SubjectLiaison Librarians changing roles, increasing value

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Subject/Liaison Librarianschanging roles,
increasing value

• Ellen Breen
• DCU Library

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Presentation Overview

• The great debate
• Whats in a name?
• SubjectLiaisonLearning.
• What do Liaison Librarians do?
• Creating value
• What do users want, expect, value?
• The future?

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Subject Librarians

• hard to justify in value-for-money terms at a
  time when the process of literature searches is
  substantially deskilled by online bibliographic
  resources
• technology is the most flexible answer to their
  (students) needs
• services must more closely match the increasing
  diverse working practices of their users
• Librarians under threat, Times Higher Ed.
  Supplement, February 2005

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Yet.

• Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin,
• University College Dublin, University of
  Limerick,
• NUIG, University College Cork, NUIM,
• University of Newcastle, University of Sheffield,
• University of Southampton, University of Warwick,
• University of Glasgow, University of Sydney,
• Monash University, Queensland University of
• Technology, University of Minnesota.etc

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Whats in a name?

• Subject Librarian, Faculty Liaison Librarian,
  School Liaison Librarian, Information Officer
• Many changed the name and role emphasisa little
  bit?
• Team based approach (interdisciplinary nature of
  research and learning)
• Subject expertise vs Information expert
• Reflecting/supporting new organisational
  structures on campus

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What do Subject/Liaison Librarians do?

• Diverse role
• Shifting priorities
• How do we maintain a balance
• Support?

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Value?

• What does the university value?
• What does it fund?
• Funding requests and strategies need to clearly
  connect to the values and mission of the
  university
• Visibility and engagement with research and
  learning
• Favoured internal feedback over external
  comparative measures when assessing library
• libraries that design responsive library
  services around highly valued institutional goals
  will increase their visibility and effectively
  demonstrate the librarys
• integral role in academia

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Value?

• DCU Learning Innovation Strategy
• Developing a distinct learning environment which
  will result in .students with a high level of
  information literacy
• Development of VLE .
• KPI Library resources embedded throughout VLE
• Support for new learners.
• KPI Provision of online resources (tutorials
  etc) to develop study skills, information
  literacy etc

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• creating services that add value to the
• customer takes precedence over all other
• drivers in determining organisational
• success in the 21st century?
• Kathryn J. Reiss, Innovation Strategy, Library
  Trends, 53,1, 2004

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Value Innovation

• A leap into the blue ocean
• Dont compete or benchmark, create a leap in
  value
• Give users more of what they value and less of
  what they dont

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Value Innovation

• Googles Director of Technology said
• Information professionals are needed to help
  people articulate their information needs, to
  help form queries, and to engage in the back and
  forth dialogue that results in finding
  appropriate information. Searching in the future
  will require a greater role for discernment.
  There will be more information, but it will not
  necessarily all be good information.

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Value Innovation

• 4 questions - the four action framework
• What of the factors that our industry takes for
  granted should be eliminated?
• Do our customers value them?
• Which factors should be reduced well below the
  industry standards?
• What have we overdone?

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Value Innovation

• Which factors should be raised above the industry
  standard?
• What compromises have we forced users to make
  that we should not have?
• Which factors should be created that the industry
  has never offered?
• What new value can we add for our users?

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What do users want, expect, value?Academic staff
/ Researchers

• Do they value the role of the Subject Librarian?
• Some quotes
• state of the art university library with
• a dedicated business librarian
• great to have had a Librarian who was so
  pro-active and engaged in what we do

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What do users want, expect, value?Academic staff
/ Researchers

• you have opened so many opportunities for people
  to access information that they thought was
  inaccessible or didnt know of its existence
• I think the Subject Librarian model works very
  well.in our
• case, I think the relationship with the subject
  librarian has
• worked especially well because of the librarians
  
• background in law
• They are invaluable, I can not see a system
  working without them. I believe them to be the
  most effective and efficient part of the
  university infrastructure

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What do users want, expect, value?Academic staff
/ Researchers

• Important areas for future, new roles?
• More IL training (for staff and students) see it
  expanding in relation to development of generic
  skills programmes for postgrads
• Support with grant applications, deliver metrics
  required quickly!, as well as training
• Continue work in relation to the Institutional
  Repository dont be afraid to nag people!
• Meeting students where they are.VLE, using
  online forums to help evaluate resources etc
  getting in the flow
• Blogs bringing students and staff together

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What do users want, expect, value?Academic staff
/ Researchers

• CONUL Research Survey
• 70 would value having a dedicated research
  support Librarian
• Generally aware of role of SL less aware in the
  Sci/tech disciplines
• UK Study of Researchers use of Libraries and
  Services future role of Libraries?
• Custodian of print and digitized archives and
  special collections (core role 72)
• Managing Institutional Repositories (61 core
  role)
• Subject based information expertise (46 core
  role, 33 ancillary, discipline variation) need
  to move outside of library

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What do users want, expect, value?Academic staff
/ Researchers

• UK Study Future role of Libraries
• Teacher (42 core role) would value training
  beyond the basics, need for a sharper focus on
  the specialist needs and practices of researchers
  in different disciplines
• Manager of datasets generated by e-research and
  grid-based projects (over 1/3 see it as a core
  role, 27 ancillary 62!)
• Technology specialist (34 core role) e-access to
  resources

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How do we successfully deliver the value added
services required?

