience. As a new librarian, it is also often useful to find out what methods were used to reach out to faculty by the person who formerly held your position. Also, many times the faculty that worked with your predecessor will still serve as contacts for the library. By talking to these contacts, you will gain an idea of what library services they received in the past and what they would like to see again. Do not become discouraged if you hear that something failed in the past. Get all the details. Maybe you can do something a little differently or maybe faculty and the campus environment have changed enough to make it feasible this time around. Do not give up if you think you have a good idea for effective outreach. Try to figure out how to make it work. In addition to conferring with your on-site peers and faculty, remember that you can consult with colleagues around the country by joining specialized groups in the American Library Association. ALA offers discussion groups and committees for
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liaisons of many different disciplines that you can find through the ALA Web site by clicking on the ‘‘Our Association’’ link and then selecting ‘‘Discussion Groups’’. In particular, Reference Services in Small and Medium-sized Research Libraries, Reference Services in Large Research Libraries, and Collection Development Librarians of Academic Librarians all offer coverage of liaison issues. Some groups even allow you to subscribe to their e-mail lists or listservs without officially joining or paying a fee. Take advantage of these subject-focused librarian groups to gain more ideas about liaising with a department.
CONCLUSION If you are a new reference librarian serving as a liaison, the advice in this article will help to equip you to go beyond the reference desk and partake in activities that you have never done before as a library liaison. Thomas Edison supposedly said that ‘‘opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.’’ Liaison work may strike you as a daunting and demanding task, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to enrich faculty research and the college curriculum in ways not possible through reference work alone. There is no one blueprint that can apply equally to all liaison work. Institutions can differ greatly, and approaches to outreach also vary according to personalities. However, we hope that our tips and self-teaching methods give you some practical help in realizing the service mission of your library as well as the charge set forth in RUSA’s liaison guidelines. A flexible but proactive strategy of liaison outreach—not a passive or stopgap strategy—will nourish the growth of your program. When you become a liaison, study your department’s needs using some of the guidelines and questions that we suggest; however, feel free to jump right into your liaison role and start piloting different techniques. Through persistence you will gradually discover the most effective ways of reaching out to your department and begin to notice the fruits of your efforts. You will develop a personal repertoire of traditional tools as well as more innovative methods as you construct your outreach program. When you become more confident in your liaison role, you will also want to identify aspects of your liaison style that you could improve and seek out relevant articles in the professional literature (like those that we mentioned earlier). If you have just taken a new library position that involves liaison work, please remember that librarian–faculty collaboration must go beyond selecting books and agreeing to cancel journal subscriptions. Ultimately, liaison activities should reinforce goals like team building, open discussion, camaraderie, and life-long relationships. Following some of our practical guidelines, developing an inquisitive and open mindset, setting realistic objectives, and continually gauging your work will help you boldly strive towards these goals and fulfill your mission as an ambassador of the library.
NOTES
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REFERENCES
1. Sally Brown, Bill Downey, & Phil Race, 500 Tips for Academic Librarians, Library Association, London, 1997, p. 95. 2. Liaison with Users Committee, Collection Development and Evaluation Section, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), ‘‘Guidelines for Liaison Work in Managing Collections and Services’’ (1992, revised 2001), http://www.ala. org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/guidelinesliaison.htm (accessed November 7, 2005). Point 4.2. 3. Stephen J. Macaluso & Barbara Whitney Petruzzelli, ‘‘The Library
Liaison Toolkit: Learning to Bridge the Communication Gap,’’ The Reference Librarian 89–90 (2005): 163 – 177. 4. Melissa Moore, ‘‘Reeling ’Em In: How to Draw Teaching Faculty into Collaborative Relationships,’’ Resource Sharing and Information Networks vol. 17 (no. 1/2) (2004): 77 – 83. 5. Felix T. Chu, ‘‘Librarian–Faculty Relations in Collection Development,’’ Journal of Academic Librarianship 23 (January 1997): 15 – 20. 6. James Cory Tucker, Jeremy Bullian, & Matthew C. Torrence, ‘‘Collaborate or die! Collection Development in Today’s Academic Library,’’ The Reference Librarian 40 (no. 83/84) (2003): 219 – 236. 7. La Loria Konata & Lyn Thaxton, ‘‘Transition to a Liaison Model: Teaching Faculty and Librarian Perceptions,’’ Urban Library Journal 11 (no. 1) (Fall 2001): 28– 56; Carla A. Hendrix, ‘‘Developing a Liaison Program in a New Organizational Structure; Library–Faculty Liaison at SUNY Pittsburg,’’ The Reference Librarian 32 (no. 67–68) (1999): 203 – 224. 8. Cynthia C. Ryans, Raghini S. Suresh, & Wei-Ping Zhang, ‘‘Assessing an Academic Library Liaison Programme,’’ Library Review 44 (no. 1) (1995): 14 – 23 (Glasgow, Scotland). 9. Sean Kinder & Jack G. Montgomery, ‘‘The Collection Develop-
ment Role of the Library Liaison: A View from Both Sides of the Fence,’’ Against the Grain 13 (no. 6) (December 2001/January 2002): 77 – 79. 10. Robert Neville, James Williams, & Caroline C. Hunt, ‘‘Faculty– Librarian Team Work in Book Ordering at the College of Charleston,’’ College & Research Libraries 59 (no. 6) (November 1998): 524 – 533. 11. Ibid., pp. 95–101. 12. James Cory Tucker & Matt Torrence, ‘‘Collection Development for New Librarians: Advice from the Trenches,’’ Library Collections, Acquisitions & Technical Services 28 (2004): 402– 404. 13. Mark Borden, ‘‘Thinking about Tomorrow,’’ Fortune 140 (no. 10) (November 11, 1999): 170. 14. Tom Glynn & Connie Wu, ‘‘New Roles and Opportunities for Academic Library Liaisons: A Survey and Recommendations,’’ Reference Services Review 31 (no. 2) (2003): 122 – 128. 15. Richard T. Garfein, ‘‘Guiding Principles for Improving Customer Service,’’ Journal of Services Marketing 2 (no. 2) (1988): 19 – 25. 16. Zheng Ye Yang, ‘‘University Faculty’s Perception of a Library Liaison Program: A Case Study,’’ Journal of Academic Librarianship 26 (no. 2) (2000): 124 – 128.
