Places to Go,People to See

Growing & Maintaining a Strong Liaison Program

Susan Simpson, MLS, AHIPRoger Russell, MLS, AHIP

Our Landscape

• East Carolina University - over 27,000 students

• Division of Health Sciences - 1700 students

• DHS - Brody School of Medicine, College of Allied Health Sciences, College of Nursing, School of Dentistry

• Laupus Library - 74,000 sq ft

Our Landscape

• Information Services

– 4 liaisons: 2 Medicine, 1 Allied Health, 1 Nursing

– ¾ time associate position

– 1 Education/Technology librarian

– 1 School of Dentistry liaison (coming soon)

How it all got started....

• Fall 1998

• BSOM v. Allied Health or Nursing

• Early shift to DE

• Reaching more people

Challenges

• Consistency, no “branding”

• Clear vision & expectations; mentoring

• Overcoming traditional value systems for “working”

– “Where are the librarians?!”

– “How do we measure outcomes?”

• Shrinking “gate count”

• Geography

Foundations

• Relationships

• Flexibility

• Improved Communication

– Branding, Consistency, Marketing

• Specialized Knowledge

• Support & Training

• Creativity

• Technology

• Patience, Patience, Patience...

“We need better librarians, not better libraries.”

• T. Scott Plutchak (“Valuing Librarians”, T. Scott blog tscott.typepad.com, Sept. 20, 2007)

“Regular contact between librarian and user is essential...”, “...a liaison program is person-oriented.”

“The important ingredient is the personal connection between a library representative and a segment of the user population.”

• Shedlock, James. “The Library Liaison Program: Building Bridges with Our Users.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 2 (Spring 1983): 61-5.

How’s that working out for you?

• Seats at specialized meetings

• Co-teaching courses

• Librarian/Teaching Faculty projects

• True Integration v. One Shot orientations

How’s that working out for you?• Library Class Attendance Up

– 1872 (‘06-’07) to 2291 (‘07-’08)

• In House Desk Stats Down

– 9348 (’06-’07) to 7501 (‘07-’08)

• One-on-One Instruction Up

– 196 (‘06-’07) to 236 (‘07-’08)

How’s that working out for you?• Mini-Med School 2007

• Research Partners – EMR training database

• Co-teaching - APA style; 4 classes; writing center

• CENTRA classes – DE modules

• Online Discussions – Dr. Clay’s class

• Resident Training – w/ resident coordinators

“Although the importance of the library’s role as a gateway to faculty is decreasing, rather dramatically in certain fields, over 90% of the librarians list this role as very important...[85%] expect it to remain very important in 5 years”

• Ross Housewright, Roger Schonfeld, “Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education,” Ithaka Report, August 18, 2008, http://www.ithaka.org/publications

The Future

– Service – expert support for purchased resources

– Office space within schools & colleges

• School of Dentistry model

– Education – More seamless integration with curricula

- Informationists & “embedded” librarians

- Shared funding for positions

- Personality Traits v. Learned Skills