CFP: The Reference Librarian Special Issue on Staffing

The Reference Librarian is planning a special issue addressing how instruction librarians manage their information literacy and liaison programs while adapting to budget cuts and changes in organizational structures. How do you effectively deliver information literacy instruction while maintaining other critical services and adhering to professional standards when changes in budgeting and staffing make it difficult or impossible to specialize?

We are seeking case studies or research articles from libraries that are experiencing challenges including, but not limited to:

• The staff is too small for a liaison program to match subject experts with academic departments
• The library has lost a significant number of staff including instruction librarians, liaison librarians, or other staff positions
• Requiring librarians to fill multiple roles outside their area of expertise

Questions you might answer include:

• How have you used alternative staff models such as well-trained peer tutors, interns, or staff support to deliver instruction?
• How have you used a shared repository that any librarian or other staff members can use to teach?
• In what ways do you rely on online teaching resources rather than in-person delivery?
• How have you implemented a "train the trainer" model, e.g., by training faculty to teach information literacy?
• Or do you have another innovative model for delivering information literacy that can be adapted by other libraries experiencing similar challenges?

How do you make it work and still fulfill accreditation and other professional standards? Tell us about it!

Use the Call for Special Issue on Staffing (https://harrisburgu.libwizard.com/f/_wrefSP2526) link  to submit a 500-word proposal to by December 19, 2025.

The Reference Librarian uses the APA style, 7th ed.

Questions can be directed to co-editors Lauri Rebar (Lrebar@fau.edu) and Christine Bombaro (cbomb22@gmail.com).

All manuscripts are subject to double-blind peer review. An invitation to submit an article does not guarantee publication in the final issue. For more information about the journal, see The Reference Librarian's website at: https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/wref20.