A Tale of Two Liaison Programs: University of Central Florida Libraries and Louisiana State University Libraries Partnering for Subject Librarian Excellence

Abstract

Are you considering establishing a new or re-invigorated subject liaison program in your library but don't know how to begin? Why not partner with an established liaison program at another library? Throughout the spring and fall of 2015, key public service managers at Louisiana State University (LSU) Libraries visited six Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) to see, among other things, successful liaison programs. The LSU librarians were particularly impressed with the University of Central Florida (UCF) Libraries' three-year-old reimagined subject librarian program. Following this visit, LSU managers began reworking their program by fine-tuning liaisons' program assignments and creating a liaison training program that focused on academic program profiling, faculty profiling, curriculum mapping, curriculum integrated instruction, increased liaison visibility and accessibility, and proactive outreach to faculty and students. In this article, public service heads from UCF and LSU discuss how their liaison programs are the same and how they differ, how librarians collaborated in finding new ways of reaching faculty, what the challenges are in their current programs, and what the future may hold. Hopefully, lessons learned by UCF and LSU will provide insight for other academic libraries wishing to create liaison programs designed to support student and faculty success at their own institutions. (Please see http://guides.ucf.edu/ucflsu for graphics.

“You Need to Make it as Easy as Possible for Me”: Creating Scholarly Communication Reports for Liaison Librarians

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The Sky’s the Limit: Scholarly Communication, Digital Initiatives, Institutional Repositories, and Subject Librarians

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