Terri
L. Holtze
University of Louisville
Poster Session presented at the
ACRL Conference
Denver, CO
March 17, 2001
Abstract | 50+ Ways to Reach your Faculty | Bibliography: Collaborative Teaching Case Studies, Liaison Programs
Whether your concern is course-integrated information literacy or positioning your library on campus, it all comes down to the relationship you have with other faculty at your institution. For example, successful information literacy instruction happens best when it is incorporated within a course of learning. However, course content is determined by the faculty and convincing them to give up some of their class time for information literacy can be a challenge. So how can a librarian get heard?
This poster session will provide both practical
and creative ways to make the librarian's voice heard on campus. In order to
be effective agents for integrated information literacy, librarians need to
integrate themselves into the campus faculty. New librarians may feel intimidated
by the idea of starting with such a large mission. Collaboration does not start
with big initiatives like team-taught classes; it begins with smaller steps.
How do you meet your faculty? How do you establish a relationship? How do you
showcase the library's services and your own talents to faculty while showing
that you respect their abilities? This poster session will cover techniques
for meeting and interacting with faculty for librarians at different stages
of their collaborative relationships.
Areas that will be stressed in particular are: meeting your faculty, building a relationship, communicating professionally, tailoring resources and teaching to faculty interests, and collaborating with faculty. In addition to having 50 creative ideas for working with faculty, visitors of this poster session will also receive a bibliography of helpful articles covering liaison activities, outreach, and collaborative teaching case studies.
50+ Ways to Reach your Faculty
Meeting your Faculty
Getting started can be the hardest step. Try some of these suggestions to break
the ice:
1 Invite them to: Lunch, coffee, a new faculty
reception, or an appropriate library meeting.
2 Attend: Campus events, their department
meeting, or open meetings on campus.
3 Advertise in campus publications.
4 Meet the people around your faculty: department
staff, administrators, graduate students.
5 Give new faculty a small amount of money
to buy library materials they or their students will need.
6 Host a "published this year" party (including
librarians who have published).
Building a Relationship
7 Answer requests and complaints in a timely
manner.
8 Attend events sponsored by your department.
9 Send a thank you note for referring a
student or colleague.
10 Provide a benefit, like free coffee or
copies, to the department's liaison to the library.
11 Cultivate those professors who already
use the library. They can be your best advocates!
12 Announce new resources that will be of
use to them.
13 Get on their department's listserv.
Communicating Professionally
§ Keep them informed, but avoid inundating them with constant messages.
14 Create a "Faculty Guide to the Libraries"
with all the essentials: phone numbers, course reserve procedures, etc.
15 Congratulate them on publications, grant
fundings, etc.
16 Write an introductory letter to new faculty
members.
17 Prepare a report on the number of items
/ amount of money spent on collections in their field.
18 Send personal handwritten notes, if possible.
19 Write a profile in the library's newsletter
of a faculty member's contribution to library services.
20 Send a FAQ list or other useful handouts
to share with classes.
21 Do a survey of faculty's use of the collection,
and let them know that selection decisions are based on how they use the material.
(Aked)
22 Post information on the bulletin boards
in their buildings - especially to reach students.
Position the Library
§ Individual efforts will be much more effective if the library as a whole has
a commanding presence on campus.
23 Apply for grants! Most universities announce
grant winners in campus newsletters. This raises money and positive attention.
24 Make sure that library successes are
promoted to the President/Deans.
25 Get included in university-wide assessment
programs.
26 Set the goal for all librarians to be
involved with faculty - the more librarians involved, the greater the networking
potential.
27 Establish the library as a central place
on campus to go for research, writing assistance, computer labs, coffee, etc.
28 Volunteer for campus-wide projects.
29 Know what the hot topics are on campus
(student retention, distance education, etc.) and what role the library plays
in them. (Iannuzzi)
30 Advertise the library's mission statement
and show how you are living up to it.