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Our article provides new reference librarians with practical recommendations and learning plans so that they can succeed as liaisons. Drawing from our experiences as new librarians, we explain how to practice continual learning, stay on top of the constantly changing environment of a liaison, pilot different techniques, and assess liaison work.
Richard A. Stoddart is Reference Librarian/Government Information Coordinator, James Earl Carter Library, Georgia Southwestern State University, 800 Wheatley St., Americus, GA 31709-4693, USA [email protected]; Thedis W. Bryant is Collection Development and Acquisitions Librarian, James Pendergrast Memorial Library, Albany State University, 504 College Drive, Albany, Georgia 31705, USA [email protected]; Amia L. Baker is Reference and Collection Development Coordinator, Walker Management Library, Vanderbilt University, 401 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203, USA [email protected]; Adrienne Lee is Information Services Librarian, Cook Library, The University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Drive #5053, Hattiesburg, MS 39406, USA [email protected]; Brett Spencer is Reference Librarian, Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library, University of Alabama, Box 870266, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0266, USA [email protected].
The Journal of Academic Librarianship, Volume 32, Number 4, pages 419–427
pon launching their careers in academic libraries, many new professionals look forward to serving patrons at a reference desk, a recognizable service and fairly comfortable venue for most librarians. However, many new librarians may feel uneasy or nervous when they find out that they must also serve as a subject liaison to one or more academic departments on campus. The role and duties that a librarian has as a subject liaison may differ greatly from one institution to the next. In general, however, liaisons are assigned to extend and promote the library’s services to a particular department or group on campus. This demanding role may involve crafting a variety of library services— collection development, bibliographic instruction, research consultations, and Web pages—into a customized package for the students and faculty of a department. Serving as a library liaison thus offers an opportunity to truly meet the unique needs of a definable group of patrons. As other authors have noted, this service ‘‘if effective, is probably the single most worthwhile activity that a subject librarian can engage in.’’1 Yet, it also poses a great challenge for beginners just coming out of library school. Many new reference librarians have studied database searching, reference interviewing, and even collection development, but most schools do not offer a course specifically on the subject of liaison work. As new librarians ourselves, we would therefore like to provide new librarians with practical guidelines and learning plans so that they can succeed in their liaison missions.
U
‘‘...new librarians may feel uneasy or nervous when they find out that they must also serve as a subject liaison to one or more academic departments on campus.’’ The Reference and User Services’ Association (RUSA) has created a statement, ‘‘Guidelines for Liaison Work in Managing
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Collections and Services,’’ that outlines the general expectations of liaison work and calls upon librarians to perform outreach. These Guidelines sketch the broad contours of a liaison system and suggest a few approaches for outreach activities, but the exact details of liaison programs are left to each individual library. One part of the Guidelines asks libraries to help support and train liaisons: Institutional support should develop or enhance the liaisons’ knowledge and skills via continuing education, in-service training, mentoring arrangements with senior selectors, letters of introduction to target audiences, formal and informal gatherings, official documents (policies, procedures, organizational charts), release time for developing liaison relationships with external groups, orientation to related operations (including fiscal and technical services, provision of professional literature and access to electronic support groups).2
RUSA thus calls for strong administrative support for the efforts of individual liaisons, and many libraries have broad mandates for liaisons in their mission statements. However, new librarians may find that they do not receive specific guidance when it comes to getting a handle on outreach. In our experience, we have found that many training or orientation programs at academic libraries lack modules about liaison duties (with the exception of basic collection development tasks like ordering a book). Furthermore, unlike procedures for working at a reference desk, a detailed explanation of liaison duties often fails to find a place in many policy and procedures handbooks. The need for more information to provide advice pertinent to the training needs of new liaison librarians is clearer today than ever before. Traditionally, library outreach and liaison work have focused on collection development, but with many libraries facing shrinking budgets and rising costs for serials and databases, librarians may not find very many opportunities to interact with faculty this way. Increasingly, librarians must find creative ways to reach out to faculty through library instruction, customized class Web pages, and other types of specialized library services. In this age where Internet search engines compete heavily with libraries as prime information providers, liaison librarians must continually remind their clientele about the advantages of the library and the services they offer. Because of these increased pressures on libraries, new librarians need effective liaison and outreach training in order to be convincing advocates for their library on campus.
