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The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast four academic liaison programs.

Areas addressed include liaison subject specialization, communication methods, duties, and program evaluation.

This paper found similarities in areas of orientation meetings, library guides, and information literacy classes. Unique concepts among the four libraries studied include physical classroom embedment, use of specialized class web pages, faculty literacy classes, and concentrated faculty information literacy assistance.

The results presented provide insight into current academic library liaison practices and the faculty‐liaison relationship.

Many university libraries are adopting a faculty liaison librarian structure as an integral part of their organization and service delivery model. This paper aims to examine, in a pragmatic way, the variations in the definition of the role of the faculty liaison librarian, the expectations of those librarians, their library managers and their clients and the impact of environmental factors. The faculty liaison librarian role is not entirely new, evolving from the traditional subject librarian and university special/branch library role. However the emerging role is characterized by a more outward‐looking perspective and complexity, emphasizing stronger involvement and partnership with the faculty and direct engagement in the University's teaching and research programs.

Following a review of the literature and other sources on the rationale and role of library liaison, the current developments, drivers and expectations are discussed.

The study finds that dynamic external and internal environments of universities are driving the evolution of library liaison, so the role description is still fluid. However, the breadth and weight of expectations is now such that the effectiveness and sustainability of the role has to be addressed.

While a dynamic, broader and more intensive role for the faculty liaison librarian is emerging, more thinking is needed about the extent of that role and its sustainability. What, for example, are the priorities for the faculty liaison librarian? What traditional activities can, and may, have to be abandoned? These considerations are necessary not only to guide the librarians, but also to help define the attributes and skills required for the position and to determine the institutional support it requires.

This is a contemporary critique of the well‐established, but diverse library service – the faculty liaison librarian structure.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an updated definition of academic liaison work and examine methods for developing effective liaison relationships.

The authors reviewed and incorporated recently published (1989‐2009) material relating to academic liaison work. In addition to published material the authors conducted a survey of faculty in their liaison areas during the fall 2008 semester in order to access their knowledge and satisfaction with liaison services.

The paper finds that liaison work is multifaceted and success is based both on administrative support and the individual liaisons efforts.

The originality of this work includes the definition of liaison work and requirements of academic liaisons in today's libraries. The paper is of value to current academic liaisons and librarians just entering the field of academia. The paper incorporates recent research, an author conducted survey and the authors' nearly two decades of combined liaison experience and may serve as an overview of the expectations and potential benefits of academic liaison work.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodology for the development of a plan to incorporate information literacy education into interior design programs in higher education.

After providing background information about the role of the liaison to the interior design department, the process of the project implementation is described in detail. The project demonstrates how students learned to move beyond a mere ability to access information.

The project demonstrated that in order for students to acquire critical thinking skills, both librarian and faculty must determine what skills the students should master throughout their program. Students' work showed that information literacy produces better results when it is applied in stages and with objects that build on previous skills.

The research fills a gap in the published literature, which offers limited resources on how information literacy is taught, used and assessed in the interior design discipline.

This article discusses the efforts of two liaison librarians at William Russell Pullen Library, Georgia State University, to build a long‐term, sustainable partnership among teaching faculty, graduate students, and librarians in the development and maintenance of a Web‐based research guide for world history. The projects’ goals are: to provide access to the resources available at Pullen Library; to serve as a gateway to resources available on the Internet; and to showcase student contributions, including bibliographies and annotations of Web sites. The project is an organic endeavor, with the Web site’s organization open to periodic review and modification. Continuous discussions and mutual criticisms have marked the progress of the project. The authors see the success of this venture as a way to collaborate with more faculty, and increase the level of student participation on an ongoing basis.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze job advertisements in United States academic libraries in order to determine the prevalence of jobs that contain a liaison component. It also aims to report on a survey of current library science graduate students to assess their level of understanding of what liaison work entails and what type of preparation they have had for such work in their LIS program.

The study includes an analysis of 313 academic library job advertisements. It also uses a 12 question survey, which was distributed to 52 library school listservs throughout the USA. The survey announcements resulted in 516 responses from library school students nationwide.

Of the jobs surveyed more than a quarter specifically mentioned liaison activities. The survey showed that few respondents have been exposed to a discussion of liaison work in their classrooms. Those who have demonstrated greater awareness of what constitutes liaison work demonstrate greater self‐confidence in their ability to become successful liaisons.