31 Use the library's centrality to help
faculty from different departments to interact. (Stahl,
135)
Know Your Stuff
§ In order to work with faculty you need to prove that you have the skills to
positively impact student learning. (Winner)
32 Get an advanced degree in a subject specific
field.
33 Take a class in their department.
34 Join the professional organizations of
the faculty, not just library organizations.
35 Study! - understand modern teaching methods;
read their textbooks.
36 Teach faculty about new technology they
need for instruction and research - make office visits if necessary.
37 Ask to observe class sessions to gain
a better understanding of the topics covered.
38 When you get an opportunity to teach,
prepare thoroughly. One source estimates that instruction preparation time should
be two to three hours per hour of instruction. (Winner,
27)
39 Have a plan - know what you have to offer
and give an organized, well-considered pitch. Show how your skills will help
the faculty member to achieve his goals.
40 Investigate their program: know what
courses they teach, whether they have a web presence, how many students they
have, and how active they are on campus. (Yang, 10)
Tailoring to Faculty Interests
§ Respect their skills and experience. You need to show them what you have to
offer without offending them.
41 Advertise individualized research assistance
for students and faculty.
42 Teach short courses for faculty on topics
they want.
43 Consult them about which journals are
essential to them (especially if you have to drop some.)
44 Buy their books!
45 Create web guides to research tools for
their discipline.
46 Ask for their syllabus as a tool for
collection development.
47 Review the syllabi and create class specific
lists of resources.
48 Do a study of faculty research habits.
(Aked)
49 Find out what new courses are in the
works which may need collection support. (Larson, 260)
50 Catalog their personal or office collections.
51 Survey new faculty to find out what journals
they read regularly - let them know which ones you have and reassure them that
you will keep the others in mind if money becomes available.
52 Keep a profile on each professor's research
interests and accomplishments. (Yang, 11)
Collaborating with Faculty
§ After working your way through introductions, building a relationship, and
proving you know your stuff, it is time to collaborate.
§ Faculty live under pressure to research, publish, teach, and get grants. Working
with you increases their work load. You have to make it worthwhile for them.
§ Find out what kinds of activities mean the most for their promotion and focus
your efforts there.
53 Co-author an article.
54 Collaborate on a grant.
55 Provide information to accreditation
committees.
56 Work together on a bibliography.
57 Ask them to represent the department
on a search committee for the librarian in their field.
58 Team teach a class.
59 Hold librarian "office hours" in their
department offices.
60 Investigate learning communities and
what role a librarian could play.
61 Create a class assignment together.
62 Assist them with finding or organizing
information.
63 Get on the curriculum planning committee.
64 Partner with them to teach web evaluation
skills. (Walter)
65 If qualified, offer to teach a class
in their deparmtent (with extra pay, of course!)
66 Teach a session for their class on research
methods and resources specific to the class.
Know when to walk away!
If a faculty member is not open to what you can contribute, pursuing your agenda
will only alienate them.
Don’t be discouraged by a bad experience. Sometimes it’s just a matter of finding
the right person.
Value yourself!
Know your strengths and what contributions you can make.
Get out of the library – interact with faculty in other venues.
Working with faculty is only one aspect of being a librarian, so be aware of
how much time you can spend on collaborative projects.
Collaborative Teaching Case Studies
Avino, Catherine. Librarian-Teacher Partnerships: An Annotated Bibliography. ERIC, 1994. ED 380 137. Christensen, Peter G. "Using English department library liaisons in a term paper clinic: reviving the scholar/librarian model" Research Strategies 12 (Fall 1994): 196-208.
Dickstein, Ruth and Kari Boyd McBride. "Listserv lemmings and fly-brarians on the wall: a librarian-instructor team taming the cyberbeast in the large classroom" College & Research Libraries 59 (Jan. 1998): 10-17.
Evenbeck, Scott and Gayle Williams. "Learning Communities: An Instructional Team Approach." Metropolitan Universities: An International Forum 9.1 (Summer 1998): 35-46.