‘‘Increasingly, librarians must find creative ways to reach out to faculty through library instruction, customized class Web pages, and other types of specialized library services.’’ The professional literature does offer some studies on the structure and benefits of the liaison system, but only a few that specifically target the training needs of new liaisons. A recent article by Macaluso and Pertruzzelli (2005), provides a strong framework from which to organize a library liaison program, including a suggested toolkit of liaison skills.3 Moore (2004) stresses the importance of librarian–faculty cooperation and uses
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the analogy of fishing to suggest ways that librarians can ‘‘reel’’ faculty into a productive collaboration.4 In ‘‘Librarian–Faculty Relations in Collection Development,’’ Chu (1997) notes that good collaborative relationships have four characteristics: resiliency, stiffness, strength, and reparability.5 Tucker, Bullian, and Torrence (2003) outline their own successful model for faculty and librarian collaboration.6 A number of articles take an administrative view of the liaison system, including the creation 7 and assessment of liaison systems.8 In a short piece for Against the Grain, Kinder and Montgomery (2002) examine the roles of a liaison from both a faculty and librarian perspective.9 Neville, Williams, and Hunt (1998) describe the nature of the College of Charleston’s liaison system, which varies considerably depending on the academic department. The authors outline specific duties for both the faculty and librarian’s role in book buying.10 While the above referenced works are valuable in understanding the role of library liaisons, they do not provide the necessary starting point for new librarian to begin to undertake this important task. There are a few other works that more readily lend themselves to self-teaching programs for new liaisons. In 500 Tips for Academic Librarians, Brown, Downey, and Race (1997) include a section with a bulleted list of quick tips for new liaison librarians.11 Tucker and Torrence (2004) offer advice ‘‘from the trenches’’ about collection development in general for new librarians and a useful subsection on liaising. In addition, they furnish a number of good ideas for adjusting to a new library, learning more about a subject area, and understanding patron needs that definitely help new liaisons.12 The aforementioned ‘‘Librarian Liaison Toolkit’’ by Macaluso and Petruzzelli also provides good figures and suggestions in shaping your liaison activities. New liaisons may glean some useful ideas from any of these works, but they would still benefit from having a more cohesive, in-depth learning plan designed especially for them. They need counsel that takes into account the varied duties of liaison that go beyond collection development. In our article, we attempt to focus more broadly on the liaison responsibility, examining collection development, instruction, and other types of work as they relate to this function. By doing so, we can provide a more thorough examination of the librarian’s role as ambassador of the library. While offering some advice not found in earlier works, our article also differs from many previous ones in that we consist for the most part of new librarians at several different types of academic libraries. Although experienced librarians can contribute much to the growth of their new colleagues, we believe that new librarians can also help a great deal because they have the experience fresh on their minds and can readily point out challenges to their beginning colleagues. The article grows out of the experiences of our own first years as new librarians in liaison roles and highlights many of the most successful tactics—as well as the less successful—common to all our liaison work. Our diverse set of experiences emanates from work at two large public universities, a smaller college, and a specialized library at a large private university. While our article offers widely applicable tips and cautionary advice from a varied pool of fresh experience, it also takes an onthe-job learning approach to liaison work. In doing so, we suggest several lists of questions to ask your faculty and colleagues. These questions help you garner information and learn more about your department and library, thereby enabling
you to craft your own outreach strategy. As we mentioned earlier, a number of articles offer liaison techniques, but none can serve as a completely comprehensive guide to doing liaison work in your particular college or university. We are unable to provide, in advance, all the advice that you will need to succeed in a particular setting, nor do we claim to have a formula that will instantly create a stellar outreach program. However, we can offer self-teaching suggestions that will help you learn the ropes of your own liaison job in an efficient, well-organized way. We advocate continual learning, awareness of the constantly changing environment of today’s colleges and universities, piloting different techniques, and assessing your liaison work through continual consultation with both teaching faculty and librarian colleagues. This approach seems realistic for liaison work when considering that each college or university is unique and requires a slightly different plan. In reflecting back on the twists and turns of our liaison experiences, a few common themes stand out to us. First, both traditional as well as the newer, Web-based methods have their place in academic outreach. Simple practices of hospitality and collegiality will win many converts to the library in your liaison departments. Web technologies can offer innovative approaches to liaison work, and new liaisons should experiment with applications of these technologies. Second, while borrowing a few ideas from our experiences can help jumpstart your outreach, we would also like you to know that building strong relations with academic departments takes perseverance. There will be breakthroughs in your outreach but also unexpected obstacles. Remember that good-humored determination and the ability to roll with punches sustain successful outreach. Therefore, try to think of the first year in a liaison role as a trial run. Third, bear in mind that your library colleagues and teaching faculty will most likely want to help you succeed, but they will often wait for you to approach them first. In many cases, you must boldly take the initiative. This decision to make meaningful contact with a liaison department will have to spring from your desire to provide the best service possible. We hope our readers will seize the day.
you map out a prudent strategy as you set out on your liaison mission.
