45 Association of Research Libraries Research Library Issues 291 2017 Liaisons and special collections librarians share the challenge of making collections more discoverable. For liaisons, it’s facilitating access to e-resources and items in the stacks, so they will be used to advance and promote research and learning. For special collections librarians, it’s increasing exposure and discoverability of archives and special collections, while also preserving and caring for the materials, to ensure that they can be used for research and learning. Stakeholders are at times reluctant or unwilling to take the time to access analog items or other collections. How can liaisons and special collections librarians team up to work on this challenge? In order to make shared appointments successful, administrative support and facilitation is critical. Dual reporting, from an external perspective, may be less intimidating and confusing for the end user, who, understandably, is only concerned with having their needs met and not the organizational structure of the library. Approaching shared or dual appointments programmatically, rather than focusing on identification and implementation of boutique projects might be a direction and approach to consider. Recognizing that beyond the work, collegiality and growth stem from shared understanding and can be rooted in a collaborative environment that focuses on the end user. While this may be a daunting task for library leadership, this approach has the potential to reinvigorate the work and processes that take place in academic libraries. Working together is not revolutionary, but approaching this outside of the work itself, and focusing on the notion of mirroring research could significantly alter the way that librarians reach and help their users. “For that reason, new organizational structures may prove essential in bringing humanities librarians and archivists together to pursue common outcomes. With the growing need to evolve policies and functional support for acquiring, managing, and supporting the use of society’s born digital record, differing aggregations of technology and archival staffing will be necessary.”12 It could also be argued that beyond collaborating with humanities librarians, the increase
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