Places to Go, People to See Growing & Maintaining a Strong Liaison Program Susan Simpson, MLS, AHIP Roger Russell, MLS, AHIP

Our Landscape East Carolina University - over 27,000 students Division of Health Sciences students DHS - Brody School of Medicine, College of Allied Health Sciences, College of Nursing, School of Dentistry Laupus Library - 74,000 sq ft

Our Landscape Information Services –4 liaisons: 2 Medicine, 1 Allied Health, 1 Nursing – ¾ time associate position –1 Education/Technology librarian –1 School of Dentistry liaison (coming soon)

How it all got started.... Fall 1998 BSOM v. Allied Health or Nursing Early shift to DE Reaching more people

Challenges Consistency, no “branding” Clear vision & expectations; mentoring Overcoming traditional value systems for “working” –“Where are the librarians?!” –“How do we measure outcomes?” Shrinking “gate count” Geography

Foundations Relationships Flexibility Improved Communication –Branding, Consistency, Marketing Specialized Knowledge Support & Training Creativity Technology Patience, Patience, Patience...

“We need better librarians, not better libraries.” T. Scott Plutchak (“Valuing Librarians”, T. Scott blog tscott.typepad.com, Sept. 20, 2007)tscott.typepad.com

“Regular contact between librarian and user is essential...”, “...a liaison program is person-oriented.” “The important ingredient is the personal connection between a library representative and a segment of the user population.” Shedlock, James. “The Library Liaison Program: Building Bridges with Our Users.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 2 (Spring 1983): 61-5.

How’s that working out for you? Seats at specialized meetings Co-teaching courses Librarian/Teaching Faculty projects True Integration v. One Shot orientations

How’s that working out for you? Library Class Attendance Up –1872 (‘06-’07) to 2291 (‘07-’08) In House Desk Stats Down –9348 (’06-’07) to 7501 (‘07-’08) One-on-One Instruction Up –196 (‘06-’07) to 236 (‘07-’08)

How’s that working out for you? Mini-Med School 2007 Research Partners – EMR training database Co-teaching - APA style; 4 classes; writing center CENTRA classes – DE modules Online Discussions – Dr. Clay’s class Resident Training – w/ resident coordinators

“Although the importance of the library’s role as a gateway to faculty is decreasing, rather dramatically in certain fields, over 90% of the librarians list this role as very important...[85%] expect it to remain very important in 5 years” Ross Housewright, Roger Schonfeld, “Ithaka’s 2006 Studies of Key Stakeholders in the Digital Transformation in Higher Education,” Ithaka Report, August 18, 2008,

The Future –Service – expert support for purchased resources –Office space within schools & colleges School of Dentistry model –Education – More seamless integration with curricula -Informationists & “embedded” librarians -Shared funding for positions -Personality Traits v. Learned Skills