PRACTICAL ADVICE AND LEARNING PLANS FOR NEW LIBRARIANS Make the First Step It speaks volumes towards your professionalism if you make the first step and introduce yourself to your liaison departments and various library communities. Be a go-getter and start reaching out. Do not be afraid of approaching faculty even as a new librarian on campus. If they earnestly care about teaching their students about research, they will welcome your initiative. Many academic departments have a faculty member designated as a liaison to the library so you may wish to start out by meeting with that person. You should also develop an e-mail list of the faculty or join a departmental listserv so that you can inform faculty about future changes in services, upcoming deadlines, or new materials. Start to read about the curricula and explore the department’s Web site. As you begin to approach faculty, ask about their professional activities and take an interest in what they research and teach.
‘‘It speaks volumes towards your professionalism if you make the first step and introduce yourself to your liaison departments and various library communities.’’
‘‘Simple practices of hospitality and collegiality will win many converts to the library in your liaison departments.’’
Some libraries offer training programs for new reference professionals; however, if your institution does not offer one, jump right in and start your liaison work. Learn by doing. For example, do not wait until the week before the spending deadline for your collection development money to start reaching out to faculty for their input. As a newcomer, you may not have a good response rate with this method because the faculty do not know much about you and may not be able to respond to you with such a short deadline. ‘‘Learn by doing’’ is a philosophy you should employ not only as a library liaison but also in librarianship in general. Build the Relationship
On this note, Alvin Toffler, the famous author of Future Shock, notes that ‘‘if you do not have a strategy, you will become permanently reactive and a part of someone else’s strategy.’’13 This principle applies to library liaisons. You will definitely want to do your best to react to the requests of your faculty and deal with any problems as they arise. Nevertheless, you will need a strategy that balances each faculty member’s needs with the needs of the whole department; makes the most efficient use of your time and resources; gives you input into decisions; enables you and your faculty to reach realistic, mutually agreed upon goals; and helps your library achieve its overall vision. Proactive diplomacy takes a substantial investment of time and energy (not to mention a little courage), but it also fosters the confidence necessary for a leadership role and prevents you from falling into a confused, passive state of mind that leaves the initiative in the hands of others. Accordingly, the following counsel will help
Outreach and collection development for academic departments is an ongoing process, not an instantaneous accomplishment. Building a strong working relationship requires time and effort. Whenever you meet new people in most settings, they do not immediately become your best friend. It takes time to nurture the relationship and foster trust, and the same is true with academic relationships. Be patient, build momentum, and learn how to sustain your efforts. Relentlessly giving attention to your departments in straightforward ways will build rapport with the faculty. For example, librarians at Rutgers University found that their faculty responded well to liaisons that showed a strong interest in their department and their research. They felt that simple things like notes and phone calls congratulating them on awards, grants, and publications made a big impression as well as attendance at departmental events and lectures.14 In addition to these techniques, find a reason to e-mail your liaison faculty at least once every two weeks if not more. Tell them about a new service
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or remind them about an old service. Each time you contact them, you not only inform them about library services, but you also remind them that you are there and that you can help them. Keep these things in mind and check the growth of your faculty relationships periodically, considering ways to strengthen them. Your collaborative projects will likely start off small. You might order a few books for a faculty member or teach one instruction session. Be grateful for these projects but also strive to build upon them. Once you succeed in collaborating in a few ‘‘tune-up’’ projects, think of more advanced projects such as assessing a portion of the collection or teaching a series of classes for the department. Eventually, you may formalize a written plan for information literacy or collection development in collaboration with your faculty. Be Open Minded in Your Approach Whenever you sit down to brainstorm your approach to outreach, be open to new ways to reach and serve your communities. Scour the professional literature for novel approaches to outreach. What ideas will work in your setting? Think of how churches, businesses, or other organizations reach out to their respective target groups. Can you apply their practices to library outreach? Keep yourself open to new venues of information access and formats. How can these tools enhance your liaison services? Try new ideas and if those techniques prove unsuccessful, rework them or try something else. There is nothing wrong with trial and error to discover what works best. In some ways, a liaison librarian is an inventor: you must envision possibilities, rethink services, and seize upon opportunities. Do not be afraid to use technology if it will enhance your services to your department. Learning how to do things, like building a Web page or participating in a distance education class, will benefit both you and your department. If you do not have advanced Web skills yet, remember that you can often design library instruction modules in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, and teaching faculty can usually add these to their course management systems (such as WebCT or Blackboard) without much trouble. New types of software, such as Captivate or Camtasia, also allow you to design materials in PowerPoint and transfer them to the Internet with relative ease. But, once again, do not forget about those simpler, low-tech outreach techniques either.
