High Touch Library Services: Reaching Faculty and Students Across Campus through Liaisonships

Abstract

In this paper we will provide a definition of academic library liaison work, explain its benefits to patrons as well as college and university libraries, discuss the variety of activities that academic library liaison work entails, and review successful methods for becoming effective academic library liaisons. The authors’ goal of this research is to reaffirm perceptions and practices of colleagues currently serving as library liaisons on their campuses and to provide an introductory guide for those just entering the field of academic librarianship. This paper includes the results of a survey conducted by Montana State University Libraries-Bozeman in the fall of 2008. The survey was sent to all faculty in the departments of Native American Studies and University Studies. In addition to these departments the survey was also sent to a small number of select faculty from other departments including Sociology and Education.

The purpose of the survey was to determine the awareness and effectiveness of Montana State University Libraries’ established liaison program; an additional intent of the study was to identify areas in need of improvement as well as any new services desired by the libraries’ patrons. The participants’ responses were kept anonymous and the survey consisted of 15 multiple choice questions with three individual comment fields. Participants were required to answer 12-13 of the 15 questions based on their prior knowledge of instruction and reference services offered by the libraries. The authors used Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) and distributed the survey link through non-library departmental staff, via the campus email service.