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Collaboration with faculty: What they don’t teach you in library school

Abstract

For a new librarian, it can be challenging to make connections on campus in order to fulfill liaison duties and foster new opportunities for collaboration. Fostering partnerships can be particularly difficult if the library has no pre-existing relationship with an academic department.

This paper will review collaboration with faculty from the perspective of a new librarian. The case report will provide new and veteran librarians with effective methods and approaches to collaborating with faculty, such as creating unique opportunities to network, becoming more visible, and creating lasting partnerships on campus.

Introduction

It can take a new librarian years to establish productive relationships with faculty in order to succeed at the liaison work required by academic librarianship and which support career advancement. The portions of the library school curriculum that address collaboration and networking do not sufficiently prepare the new librarian for the challenges he or she will encounter in the real-work environment.

Networking and becoming more visible, thereby promoting not only yourself but library services as well, can be integral to your success on the job. Extending your outreach efforts campus-wide, increasing your visibility, and creating new opportunities to collaborate and network with faculty will support your position as a liaison, and enhance your portfolio for promotion and tenure.

This paper will present the author’s own personal experiences as a new librarian working in the academic engineering library field for the last four years. The author will recommend strategies and approaches for both new and experienced librarians to initiate and/or improve their existing collaborative efforts with faculty. It will conclude with a list of recommendations, including how best to facilitate this transition from school into the workplace, and will suggest ways to support the new librarian’s collaborative efforts. Lastly, it will present ideas for using collaborative web technologies that can create technology-enhanced liaison activities.

Background

The Sexton Design & Technology Library is one of five libraries at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is located on the Sexton Campus, and serves the faculties of Engineering, Architecture, and Planning.

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Dooley, S. J. (2009, June), Collaboration With Faculty: What They Don’t Teach You In Library School Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4573