A photocopied brochure of library services in someone’s mailbox may be just what it takes to get that faculty member’s attention. Whatever services you choose to advertise or venue you decide to pursue, consider each undertaking as a ‘‘pilot project’’ before making it a permanent tool in your outreach tool bag. Manage Your Time Wisely As much as you want to foster good relationships with your faculty, also be sure that you do not overwhelm yourself with your liaison duties. Outreach is just one of the many responsibilities that you have as a professional librarian, and you could invest an almost infinite amount of time and energy into it. Therefore, it is important that you learn to leverage your activities with an appropriate level of effort so that you will not become bogged down by over-committing yourself or your library. Do not offer more than you are capable of providing. Disappointing a faculty member by failing to deliver on your promises can significantly damage the relationship that you are trying to build. The fact remains that ‘‘dissatisfied customers tell more people about their experience than satisfied customers,’’ so be aware of the ripple effect that bad service to one faculty member can have on your relationship with the rest of the faculty.15 As a new librarian, emphasize quality of services over quantity and gradually strive to exceed the expectations of the faculty. Pay attention to deadlines and important dates so you would not have to scramble to complete projects. Set intermediate goals for spending your materials allocation. Keep book slips, faculty requests, and lectures from instruction sessions in an organized file system or you will find yourself flailing about the week before a deadline or when preparing to teach classes. You will find that you can conserve valuable time if you keep track of what you have already ordered and can borrow themes from a lecture from an earlier instruction session to help you teach an upcoming one. You will probably want to devote the most time to your outreach work during the month or so before the beginning of a semester. Most faculty prepare reading lists or syllabi during this ‘‘prime time’’ and will likely welcome your offers to purchase new resources or schedule library instruction. Also, make sure your faculty know about any spending deadlines that the library has established. You may also wish to make them aware of the
Table 1 Ideas on Time Management !Are there student workers who could help you perform some of the clerical work associated with purchasing materials or copying handouts for classes? !Are there spreadsheets or other types of software that can expedite book ordering? !Do your fellow librarians know of timesaving techniques that they can recommend? !Can the teaching faculty help you identify books for purchase? !If you order certain types of materials frequently, can you arrange for these materials to be ordered automatically? !Can you expedite your search for materials by focusing on certain publishers or series? !Are there ‘‘big ticket’’ items, such as multi-volume works, that your faculty want? If so, ordering some of these materials can take less time than ordering lots of smaller items. !Can you adapt fellow librarians’ presentations to your own instruction sessions? !Are Web tutorials, lesson plans, or presentations on the Internet adaptable to your setting? (Borrowing and adapting can save a great deal of time for you. Of course, always ask the creator before using their tutorial or presentation).
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Table 2 Learning Your Subject Area !Does the department have library requirements in the accreditation standards that they need to meet? !What are the core classes for the discipline? !What kinds of research and reading assignments do the faculty give to their students? (Remember that many faculty mount their syllabi online, and these documents offer a lot of insight into faculty and student needs). !How can the library contribute to the department’s strategic plan? !What are the research interests of each faculty member? !What topics are covered in the theses and dissertations of the department? (Many departments have a shelf with their old theses and dissertations. You can often find these materials in the library as well). !Are there adjunct faculty who have collection or instructional needs? (Adjunct faculty teach an increasingly larger number of courses in American universities. Administrative assistants in the department can help you find these part-time or temporary instructors). !What library services—collection development, library instruction, research consultations, Web projects, or other services—would most interest your department? !What types of information do the faculty prefer? (For examples, sciences and social sciences usually like journals and databases while the humanities often prefer books and microfilm collections). !What programs does the department or school stress? (For example, if your school has a business department but does not have a real estate component, then you may not need to emphasize these areas in your collection development and outreach strategy). !What kind of relationship has the department had with the library in the past? (You can sometimes find out about the history by checking old library assessment surveys or asking colleagues). !How does communication take place in the department? !What associations exist in your department’s profession?
average length of time that it takes for new books to arrive and how much notice you need before an instruction session. Please see Table 1 for questions to consider as you recruit others to help you and brainstorm creative ways to manage your time. Learn Your Assigned Subject Areas The sooner you acquaint yourself with your academic discipline and its organization on your campus, the sooner you will know how the library can meet faculty needs. If you lack an academic background in your liaison area, do all you can to learn about that subject. Identify sources (databases, encyclopedias, journals, etc.) in the library that can help you understand the topic. Used textbooks at bookstores can also offer a great deal of help in mapping out the landscape of a discipline. In addition, familiarize yourself with news sources, such as listservs, so that you know the developing issues in a discipline. Learning about the discipline will aid you in identifying relevant sources to add to your collection as well as make you more adept at answering reference questions. Having the ability to recognize the key figures, theories, and publishers will help you hone in on the best sources. In terms of reference interviewing, remember that each discipline has its own jargon and you will need to ‘‘talk their talk’’ in order to understand the questions that people ask you. Also, faculty will have greater confidence in your guidance if you converse with them in their language. Even though you may have excellent research skills, faculty and students will be reluctant to consult with you during research projects if you do not understand the very basic concepts of a discipline. Knowing some of the jargon will also help you come up with relevant search examples for instruction sessions. Aside from researching the profession, you will also want to research the particular department on your campus. Please see
Table 2 for a list of questions that will help you scope out the library needs of a department. Customize your services to the department based on the information that you gather. Remember their specific information needs in your communications. However, do not panic if you have more than one liaison department and you cannot possibly become an expert in each field. Librarians at Texas A&M found that, aside from collection development, the most valuable thing faculty felt their liaison did for them was to keep them informed about library services.16 At the very minimum, learn what services your department values and keep the faculty updated. Communicate with Faculty Effectively Ongoing and effective communication is the lifeblood of a vibrant liaison program. Strive to foster two-way communication. As a librarian liaison, you should act as a catalyst that stimulates dialog between the faculty and the library.
