Liaison Librarianship: New Models and Best Practices for Your Institution

Looking to improve or implement liaison services at your institution? Curious about how offering liaison services can benefit your library? Wondering if developing liaison librarian skills will further your career? Michele R. Tennant, co-creator of a liaison program, and a host of experienced liaison librarians will introduce you to a range of contemporary liaison library services models and share best practices in liaison librarianship. The collective experience and knowledge of the presenters make this webinar a rare opportunity to get the information and insights you need to make important decisions about the services your library offers and career paths you might take.

The presenters will help you meet the webinar outcomes through presentations, sharing of experiences, discussions, and information from a recent patron and liaison survey.

You’ll learn about the benefits and challenges of unit-based models (liaisons provide all services to a unit) vs. functional models (liaisons provide methodological services, for example, bioinformatics and natural language processing, to all units), the role of liaison librarians under various models, and which model might best fit your institution.

You’ll learn how you can develop cutting-edge services, integrate your liaison services into institutional units, successfully outreach to clients, and market your services.

You’ll leave the webinar with knowledge you’ll need to identify the right liaison model for your institution, ideas on how to better serve your patrons, and a picture of the challenges and rewards of liaison librarianship.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate between unit/subject and functional liaisons and the services they provide
• Appraise the benefits and challenges of being a liaison librarian
• Describe best practices for liaison outreach, integrating into institutional units, developing trusted relationships with library patrons, and improving liaison skills

Audience

Academic, health sciences, public services, and liaison librarians, administrators interested in adding or improving liaison services at their institution.

Presenters

Michele R. Tennant, AHIP, FMLA is Interim Senior Director for the Academic Research Consulting and Services (ARCS) department at the University of Florida. Michele was a co-creator of the Health Science Center Libraries’ Liaison Librarian program in the late 1990s and has served as and/or supervised liaisons since that time. She is the lead author of several articles on liaison services and, with Margaret Ansell, Jane Morgan-Daniel, Terry K. Selfe, Joe Wu, and Mary Edwards of “Evolution and Expansion of Library Liaison Roles,” in The Engaged Health Sciences Library Liaison, Rowman & Littlefield, 2020.

Hannah F. Norton. AHIP is Chair of the University of Florida’s Health Science Center Library in Gainesville where she also serves as liaison librarian for the College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Medicine, and one year of medical students. She has served as a liaison for 13 years and supervised liaisons for 6 years.

Margaret Ansell, AHIP is the Nursing & Consumer Health Liaison Librarian at the University of Florida’s Health Science Center Libraries, and the Associate Chair of the Health Science Center Library in Gainesville. She has served as the liaison to the College of Nursing since 2014, and also leads and participates in projects related to consumer health both on campus and in the Gainesville community.

Mary Edwards is a Liaison and Reference Librarian at the University of Florida Health Science Center Library. She liaises to a number of clinical and research departments in the Colleges of Medicine and Public Health and Health Professions. Mary’s expertise includes instructional design, online teaching and learning, and program evaluation.

Ariel FitzGerald Pomputius, AHIP is a health sciences liaison librarian at the Health Science Center Libraries, University of Florida–Gainesville. Her liaison groups include eight departments in the College of Medicine and a shared liaison responsibility to one year of the College of Medicine medical students.

Jane Morgan-Daniel, AHIP is the Community Engagement Librarian at the Health Science Center Library at the University of Florida. Jane liaises to a number of departments in the Colleges of Health and Human Performance, Public Health and Health Professions, and Medicine.

Carrie D. Adams joined the University of Florida in 2021 as Program Director and Associate University Librarian for Borland Library, which supports faculty, students, staff, and clinicians of the UF Health Jacksonville Colleges of Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy.

Aida Miró-Herrans is the Bioinformatics Librarian at the Academic Research Consulting and Services Department at the University of Florida in which capacity she provides instructional and research support in bioinformatics and genomics. She also serves as liaison librarian to the UF Genetic Institute and its Graduate Program, two departments at the College of Medicine Gainesville campus, and one at the UF Scripps Institute.

Terry K. Selfe, AHIP is the Translational Research and Impact Librarian at the University of Florida in which capacity she serves as liaison librarian for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, three departments in the College of Medicine, and one in the College of Public Health and Health Professions.

Borui Zhang is the Natural Language Processing Specialist at the ARCS department of the University of Florida. She provides educational training and consultations for library patrons on projects that use natural language processing and machine learning methods. She liaises to four health science departments from UF Gainesville Campus and UF Scripps Research Institute.

MLA CE: 1.5