Collaborating for Impact: Special Collections and Liaison Librarian Partnerships

edited by Kristen Totleben and Lori Birrell for ACRL

ISBN-13: 9780838988831

284 pages • 6 x 9
Year Published: 2016

Special collections and liaison librarian partnerships can have a tremendous impact on the work within the library and the university community. Designed to guide the reader through three different themes—collection stewardship; projects, research, and exhibitions; and instruction—Collaborating for Impact: Special Collections and Liaison Librarian Partnerships offers inspiration and case studies detailing how these departments can impact research, teaching, and learning by working collaboratively. With individual expertise and skillsets, librarians and staff are together better equipped to provide researchers with a holistic, well-rounded perspective on the research process and scholarship. 

Collaborating for Impact opens with an exploration of current collaboration between liaison and special collections librarians, including a thorough literature review. A proposed framework for acquiring general and special collections that document the history of the academy and remain responsive to campus curricular needs, and a tutorial on object-based pedagogy that can underpin such arrangements, follow. And finally, there are thirteen case studies that provide concrete examples of how to move the needle towards sustainable efforts and away from one-off examples.

If special collections are destined to become the mainstay of the library, many more paths to deeper collaboration can and should be developed. Special collections and liaison librarian partnerships offer a good foundation from which teamwork can take root across administrative, physical, and cultural divides. This book addresses a gap in both special collections and liaison librarian literature, showing how librarians work together across library departments.