Liaison Program & Responsibilities

About the Liaison Program

The purpose of the Liaison Program is to generate dialogue between the library and academic departments in order to enhance the library's understanding of user needs and to promote the library's services and resources. More specifically, its goals are to:

Foster communication between the Library and academic departments, as well as with individual faculty members.
Facilitate Library collaboration with academic departments.
Promote and advocate the Library's services and resources to academic units as well as to individual faculty members.
Develop research collections that support the University's mission and programs.
Provide to each academic department (or program) a contact person in the Library who is knowledgeable about that department's library collection, curriculum, research needs, and future directions of that department.

List of Faculty and Librarian Liaisons

Liaison Responsibilities

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Engagement & Outreach
- Serve as primary liaison to subject area(s) faculty, students and staff; take initiative to identify, meet, and facilitate ongoing communication regarding their resource needs and service expectations. Act as the information specialist in assigned subject areas.
  - Evidence of efforts to engage in outreach activities in order to promote library services and resources.
  - Actively engage with faculty, students, and staff in assigned disciplines in order to develop strong working relationships and seeking opportunities for collaboration;
  - Informing faculty of new resources and or discipline specific database trial(s), meeting new faculty or candidates;
  - Attendance at campus events or activities such as seminars, colloquia, department meetings and/or conferences;
  - Assess user needs, design and implement user studies, share information about users with library staff and with departments or institutes;
  - Analyze trends in assigned discipline or area’s research and teaching; be aware of department’s current and future programs; use information to respond to user needs;
  - Regularly reading literature, such as Chronicle of Higher Education, about trends in higher education, subjects, and disciplines, and sharing information with colleagues;
  - Identify potential topics for exhibits or events that promote services or collections or support campus goals.
Research & Testing
- Provide in-depth, specialized research assistance; design and implement strategic and pedagogically appropriate instruction for library users through a variety of methods; promote library services and collections to the broader Texas State University community.
  - Provide assistance and instruction in finding and evaluating information and accessing library resources and services
  - Answer questions in-person and via chat, e-mail, and phone;
  - Provide consultations for specialized areas of expertise;
  - Extend services through office hours, embedded librarianship and support of student research;
  - Engage faculty and other teaching staff to integrate information literacy concepts and skills into the curriculum;
  - Play an active role in the Research, Instruction & Outreach department and RLS Division’s programs in support of teaching and learning;
  - Develop and deliver strategic and effective instructional programs and learning materials based on pedagogically sound instructional design principles;
  - Develop and provide alternate learning opportunities such as LibGuides, train-the-trainer sessions, video tutorials, or research consultations.
  - Engage in reflective teaching through use of instructional improvement tools such as peer evaluation or teaching portfolios.
Scholarly Communication
- Educate and inform faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and campus administrators on issues of scholarly communication.
  - Be a resource for issues such as scholarly communication, open access, institutional repositories, and digital collections.
  - Monitor patterns of research and emerging issues in scholarly communication.
  - Demonstrate competency on broad issues of copyright and how to responsibly use resources in an academic setting.
  - Coordinate with the Scholarly Communications Team to promote policies and programs related to copyright, publishing and research with faculty and graduate students.
Collection Development & Management
- Develop and manage collections to support research and instruction in subject area(s) by formulating policies and selecting materials in relevant formats and languages.
  - Develop and manage collections in assigned subject area(s) & the Reference Collection by formulating policies and selecting materials in relevant formats and languages to serve the research, teaching and learning needs of the Texas State University academic community.
  - Coordinate with the Head Acquisitions Librarian and Collection Development Librarian to develop cooperative collection initiatives.
  - Manage collection funds effectively and in a timely manner. Analyze collection characteristics and collection usage data to better serve Library users.
  - Discover and recruit institutional scholarly output, research data and other content for inclusion in the Libraries’ Digital Collections.
  - Follow the Collection Development Best Practices
Digital Tools & Emerging Technologies
- Promote use of subject-specific information resources and services to meet user needs and expectations, utilizing current technologies and information tools. Work with staff in the other Divisions and Research & Learning Services departments to ensure accurate and easy access to scholarly resources.
  - Identify areas where online learning and digital tools can place the library into the flow of teaching, learning, and research.
  - Participate in the coordination and integration of online tools in support of teaching, learning, and research.
  - Work with CDS staff to improve discovery tools and interfaces.
  - Work with Access Services to facilitate connecting faculty and students to their research materials.
  - Support the creation of digital collections by contributing specialized expertise to their processing.
  - Conducting and/or attending workshops on specific database or technological innovations that can be used in teaching or research
Professional Contribution
- Professional activity, such as attendance and participation in conferences and workshops, membership and service in appropriate professional organizations and other professional activities and/or
  
  a. Productive service to the department and university including committee and team meetings and/or Includes Librarian/Curator contributions to the Library, the University, and the profession. Community service of sufficiently high quality as determined by the promotion review panel may be considered.
  
  b. Creative activity appropriate to one’s field/profession, such as delivering papers at conferences, research study and/or publication This type of work usually results in a product or outcome of value to the Library or the library profession. Librarians/Curators are expected to demonstrate some measure of scholarly or creative productivity. Please note, "creative" is intended as "creation of original materials or processes" in addition to an artistic context. Professional Effectiveness
  
  c. Professional effectiveness evidenced by consistent competent performance, with demonstration of activity beyond the marginal level in assigned responsibilities. The candidate must show an understanding of policies, procedures and goals of the library, and demonstrate an ability to coordinate activities within that framework.
  
  A successful librarian/curator in this area advances library service and access to resources.