‘‘Ongoing and effective communication is the lifeblood of a vibrant liaison program. Strive to foster two-way communication.’’ In communicating with your clientele, you must determine what messages to send them and how to explain ideas and information to them. To do this, you will want to stay attuned to what goes on in your library and tell your faculty about the issues relevant to them. You should also consider the services that you as a liaison can reasonably promote and provide. Remember that
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many faculty do not know about many traditional library services so do not be afraid to reiterate these options and their benefits. In fact, you should probably remind them about the more tried-and-true services at least once a semester. Most liaison–faculty communication centers around one of the following categories: general library information, collection development, library instruction, research assistance, and Web services. Here are a few things to share with your faculty about each of these areas: General Library Information Alert your faculty to major changes in library facilities, arrangements of the collection, opening hours, or new procedures. Make your liaison population aware of who to contact and how to do so. Advertise exhibits or lectures at your library. Collection Development Let them know when the library receives books, additional database content, or other resources they would find of interest. Actively solicit requests for books, and do not forget to let faculty know that you can also order other materials like videos. Suggest that they mark book or video titles that they want in vendor catalogs (faculty often receive a lot of these) and send them to you. Explain any library policies about acquiring new
journals (many libraries cannot start new subscriptions without canceling others). Encourage them to let you know about databases that would help them with their research or teaching. Library Instruction In explaining instruction to faculty, note that you can tailor your presentation to their assignments. Many faculty may have had generalized tours or lectures when they were students, and they may not realize that librarians can also provide subjectspecialized library teaching to their classes. Be willing to consult with them on their assignments. In persuading faculty to bring their classes to the library, point out the benefits of library instruction: improving student papers, training students in research techniques, giving students lifelong learning skills, and acquainting students with a librarian that can give them oneon-one help. Research Assistance Almost all faculty know about the walk-in research service at the reference desk. Explain that you can also offer in-depth consultations by appointment. Let them know your usual hours at the reference desk or in your office. Offer to come to their offices for appointments (if your supervisor allows you to provide remote reference). Explain that you can help perform
Table 3 Fostering Communication with a Department !Offer brown bag workshops in the department or have an informal lunch with a professor. !Create posters or flyers with library information. !Ask one faculty member who you have a good relationship with to help you reach out to the rest of the faculty. !Request to speak at a department meeting so that you can explain all the ways that the library can serve faculty. !Ask if a department meeting can be held at the library so that you can showcase the resources in the library. !Speak at the new faculty orientation on campus. !Keep office hours in your liaison department. !Write articles about library services for campus newsletters. !Publish an e-newsletter dedicated to information literacy. !Present an information literacy workshop at a faculty retreat. !Post your business card in the departmental lounge. !Get to know administrative assistants since they often serve as the communication centers of a department. !Organize a research clinic for thesis and dissertation writers. !Host an open house at the library. !Ask how you can contribute to a department’s strategic plan. !Make in-person ‘‘office rounds’’ in your liaison department. !Meet with potential faculty during their interviews. !Create tip sheets and webliographies for online courses. !Mingle with faculty in campus seminars and colloquiums. !Invite faculty to collection development meetings in the library. !Make an effort to become involved with university committees as soon as possible. These groups offer a good way to meet faculty and make a positive impression on them. !Keep an eye out for new methods of communication (such as Blogs and RSS feeds) that continue to develop. !Participate in training offered for some topic pertinent to your liaison department. For example, if you are trying to reach faculty that teach distance education courses, ask to make a short presentation about this aspect of library services. Remember to take along brochures to hand out at the beginning of each workshop.
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Table 4 Soliciting Feedback from Faculty !What library services do you value the most? !Do you need any books or other materials right now? !Do you find that the collection has sufficient strength in your particular subfield? !Are the bibliographic instruction sessions covering those topics that your students need to know about? !Are there services at another academic library that you would like to see implemented at our library? !If you could change one thing about the library, what would it be? !Are your students getting what they need from the library?
literature reviews, train research assistants, find grant possibilities, or locate materials at other libraries. Encourage faculty to give your contact information to students if they have questions about research.
Please see Table 3 for formal and informal ideas on fostering communication.
Web Services Basic webliographies can benefit faculty as much as Web tutorials. Point out that faculty can build links to library Web pages from their course sites. Comment on how librarians can work in tandem with faculty and campus computer specialists to develop Web teaching tools. When promoting Web services, target distance education instructors in particular. Sometimes, it is useful to quote other faculty in any brochures, e-mails, or newsletters that you send to your faculty (if it is OK with the professor that you quote). Hearing a fellow faculty member’s testimony about the benefits of collaborating with a librarian can convince your professors to use your services. Also, providing faculty with articles that offer examples of successful librarian–faculty collaboration can pique interest. Whatever you do, keep letting the faculty know that you can offer your expertise to help with their classes and research.
