Subject/Liaison Librarians
changing roles,
increasing value…
Ellen Breen
DCU Library
Presentation Overview
• The great debate…
• What’s in a name?
– Subject…Liaison…Learning….
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What do Liaison Librarians do?
Creating value
What do users want, expect, value?
The future?
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
Yet….
Dublin City University, Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin, University of Limerick,
NUIG, University College Cork, NUIM,
University of Newcastle, University of Sheffield,
University College
University of
Southampton, University of Warwick,
University of Glasgow, University of Sydney,
Monash University, Queensland University of
Technology, University of
Minnesota….etc
What’s in a name?
• Subject Librarian, Faculty Liaison Librarian,
School Liaison Librarian, Information
Officer…
• Many changed the name and role emphasis…a
little bit…?
• Team based approach (interdisciplinary nature of research
and learning)
• Subject expertise vs Information expert
• Reflecting/supporting new organisational
structures on campus
What do Subject/Liaison Librarians do?
• Diverse role
• Shifting priorities
• How do we
maintain a
balance
• Support?
Liaison
Information
Literacy
E-Learning
Web
Role
Collection
Development
Other
Reference
Support
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 library’s
integral role in academia”
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
“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
Value Innovation
• A leap into the blue ocean
– Don’t compete or benchmark,
create a leap in value…
– Give users more of what they
value and less of what they
don’t…
Value Innovation
Google’s 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”.
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?
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?
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”
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 didn’t 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 librarian’s
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”
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 – don’t
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…
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 Researcher’s 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
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
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??
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??
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)
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
...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
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)
Useful References…
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•
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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)