Background: Liaison librarians are often victims of their own successes. They strive to create embeddedness, and find there are not enough hours to accommodate all those who seek them out. Most liaisons are cognizant of the need to approach their roles strategically, but can find it difficult to carve aside the time needed to plan an approach that allows allow them to reach the largest number of their programs in the most effective way possible. This session will address how librarians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) Health Sciences Library (HSL) have strategized to create effective and streamlined liaison programs.
Description: UNC HSL liaison librarians have employed several approaches for greater efficiency: engagement with faculty to create more streamlined research assignments, curriculum mapping with skill scaffolding, team delivered drop-in “search clinics” for large classes, online assistance via Zoom, expanded subject guides, and team collaboration on instruction and research assistance. Librarians have also looked at tiered service models to reach the maximum number of users. When possible, class assignments are handled by targeted instruction, while masters papers, dissertations, and systematic reviews are handled with a combination of targeted instruction and consultations. Citation management and baseline reference questions are often answered by research assistants, and RAs have also been trained to offer classes in using citation management and Covidence classes. By requesting more embeddedness in classes with research assignments, librarian consultation time is available to assist those with more complex individualized research needs
