Office of Research Fall Faculty Workshop September 8, 2005

Liaison Librarians – Your Allies in Research - What I hope to do in less than 10 minutes: - Brief personal introduction - A flavour of the UW Library - Some trends - Role of liaison librarians

The role of the Library  Our role is one of service to support and strengthen research, teaching and learning at the University of Waterloo.  An overarching goal is to facilitate getting the right information into the right hands at the right time.  In order to understand “How can we help”, it is important we listen to you.

We provide…  We provide our services and resources in an evolving and increasingly complex and rich scholarly information environment.  Our aim is to provide and develop information resources and services to support your research  We do all this by listening and in part through the effective use of information technology.

The UW Library has a history of leadership; we…  Led the way nationally in the radical shift from print to electronic journals  Are a trend-setter in fostering strong partnerships to support the delivery of information resources and services regionally, provincially and nationally (e.g. TUG, OCUL, CRKN)  Support and seed new initiatives in collaboration with both academic and academic support units (e.g. wireless computing, web content management services, and innovative facilities such as the LT3/Library Flex Lab in the Porter Library and the RBC Information Commons in the Davis Library)

A few facts  Staffing Total: 135 Librarians: 30 Liaison librarians: 15  Acquisition expenditures 04/05 Total: $7,000,000 Electronic: $4.6 million or 65%

The Library’s role Enhance effective access to scholarly information resources  Develop & maintain the information resource collection  Provide access to that information  Support you and students in the use of that information

Access to print resources - 1  Print remains vital  TUG, Trellis, TUGdoc  Interlibrary loan of print materials remains an integral way for researchers and students to obtain the scholarly information resources they require  On a province-wide basis, Ontario universities exchange more than ½ million items annually  Anne Fullerton & Carol Stephenson, EduCause Quarterly, “A consortial approach to Interlibrary loan.”

Access to e-resources - 2  Your access to electronic scholarly resources continues to increase  Examples Over 13,000 electronic journals UW purchase of the complete Elsevier backfile, Nature, Royal Society of Chemisitry Early English Books Online

Access to resources - 3  Library web site  Electronic reserves  Nesstar: new web-based data retrieval system  One of our goals is to provide you with Access to more in a more timely manner

An anecdote  Engineering department chair NSERC submission One weekend vs. couple of weeks FROM home  Working when it was convenient  Working where it was convenient Access to more in a more timely manner

Partnerships & alliances  The Library is an integral partner in the academic process at UW. Liaison librarian programme Faculty Councils Senate Senate Undergraduate Committee Senate Grad and Research Committee

The Library’s work adds value to the academic enterprise by:  Providing a print and increasingly electronic collection to expedite timely access to information resources necessary for research, learning and teaching.  Optimizing access to information through the effective use of current and emerging technologies.  Fostering the development of information literacy and critical evaluation skills  Collaborating with other libraries and agencies to provide access to resources not available directly from our collection.  Maximizing our buying power by participating in provincial and national consortia purchases of electronic resources.

The Liaison Librarian Programme  Liaison Librarians ensure that Library resources and services match the research, teaching and learning needs of the academic community.  Each academic department has a liaison librarian

Liaison librarians can…  Help you locate information resources you need for your research & teaching  Help prepare your students for a research assignment.  Provide: ▪ database demonstrations in class ▪ research clinics outside of class ▪ one-on-one support.  Create customized online Course Guides and library instruction modules if you are using UW ACE for your courses.

Liaison librarians can help you as new faculty answer questions such as:  Will the Library send photocopies of articles to my office?  What if the material I need is not available at UW?  There is a great new journal out. How do I get it?  How do I access e-resources from home?  How do I reserve material for class?  Where can I get information on copyright?  Is there an online module on plagiarism which I can use in my course?

Wrap-up  The Library’s role is one of service  We take a multi-pronged approach in support of the academic process The liaison librarians can actively support you in a variety of ways We attend and are members of Faculty Councils I am a member of Senate and Senate sub-committees

Conclusion  Library staff and liaison librarians are, on your behalf, doing a good job at: Developing & maintaining the information resources collection Providing access to the information resources  They facilitate the productive and proficient use of those resources  We are ready and willing to help.  Questions?