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This paper seeks to describe a program that provides quick and relevant library instruction and research support for teaching faculty and their students within the context of the classroom.

The paper identifies the pressures on teaching faculty to improve critical inquiry and to conform with the state requirements and demands of future employers as providing an opportunity for academic librarians to present library instruction as a win‐win solution, consistent with library priorities in supporting research and promoting information literacy.

This project describes a strategy for implementing a drive‐by BI mini‐session, including identifying key courses and faculty, contacting them, positioning the drive‐by BI opportunity for the best effect and impact, and following up with the faculty and students.

This approach is particularly useful for librarians who are striving to reach teaching faculty and, through them, students with the benefits of information literacy, library support and research methods.

This paper describes a proactive approach to library instruction, one that acknowledges the demands upon and goals of both students and faculty in the classroom.

This article seeks to look at the need for a library request system that can provide improved relationship management and personalized services, and meets public expectations about advances in technology and self‐service applications. In this case, a homegrown solution fills a need in an efficient, cost‐effective and gratifying manner.

After investigating established reserves systems and finding them lacking in relationship and process management features, the libraries got to the point where library staff started looking for internal solutions to request tracking and workflow issues when a homegrown automated solution was discovered; Library Systems, the libraries' internal technical support unit, had developed a very versatile “Helpdesk” system that tracked the status of computer work and problem requests. This system had been adapted by other libraries and organizations around the country for a similar purpose and provided a simple yet versatile interface that would lend itself well to developing a system for reserve request tracking and process management.

After making use of this system over three terms including a busy Fall 2006, ResDesk has made a huge positive impact on workflow and communication. Instructors can, and do, check the status of their requests at their own discretion resulting in fewer visits from stressed out instructors. The system itself has been phenomenal in managing the request, allowing reserves processing, even though there are more requests than ever, to be more efficient than ever. For comparison, even though the number of requests has steadily increased, the amount of processing time, with the implementation of ResDesk, has steadily decreased.

While there have been many articles published on customer‐relationship management systems, they are firmly entrenched in the business sector and there has been little discussion in library literature about a system that would automate all communications and workflows surrounding interaction with patrons, from request to completion.

As academic libraries face growing challenges from the declining economy, deteriorating administrative support, increasing patron demands and fiscal accountability, as well as the expanding competition from both technology and retail industries, there is an opportunity to be more responsive to academic library customers and more strategic in the services provided to them. A boutique service model, generally, employed in high-end retail industries, may be adapted for academic libraries to provide a proactive, specialized approach to serving faculty and students. In the context of libraries, this model is focused on service that is personalized, user-driven, and technology-enhanced. It can be employed with the efforts of subject librarians and library personnel with minimal additional cost and would have a profound impact on the customer service experience. This chapter describes how the Policy Sciences & Economics Library at Texas A&M University (TAMU) has successfully implemented a boutique services model. It discusses the emphasis on a customer-intimacy strategy, focusing on relationship building of the Library and liaison librarians with its customers, the faculty, and students of the Departments of Political Science and Economics and the Bush School of Government and Public Service. A number of collaborative projects and services have been borne out of this effort and the result has been a measure of embeddedness that permeates the curriculum and research activities of those serves and increases the effectiveness and impact of the services provided by the library. The various efforts and innovations are easily transferable and scalable to other types of libraries.