Isbell, Dennis. "Teaching writing and research as inseparable: a faculty-librarian teaching team" Reference Services Review 23.4 (1995): 51-62.
Judd, Vaughan C. and Betty J. Tims. "Integrating bibliographic instruction into a marketing curriculum: a hands-on workshop approach using interactive team-teaching" Reference Services Review 24.1 (1996): 21-30+.
Jurena, Donna Phin and Ceri Natalie Daniels. Two Heads are Better Than One: Team Teaching in the Information Age. ERIC, 1997. ED 410 978.
Kilman, Leigh Ann. "Public Justice Information Sources: A Teaching Partnership" Research Strategies 10.3 (Summer 1992): 129-33.
Murry, John W. et al. "Faculty and Librarian Collaboration: The Road to Information Literacy for Graduate Students" Journal on Excellence in College Teaching 8.2 (1997): 107-21.
Petrowski, Mary Jane, David Baird and Karen Leach. "Building a successful collaboration: Colgate University's collaboration for enhanced learning" College & Research Libraries News 61.11 (Dec. 2000): 1003-5.
Petrowski, Mary Jane and Lizabeth A. Wilson. Collaborative Teaching and Critical Assessment of Resources: A Workshop for Faculty and Librarians. ERIC, 1991. ED 339 382.
Rasmus, Francesca Lane and Christine M. Larson. "Instructional partnerships: team teaching global politics and the Web" Indiana Libraries 16.1 (1997): 43-8.
Ricker, Alison Scott. "Chemistry Information for the undergraduate in a one-credit course: faculty/librarian team teaching" Science & Technology Libraries 16.3-4 (1997): 45-67.
Thompson, Dot S. and James A. Van Fleet. "Developing a model of library user education for freshman science students" Research Strategies 10 (Summer 1992): 122-8.
Walter, Scott. "Engelond: a model for faculty-librarian collaboration in the information age" Information Technology and Libraries 19.1 (March 2000): 34-41.
Weiner, Suzanne T. "Librarians as teaching team members in a mechanical engineering senior design course" Science & Technology Libraries 16.1 (1996): 3-10.
Whyte, Susan Barnes. "Spanning the Distance: Using Computer Conferencing as Part of a Team-Taught Research/Writing Class" Reference Librarian n51-52 (1995): 267-79.
Woodard, Patricia. "Librarian and faculty collaboration in Honors 301.88: an interdisciplinary computer applications course at Hunter College" Research Strategies 14 (Summer 1996): 132-44.
Aked, Michael et. al., "Faculty use of an academic library reference collection" Collection Building 17.2 (1998): 56-64.
Iannuzzi, Patricia. "Faculty development and Information Literacy: Establishing Campus Partnerships" Reference Services Review 26.3/4 (Fall/Winter 1998): 97-102+.
Kushkowski, Jeffrey D. "A Method for Determining Faculty Preferences for Monographs" Collection Building 19.1 (2000): 17-23.
Kussrow, Paul G. and Helen Laurence. "Instruction in Developing Grant Proposals: A Librarian-Faculty Partnership" Research Strategies 11.1 (Winter 1993): 47-51.
Larson, Christine M. "'What I Want in a Faculty Member' A Reference Librarian's Perspective" Reference & User Services Quarterly 37.3 (Spring 1998): 260.
Stahl, Aletha D. "'What I Want in a Librarian' One New Faculty Member's Perspective" Reference & User Services Quarterly 37.2 (Winter 1997): 135.
Winner, Marian C. "Librarians as partners in the classroom: An increasing imperative" Reference Services Review 26.1 (Spring 1998): 25-29.
Yang, Julie and Don Frank. "Working Effectively with Scholars: A key to academic library success" Georgia Library Quarterly 36.2 (Summer 1999): 10.
Yang, ZY. "University faculty's perception of a library liaison program: A case study" Journal Of Academic Librarianship 26.2 (March 2000): 124-128.