Liaison Services · 47
Challenge 1 Challenge 2 Challenge 3
New faculty/new department heads:
getting on department agenda,
meetings, providing continuity of
awareness of library offerings/
programs and also providing
opportunity to refresh instruction
(new tools, new databases, etc. —
in other words, once is not always
enough).
Lead time for collection
development, instruction, reference
assignments. The Curriculum
Consultation Form provides a vehicle
for communication, but the forms are
sometimes submitted to library for
sign-off with insufficient lead time
(however, the form is an important
liaison tool).
Access to faculty: A. To gain access
to classroom for information literacy
instruction. B. Science research
faculty are frequently disconnected
‘physically’ from the library — much
of their research is conducted within
their own offices/labs.
Reaching all faculty in a department,
including getting a foot in the door.
Workload and time pressure limits
time available for liaison activities.
Reaching part-time faculty and part-
time students.
As the main point of contact
between the library and its users,
advocating in the library for services
and changes users want from other
departments.
Having enough time to do
liaison work plus everything else
including collection development
and assessment of the collection,
committee work, etc.
Receiving ongoing, constructive
feedback about services and
initiatives.
Generating support for further
developing, expanding services from
academic faculty, with their specific
input.
Being invited to departmental faculty
meetings on a regular basis.
Scarcity of library resources, both
staff time to cover numerous liaison
duties and materials budget funds to
acquire resources identified as useful
by faculty members.
Obstacles to attracting the attention
of busy faculty (and other campus
researchers) about newly available
library resources, so that those
resources are used to their fullest
extent.
Lack of faculty understanding about
issues in scholarly communication,
Open Access, copyright and licensing,
and the financial factors that
influence online scholarly publishing
and its costs.
Some departments are more
receptive than others to liaison
librarians so a challenge is finding
ways to work with those which are
less receptive.
Getting opportunities to provide
information literacy instruction, both
in classrooms and online, for all
students.
Having enough funding to purchase
all of the information resources
required by the discipline in question.
Some faculty departments are
difficult to work with.
Stiff competition for faculty
attention.
Not enough liaisons to cover every
department.
Limited subject expertise in some
areas.
Challenge 1 Challenge 2 Challenge 3
New faculty/new department heads:
getting on department agenda,
meetings, providing continuity of
awareness of library offerings/
programs and also providing
opportunity to refresh instruction
(new tools, new databases, etc. —
in other words, once is not always
enough).
Lead time for collection
development, instruction, reference
assignments. The Curriculum
Consultation Form provides a vehicle
for communication, but the forms are
sometimes submitted to library for
sign-off with insufficient lead time
(however, the form is an important
liaison tool).
Access to faculty: A. To gain access
to classroom for information literacy
instruction. B. Science research
faculty are frequently disconnected
‘physically’ from the library — much
of their research is conducted within
their own offices/labs.
Reaching all faculty in a department,
including getting a foot in the door.
Workload and time pressure limits
time available for liaison activities.
Reaching part-time faculty and part-
time students.
As the main point of contact
between the library and its users,
advocating in the library for services
and changes users want from other
departments.
Having enough time to do
liaison work plus everything else
including collection development
and assessment of the collection,
committee work, etc.
Receiving ongoing, constructive
feedback about services and
initiatives.
Generating support for further
developing, expanding services from
academic faculty, with their specific
input.
Being invited to departmental faculty
meetings on a regular basis.
Scarcity of library resources, both
staff time to cover numerous liaison
duties and materials budget funds to
acquire resources identified as useful
by faculty members.
Obstacles to attracting the attention
of busy faculty (and other campus
researchers) about newly available
library resources, so that those
resources are used to their fullest
extent.
Lack of faculty understanding about
issues in scholarly communication,
Open Access, copyright and licensing,
and the financial factors that
influence online scholarly publishing
and its costs.
Some departments are more
receptive than others to liaison
librarians so a challenge is finding
ways to work with those which are
less receptive.
Getting opportunities to provide
information literacy instruction, both
in classrooms and online, for all
students.
Having enough funding to purchase
all of the information resources
required by the discipline in question.
Some faculty departments are
difficult to work with.
Stiff competition for faculty
attention.
Not enough liaisons to cover every
department.
Limited subject expertise in some
areas.