The anonymous survey did not require participants to indicate what school they attended, possibly resulting in a geographically biased sample. The survey also did not ask respondents at what point they were in their program, so that some respondents may have been very new to their library school studies and may not have had the opportunity to take many classes at the time of the survey.

This study suggests that library schools should find ways to incorporate a discussion of liaison work into some part of their curriculum, especially for students interested in academic librarianship.

No other studies have analyzed job descriptions in terms of liaison work, nor have any studies surveyed students to determine their knowledge of, and preparation for, this type of work.

This study aims to explore the nature and extent of collaboration among library and information science (LIS) departments, faculty members and practitioners. It also intends to identify the challenges and future prospects of collaboration in Pakistan.

Face-to-face and telephonic semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 faculty members (professors, associate professors and assistant professors) from eight LIS departments. A thematic analysis approach was used to answer the research questions.

A thematic analysis of the participants’ opinions reveals a weak and informal collaboration among LIS stakeholders. However, high level of awareness among faculty members regarding the potential benefits of collaborative activities was observed. Their urge for developing liaison and collaboration with stakeholders is a positive indication that requires visionary leadership and committed efforts to ensure long term success.

The study aspects discussed may provide guidelines for creating future planning and growth of professional collaboration in Pakistan. The scope of this study may be extended to groom national, regional and international collaborative activities in other countries with same conditions. Though this study is conducted in Pakistan, the findings may be extended to other parts of developing countries with similar context.

It will serve as a guideline for further research, as it has addressed an untouched area and reports original research.

The purpose of this paper is to review the purpose, methods, and selected results of a study of faculty work practices, especially as they bear on the creation, location, and use of grey literature and the design and use of institutional repositories.

Based on a work‐practice study of faculty members and researchers at the University of Rochester. The methodology used videotaped interviews to record and analyze how participants accomplish such tasks as using web‐based research and writing tools, organizing books and papers, and staying current.

Reviews six key research findings related to the understandings and attitudes faculty members hold regarding institutional repositories and the role of librarians in developing institutional repository collections. Explains why librarians have found it difficult to attract faculty participation from the perspective of user needs and work practices.

The study is based on field research with a small number of participants in six departments across the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Access to faculty participants was limited.

Recommends new strategies for institutional repository design, recruitment of content, and outreach by librarians based on the six key research findings. Proposes an expanded role for librarians as liaisons to faculty who wish to share their work using the library's repository system.

The paper presents original research that addresses a current problem in the area of institutional repositories: why faculty members have not taken full advantage of new technologies that help them share their work. It lists the practical steps that librarians can take to improve faculty participation in repository projects and to increase access to grey literature for all scholars.

This paper aims to report on a successful implementation of a current awareness service designed to inform teaching faculty and liaison librarians as to the status of library materials they have ordered.

The paper looks at the methods employed by the authors, which simplify maintenance of lists of new titles by providing a single, consistent access point to new resources. The dynamic pages are compiled by using the OPAC as a platform: connecting with a Z39.50 protocol, passing keywords and phrases along via the URL query string, parsing the data with PHP, and rendering the data on the web with a combination of PHP and JavaScript.

The OPAC‐as‐platform method of rendering the departmental acquisitions pages has solved every problem that had existed up to this point. With very minor changes to cataloguing workflow, the technical services department now has a low‐maintenance system in place for notifying teaching faculty and liaison librarians of new arrivals.

The project demonstrates cooperation between public services, systems, IT, and technical services to enhance library services to users. It also demonstrates the value of and potential for cataloguing as a means to deliver innovative services.

This study investigated the development of institutional repositories (IRs) at doctoral institutions, identifying factors that influence development and best practices using a comparative case study analysis approach to gather and analyze data. The development of a repository is one of the more complex projects that librarians may undertake. While many librarians have managed large information system projects, IR projects involve a larger stakeholder group and require support from technical services, public services, and administration to succeed. A significant increase in the development of repositories is expected with technology and process improvements for digital collection development so further study is warranted. Both institutional and subject repositories were examined for the case studies. Best practices and recommendations for future developers, such as early involvement of stakeholder groups and the need to educate both librarians and teaching faculty about open access collections, are also discussed. This study contributes to a more informed understanding of the development of IRs and identifies a model framework for future IR developers. The best practices framework incorporates the processes from the case study sites and includes additional factors identified from the case study interviews. Key to the framework is the inclusion of stakeholder groups on campus and assessment measures. While the case studies focused on doctoral institutions, the framework can be adapted to any size institution.