Developing a matrix and using self-reported scoring to measure librarian engagement on campus

Abstract

Purpose – The library’s strategic plan calls for the author to “Transform the role of the subject liaison librarian to better engage the campus community.” This statement specifically focusses on the aspect of the liaison role that builds relationships with the campus partners, “to better engage the campus community.” And like the peers, liaison librarians at this mid-size research institution have been struggling not only with implementing but also determining how to measure this new role. The purpose of this paper is to develop one measure of librarian engagement with the campus community. Design/methodology/approach – The author developed a “campus relationship matrix” that articulates dozens of products that could potentially be the result of liaison work, such as co-authoring a grant proposal, developing a class, co-presenting a workshop on article impact metrics, etc. These relationship products were generated by examining the own work and by scanning liaison responsibility statements from other institutions. These products fall into three relationship status levels: emergent, generative, and productive. Each subject librarian was asked to rate his and her relationship with each department he or she serves. Additionally, in order to achieve consistency across the organization in understanding of three relationship levels, the author engaged in an exercise to calibrate the categorization of these work products. During this exercise and through the discussions, greater nuances were revealed about what the author is hoping to achieve with the strategic goal. A review and summary of the ratings is presented. Findings – Baseline counts of relationship types were completed. The author is working to establish goals for next year’s comparisons. In actuality, the specific goals matters much less than the conversations surrounding these results about what work the author should be doing and why and how is valued. Originality/value – This study presents a tool useful for the exploration and measure of librarian relationships with campus.

Employing criteria scoring matrix in appraising the economic return of transcending to a circular built environment

“…An abductive approach is vital in structuring a matrix framework where the models are refined from qualitative opinions (Paloviita, 2021). Broughton (2016) used qualitative discussions to refine the conceptual model of a matrix, and Paloviita (2021) argues that abductive reasoning is essential in the qualitative assessment of matrix development since it matches the frameworks and theories into real case scenarios. Pertinently, this qualitative study is focussed only on fulfilling the qualitative assessment loop in the scoring matrix development process, where the conceptual matrix was developed by reviewing existing literature, assessed through a qualitative approach of a Delphi expert survey and refined with abductive reasoning of the expert opinions through data analysis.…”

Connections, Conversations, and Visibility: How the Work of Academic Reference and Liaison Librarians Is Evolving

“…Librarians rated their departmental relationships after one year as to whether they were emergent, generative, or productive as defined by the matrix. 112 She noted that the value was in the conversation that the librarians had to create the matrix. Kenney provided an example assessment for determining "Base Level, Good, and Better" in aligning liaison activities with library goals.…”

What is your contribution to the funder’s strategy?

“…Among European libraries, the current state of the art concerning library strategy seems to be rather different. There is a great body of international literature on library strategic planning (Broughton, 2016; Saunders, 2015, 2016; MIT, 2016; Germano and Stretch-Stephenson, 2012). In order to scope the full examination, an initial simple Google search for the English term “library strategy” delivers more than 20 different strategies papers of British libraries and some Swedish examples looking at the first three pages of the search results.…”