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Faculty / Librarian Collaboration Toolkit: Faculty Attitudes

Investigate and support best practices in faculty and librarian collaboration to more effectively meet local institution and library missions and serve the campus community.

Faculty Attitudes about Collaboration with Librarians

Resources on Faculty Attitudes on Collaborating with Librarians

Key Findings

  1. Faculty are often ignorant of what services are provided by the contemporary academic library.
  2. When faculty are aware of library services they are utilized and deeply appreciated.
  3. Collaborative relationships between faculty and librarians are built through one on one interactions through campus meetings, not through emails, newsletters, library website, etc.
  4. Faculty also tend to be self-reliant in their literature review searches, data management, and preservation processes.

Literature Review

Creaser, C., & Spezi, V. (2014). Improving perceptions of value to teaching and research staff: The next challenge for academic libraries. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 46(3), 191–206.
Gruber, A. M. (2018). Real-World Research: A Qualitative Study of Faculty Perceptions of the Library’s Role in Service-Learning. Portal: Libraries and the Academy, 18(4), 671–692.
Nalani Meulemans, Y., & Carr, A. (2013). Not at your service: building genuine faculty-librarian partnerships. Reference Services Review, 41(1), 80–90.
Nelson, K. (2016). Study leave report: What do Faculty actually think Librarians do?
US Faculty Survey 2018: First Release of Key Findings. (2019). Retrieved March 4, 2019, from Ithaka S+R website: https://sr.ithaka.org/events/us-faculty-survey-2018-first-release-of-key-findings/
Wolff, C., Rod, A. B., & Schonfeld, R. C. (2016). Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2015 (p. 83). Ithaka S+R.

Suggested Actions

  1. Develop relationships through one on one conversations.
  2. Incorporate yourself into larger campus life to develop relationships.

Best Practices

1. Don’t take it personal! Faculty appreciate library services, when they know about them. However, often times faculty are unaware.

2. Relationships are key. The best mode of library outreach are one on one conversations conducted over a period of time.