‘‘...informal communications can have a greater impact than formal forms: attending departmental events and campus social functions ‘‘puts a face’’ on the library and breaks down a lot of barriers and misconceptions.’’
Utilize Several Avenues of Communication Once you decide what issues to communicate with your faculty about, you will want to think how you can reach them. E-mail, face-to-face, campus mail, and listservs offer different avenues for sending information to department members. Keep in mind that informal communications can have a greater impact than formal forms: attending departmental events and campus social functions ‘‘puts a face’’ on the library and breaks down a lot of barriers and misconceptions.
Learn How to Handle Faculty Requests and Feedback Listen to your users as much as or more than you talk. Be prepared and even encourage them to give you honest feedback on how you and the library can improve services. Table 4 lists several questions that will help you probe faculty perceptions of your library. Sometimes, sending these questions out as short e-mail surveys can solicit feedback from your clientele. Or, you can slip these questions into informal conversations that you have with faculty throughout the year. Remember that avoiding defensiveness and paying attention to comments will open up channels of communication and keep you in touch with the actual feelings of your faculty. Occasionally, you may find that faculty hold misconceptions about a service the library provides. In cases like this, it is important to realize that the actual service may be working fine, but the library simply needs to do a better job of educating the faculty about the service and how it works. The critical thing to keep in mind as a liaison is to not ignore the responses you receive from
Table 5 Learning from Your Colleagues’ Experiences !What do you know about my department? !What is the culture on campus like? Is it collaborative or independent? Open to new ideas or tradition-bound? !How do teaching faculty perceive librarian on campus? !How do teaching faculty usually react to initiatives from librarians? !How often do you meet with your department (or contact them)? !To what extent do you involve faculty in materials selection? !How do you organize your book selection? !How do you deal with complaints from faculty? !What is the most/least effective technique that you have used in your liaison work?
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faculty just because they misunderstand a service. The fact that the service is being called into question may reflect a flaw in the library’s marketing of the service. Document all the materials requests that you receive from faculty. Remember that many libraries have procedures for rush ordering books that faculty request. When you take requests from faculty, let them know that you will try to order the materials and give them a rough timeline. Thank all of the faculty who make requests. Develop a strategy for dealing with requests that are outside the scope of your library so you are not caught off guard when you get one of these requests. One hard-hitting lesson that we learned: it pays to keep your library’s administration informed about requests from faculty for major purchases like databases. If you receive such a request from a faculty member, propose that the library purchase this database or at least document this request with your library’s administration. Even if you work in a library with a limited budget and doubt that your library can afford another database, you never know when your administration may suddenly receive some unexpected funds. You may be able to work out a costsharing arrangement between the library and the department or school in order to acquire an expensive resource. Also, if a faculty member complains about the library not having the database they wanted, your administrators will not be caught off guard or fault you for failing to alert them to the faculty member’s needs. If you hear of complaints from faculty about a library service, try to empathize with their situation and assure the faculty member that you will forward their request to the appropriate person. Let your supervisor know of any complaints so they will have your side of the story in case the faculty member approaches them directly. Take Cues from Your Peers Ask for advice from your fellow librarians about how to proceed with collection development or outreach on your campus. Your co-workers may have already laid some groundwork that you would not have to redo. Since they may know what works and does not work in the campus culture, they can help you avoid many pitfalls. You may also want to take advantage of outreach tools they have already created such as newsletter templates, webliographies, or other forms. Keep them informed about your liaison work, and ask them about their own liaison efforts periodically. Please see Table 5 for a few questions to ask colleagues that will help you mine their experience. As a new librarian, it is also often useful to find out what methods were used to reach out to faculty by the person who formerly held your position. Also, many times the faculty that worked with your predecessor will still serve as contacts for the library. By talking to these contacts, you will gain an idea of what library services they received in the past and what they would like to see again. Do not become discouraged if you hear that something failed in the past. Get all the details. Maybe you can do something a little differently or maybe faculty and the campus environment have changed enough to make it feasible this time around. Do not give up if you think you have a good idea for effective outreach. Try to figure out how to make it work. In addition to conferring with your on-site peers and faculty, remember that you can consult with colleagues around the country by joining specialized groups in the American Library Association. ALA offers discussion groups and committees for
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liaisons of many different disciplines that you can find through the ALA Web site by clicking on the ‘‘Our Association’’ link and then selecting ‘‘Discussion Groups’’. In particular, Reference Services in Small and Medium-sized Research Libraries, Reference Services in Large Research Libraries, and Collection Development Librarians of Academic Librarians all offer coverage of liaison issues. Some groups even allow you to subscribe to their e-mail lists or listservs without officially joining or paying a fee. Take advantage of these subject-focused librarian groups to gain more ideas about liaising with a department.
