Scratching Backs: Establishing and Maintaining Faculty Relationships

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Scratching Backs Establishing and Maintaining
Faculty Relationships

• ACRL-LA Conference
• November 6-7, 2003
• Megan Lowe

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Historical Enmity

• Several sources note that most of the evidence
  for this enmity is anecdotal.
• Most library staff have a horror story to tell
  about faculty encounters.
• The reasons identified here have been culled from
  a great deal of literature, beginning in the late
  1950s and stretching to the present.

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Reasons for the Enmity

• Communication breakdown
• Failure to recognize our common purpose to
  educate the students we serve
• What Glover called incendiary collections
  issues
• Territorial issues

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Reasons for the Enmity

• Ignorance of or misunderstanding the roles and
  services of the library
• Self-isolation
• Their reluctance to ask for help

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Establishing Maintaining Relationships

• Make contactnetwork!
• Professional speaking
• Socially speaking
• Introduce yourself to new faculty
• Get involved with campus activitiesnot just
  committees

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Establishing Maintaining

• Collaboration
• Research
• Classroom activities
• Information needs
• Share ideas with themKotter calls it offering
  our skills to the classroom
• Being a team player

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Establishing Maintaining

• Collection development
• Offer faculty-oriented services
• Citation searches
• Offering our skills to the classroom
• Document delivery
• Alerts in databases
• Library assignment workshop

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Establishing Maintaining

• Honoring their accomplishments
• Promotion tenure publication of work
• Ways to honor them
• Book plates (in book of choice)
• Recognition (i.e., party)
• Whatever you can think of
• Communication
• Define the librarys roles and services, so the
  faculty know what they can expect. If this means
  re-writing your policies to make things clearer,
  then do it!
• Make faculty aware of library services and
  resources
• Day-to-day basis

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Communication

• 5 Myths of Communication
• Were born knowing how to communicate and listen
  effectively.
• Communication takes place when one person talks,
  and the other person listens quietly.
• Listening is a passive skill.
• Hearing is the same as listening, and active
  listening involves keeping your ears open and
  your mouth shut.
• You can stop listening when youve gotten the
  gist of what the other person is saying.

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Communication

• Levasseurs 5 Key Skills
• Right attitude
• Learning to ask the right questions
• Listening actively
• Communicating directly
• Giving feedback properly

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Communication

• Communication as perspective
• Self-marketing
• Controlling yourself and choosing how to behave
  and react
• Face-to-face contact is the richest form of
  communication

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Faculty Role in Information Literacy

• Relevance, applicability, consistency
• Encouragement and endorsement
• Curricular implementation
• Selection of appropriate materials and their
  application

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Q A
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Thanks for coming!

• Enjoy the rest of the conference!