On being a liason librarian

A couple of weeks ago in this space, Mark made the plea for Standards for being a liason librarian.

Six years into this business, and I'm still not sure what those standards are. I look around at my colleagues and I see a variety of approaches. One of my colleagues used to work as a travelling sales representative for health care products. The experience has served her well. She's not at all pushy or aggressive, but she does know how to work a room. She's really good at engaging faculty and grad students at various social functions. She's innately curious, and an excellent listener. But most importantly, she's not afraid to introduce herself to people and strike up a conversation. If, like me, you're more introvert than extrovert, you really have to work hard to overcome those fears as a liason librarian.

Many of my colleagues attend their departments weekly graduate seminar or other similar events. It's a great way to find out what's going on in the department. Who are the invited speakers? What are the topics? And, the post-seminar socializing is a great chance to hear what's really going on - the stuff that doesn't show up in the meeting minutes.

I see some of my departmental faculty at the skating rink during noonhour free skate. At the rink, people are thinking about work in a different way, and don't feel constrained by meeting agendas.

For me, perhaps the most valuable opportunity I had for building relations with my departments took place - dare I say it? - on the picket line shortly after my arrival at the university. I met a lot of really interesting people during that strike, and we had lots of time to talk.

But really, how do you build these relationships? Meet your department chair. Meet your library rep. Have coffee with them. Meet the support staff in the office - they are crucial. They're the ones sending out the department newsletter, making arrangements for new faculty, review committee meetings, distributing final reports for chair and unit reviews - they're gold.

Are you the type that mingles easily and well? Good for you! That's an important skill. Are you the type that would rather cling to a wall and hope that maybe someone comes to talk to you? Challenge yourself to be an extrovert for a day/hour/event and chat up one person. It's exhausting, but worth the effort. The next time you attend a department function you will know one more person.

And if you find an activity in common with one of your faculty, all the better. When you know each other at the rink, squash court, choral society, community orchestra, volunteer group, it can enhance your on-campus communication as well.

Finally - to Mark and all the others - here's a gem the ARCL conference in 2001. It's Terry Holtz's (University of Louisville) poster session from that conference: 50+ ways to meet your faculty: http://louisville.edu/~tlholt02/present/acrl2001.htm