The Role of Liaison Librarians
Liaison
Librarians by Department
Introduction
Liaison librarians provide library services to the campus
community, working with students, faculty, and staff in the University's colleges
and departments. Liaisons understand the information needs of the academic
units to which they are assigned and represent the needs of these units within
the library. Liaisons are also knowledgeable about library resources and
services and convey information about these to their academic units.
Liaison librarian activities are focused in three primary
areas-reference and research, instruction, and collection development.
Reference and Research
Liaisons are knowledgeable about the nature of the
research and scholarly communication within the academic units to which they
are assigned. Working collaboratively with the Information & Research
Services Division, liaison librarians provide expertise in meeting the
information needs of students, faculty, staff, and community users. These
responsibilities include the following:
-
Provide general reference assistance at the
Information Center.
-
Provide referral support for the Information
Center in areas of subject expertise.
-
Notify faculty about library services that will
assist in their research and instruction.
- Provide in-depth
research and referred reference assistance for the subject areas to which
they are assigned.
-
Maintain office hours and virtual contact hours
in support of library reference and research services as appropriate.
Instruction
Liaison librarians are knowledgeable about the nature of
the teaching and research conducted by the academic units to which they are
assigned and of changes in pedagogy within these disciplines and within
information literacy. Working collaboratively with the Information &
Research Services Division's Library Instruction Program, liaisons collaborate
with teaching faculty to ensure that relevant information access skills and
tools are incorporated into academic programs. These responsibilities include
the following:
-
Promote instruction in the use of library
resources to students and faculty.
-
Deliver in-person instruction sessions within
assigned units.
-
Deliver in-person instruction sessions within
the general campus community.
-
Integrate information literacy standards into
instruction sessions.
-
Provide consultative services to teaching
faculty to develop curriculum-integrated library research assignments.
-
Serve as an embedded librarian within classes
during sessions focused on research assignments.
-
Work with faculty and department curriculum
committees to integrate information literacy standards into the curriculum and
learning outcomes of the academic unit.
-
Create web-based subject resources for faculty,
students, and staff.
-
Incorporate appropriate technology into
instruction.
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Provide individual and/or small group
instruction.
-
Assess teaching effectiveness and student
learning in cooperation with the Library Instruction Program assessment
initiatives.
-
Provide subject-specific training for Information
Center library staff.
Collection
Development
Liaison librarians are responsible for a range of
collection development activities associated with one or more subject areas.
They develop and manage collections and provide access to information resources
in support of the curricular and research missions of the colleges, schools,
and departments to which they are assigned. As members of the Collection
Development Group, they work collaboratively with the library's Bibliographic
Management Services Division and the Access & Collection Services Division
on collection development issues and projects. These responsibilities include
the following:
-
Develop and maintain a comprehensive knowledge
of information resources in subject areas within the scope of their assigned
units.
-
Provide oversight of purchase plan profiles and
initiate orders for materials not included in the purchase plans.
-
Review and select electronic and web resources.
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Evaluate collection strengths and weaknesses.
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Notify faculty and otherwise promote newly
acquired resources of interest.
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Communicate with faculty about issues concerning
scholarly communication.
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Monitor expenditures within their subject areas
and within budget guidelines.
-
Provide
collection assessment for new program proposals and accreditation.
-
Participate in the formulation of collection
development policies.
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Participate in consortial projects for
developing shared collections.
-
In
collaboration with the Dean of Libraries, pursue grants and funding
opportunities to build collections.
-
In collaboration with the Dean of Libraries, identify
potential digital projects and members of the campus community interested in
collaborating on such projects relative to departmental publications and/or
scholarship.
last updated: March 2008