CONCLUSION If you are a new reference librarian serving as a liaison, the advice in this article will help to equip you to go beyond the reference desk and partake in activities that you have never done before as a library liaison. Thomas Edison supposedly said that ‘‘opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.’’ Liaison work may strike you as a daunting and demanding task, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to enrich faculty research and the college curriculum in ways not possible through reference work alone. There is no one blueprint that can apply equally to all liaison work. Institutions can differ greatly, and approaches to outreach also vary according to personalities. However, we hope that our tips and self-teaching methods give you some practical help in realizing the service mission of your library as well as the charge set forth in RUSA’s liaison guidelines. A flexible but proactive strategy of liaison outreach—not a passive or stopgap strategy—will nourish the growth of your program. When you become a liaison, study your department’s needs using some of the guidelines and questions that we suggest; however, feel free to jump right into your liaison role and start piloting different techniques. Through persistence you will gradually discover the most effective ways of reaching out to your department and begin to notice the fruits of your efforts. You will develop a personal repertoire of traditional tools as well as more innovative methods as you construct your outreach program. When you become more confident in your liaison role, you will also want to identify aspects of your liaison style that you could improve and seek out relevant articles in the professional literature (like those that we mentioned earlier). If you have just taken a new library position that involves liaison work, please remember that librarian–faculty collaboration must go beyond selecting books and agreeing to cancel journal subscriptions. Ultimately, liaison activities should reinforce goals like team building, open discussion, camaraderie, and life-long relationships. Following some of our practical guidelines, developing an inquisitive and open mindset, setting realistic objectives, and continually gauging your work will help you boldly strive towards these goals and fulfill your mission as an ambassador of the library.
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REFERENCES
1. Sally Brown, Bill Downey, & Phil Race, 500 Tips for Academic Librarians, Library Association, London, 1997, p. 95. 2. Liaison with Users Committee, Collection Development and Evaluation Section, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), ‘‘Guidelines for Liaison Work in Managing Collections and Services’’ (1992, revised 2001), http://www.ala. org/ala/rusa/rusaprotools/referenceguide/guidelinesliaison.htm (accessed November 7, 2005). Point 4.2. 3. Stephen J. Macaluso & Barbara Whitney Petruzzelli, ‘‘The Library
Liaison Toolkit: Learning to Bridge the Communication Gap,’’ The Reference Librarian 89–90 (2005): 163 – 177. 4. Melissa Moore, ‘‘Reeling ’Em In: How to Draw Teaching Faculty into Collaborative Relationships,’’ Resource Sharing and Information Networks vol. 17 (no. 1/2) (2004): 77 – 83. 5. Felix T. Chu, ‘‘Librarian–Faculty Relations in Collection Development,’’ Journal of Academic Librarianship 23 (January 1997): 15 – 20. 6. James Cory Tucker, Jeremy Bullian, & Matthew C. Torrence, ‘‘Collaborate or die! Collection Development in Today’s Academic Library,’’ The Reference Librarian 40 (no. 83/84) (2003): 219 – 236. 7. La Loria Konata & Lyn Thaxton, ‘‘Transition to a Liaison Model: Teaching Faculty and Librarian Perceptions,’’ Urban Library Journal 11 (no. 1) (Fall 2001): 28– 56; Carla A. Hendrix, ‘‘Developing a Liaison Program in a New Organizational Structure; Library–Faculty Liaison at SUNY Pittsburg,’’ The Reference Librarian 32 (no. 67–68) (1999): 203 – 224. 8. Cynthia C. Ryans, Raghini S. Suresh, & Wei-Ping Zhang, ‘‘Assessing an Academic Library Liaison Programme,’’ Library Review 44 (no. 1) (1995): 14 – 23 (Glasgow, Scotland). 9. Sean Kinder & Jack G. Montgomery, ‘‘The Collection Develop-
ment Role of the Library Liaison: A View from Both Sides of the Fence,’’ Against the Grain 13 (no. 6) (December 2001/January 2002): 77 – 79. 10. Robert Neville, James Williams, & Caroline C. Hunt, ‘‘Faculty– Librarian Team Work in Book Ordering at the College of Charleston,’’ College & Research Libraries 59 (no. 6) (November 1998): 524 – 533. 11. Ibid., pp. 95–101. 12. James Cory Tucker & Matt Torrence, ‘‘Collection Development for New Librarians: Advice from the Trenches,’’ Library Collections, Acquisitions & Technical Services 28 (2004): 402– 404. 13. Mark Borden, ‘‘Thinking about Tomorrow,’’ Fortune 140 (no. 10) (November 11, 1999): 170. 14. Tom Glynn & Connie Wu, ‘‘New Roles and Opportunities for Academic Library Liaisons: A Survey and Recommendations,’’ Reference Services Review 31 (no. 2) (2003): 122 – 128. 15. Richard T. Garfein, ‘‘Guiding Principles for Improving Customer Service,’’ Journal of Services Marketing 2 (no. 2) (1988): 19 – 25. 16. Zheng Ye Yang, ‘‘University Faculty’s Perception of a Library Liaison Program: A Case Study,’’ Journal of Academic Librarianship 26 (no. 2) (2000): 124 – 128.
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