• Subject/Liaison Librarian.change is the only
  constant.
• Impact on CPD, recruitment etc
• Diverse role where do we concentrate efforts?
• Support structures
• How can we change the model to better deliver the
  services required?
• Does one-size fit all??

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How do we successfully deliver the value added
services required?

• Less specialised? more specialised?
• undergraduate focus
• International focus
• research focus
• Information literacy focus
• E-learning focus
• Other focus?
• Collaborative teams across depts/units
• The tranformational library (Brewer et al 2004)
• Depends upon the ability of the academic library
  to work collaboratively with other stakeholders
  on campus
• Collaborative teams across institutions??

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How do we successfully deliver the services
required?

• Collaborative venture for QUT Library 1
• Two new posts created, which add another
  specialist level to the Subject Specialist
  Librarians
• Created the post Information Manager in
  collaboration with their new Institute of Health
  and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI)
• Funded three ways, based in IHBI
• Provides library reference services and
  specialist value-added information services
• Focus on building a collaborative culture
  sharing knowledge member of team developing a
  web based research knowledge database
• IHBI Service team includes info manager,
  faculty librarians and other staff with research
  support roles (IT)

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How do we successfully deliver the services
required?

• Collaborative venture for QUT Library 2
• eResearch Acess Coordinator
• Works across faculties, research institutes and
  other departments within the Division of Tech,
  Info and Learning Support
• Role to enable QUT researchers uptake of
  eResearch opportunities
• Investigate and develop systems for the
  organisation and curation of research datasets
• Broker access to external datasets
• Also responsibilties relating to their IR and
  promoting open access publishing

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• ...Academic Libraries have the opportunity to
  demonstrate leadership in their institutions and
  across the HE and library sectors by identifying
  the immediate and future needs of our clients,
  recognising the expertise the Library has to
  offer and positioning the Library so it can move
  into new areas and develop new service models
• Judy Stokker, Director, Library Services, QUT

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Bibliography

• Kim, Chan W, Mauborgne, Renee, Value Innovation
  A leap into the Blue Ocean. Journal of Business
  Strategy, Vol. 26. No. 4, pp.22-28, 2005
• Dale, Penny, Holland, Matt, Matthews Marian.
  Subject Librarians Engaging with the Learning
  and Teaching Environment. Aldershot Ashgate,
  2006
• Deiss, Kathryn J. Innovation and Strategy Risk
  and Choice in Shaping User-Centered Libraries.
  Library Trends, Vol. 53, No.1, 2004
• Hardy, G. Corrall, S. Revisiting the Subject
  Librarian a study of English, Law and Chemistry.
  Journal of Librarianship and Information Science,
  39, 2, pp.79-91, 2007
• The Academic Librarian Dinosaur or Phoenix?die
  or fly in library change management. Conference
  held in Hong Kong, April 11-12, 2007 (found a
  number of really useful papers including one from
  Judy Stokker, QUT and John Rodwell Linden
  Fairbairn, University of Sydney)

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Useful References

• Research Information Network (RIN) Consortium
  of Research Libraries (CURL). Researchers use of
  Academic Libraries and their Services. April 2007
• CONUL. Research Support Survey, 2005
• Dale, Penny, Holland, Matt, Matthews Marian.
  Subject Librarians Engaging with the Learning
  and Teaching Environment. Aldershot Ashgate,
  2006
• Deiss, Kathryn J. Innovation and Strategy Risk
  and Choice in Shaping User-Centered Libraries.
  Library Trends, Vol. 53, No.1, 2004
• Hardy, G. Corrall, S. Revisiting the Subject
  Librarian a study of English, Law and Chemistry.
  Journal of Librarianship and Information Science,
  39, 2, pp.79-91, 2007
• The Academic Librarian Dinosaur or Phoenix?die
  or fly in library change management. Conference
  held in Hong Kong, April 11-12, 2007 (found a
  number of really useful papers including one from
  Judy Stokker, QUT John Rodwell Linden
  Fairbairn, University of Sydney and Irene
  Doskatsch, University of South Australia)