Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Call for Chapters: New Approaches to Liaison Librarianship: Innovations in Instruction, Collections, Reference, and Outreach (ACRL Publication)

Call for Chapters
New Approaches to Liaison Librarianship: Innovations in Instruction, Collections, Reference, and Outreach

Proposals are sought for an upcoming ACRL publication on new approaches to liaison librarianship in academic libraries.

Proposal Submission Deadline: September 14, 2018
Publisher: Association of College & Research Libraries

Editors: Robin Canuel (McGill University – robin.canuel@mcgill.ca), Chad Crichton (University of Toronto Scarborough – ccrichton@utsc.utoronto.ca

The editors aim to bring together a wide variety of perspectives from liaison librarians and liaison program leaders detailing the unique structures, practices, and solutions developed at their institutions. We feel that the time is ripe for a new in-depth treatment of liaison librarianship that details the responses of libraries to the latest trends in liaison librarianship and the recent literature discussing the liaison model in academic librarianship. We also hope to include a broad variety of perspectives, including those that may use different nomenclature ("subject librarians," "departmental librarians," and "embedded librarianship" are all relevant framings of practices and programs that we are interested in exploring).

As liaison librarianship typically involves individual librarians taking on responsibility for supporting the groups with whom they liaise in all of the major areas of librarianship (instruction, collections, and reference) and also often involves a heavy “outreach” component, we intend the book to be divided into multiple sections, with several chapters focusing on each of these four pillars of liaison librarianship. We also envision a section of the book dedicated to chapters focused on collaborating with faculty on their research, and the ways in which a liaison librarianship model allows librarians to better connect with scholars, and to support and enhance their academic work. Finally, we plan to conclude with a section devoted to the management of liaison librarianship models, both in terms of managing the models programmatically, as well as how we manage and evaluate the work of individual liaison librarians.

We intend the book's chapters to include both original research in the area of liaison librarianship in an academic library context, as well as case studies and commentaries on real-world initiatives currently in place in college and university libraries worldwide.

Suggested chapter topics include, but are not limited to, coverage of liaison work from the following perspectives, which are currently serving as draft section headings for the book:


  • Organizing Ourselves: The Wide Variety of Models and Practices of "Liaison Librarianship"
  • Instruction: The Benefits of Liaison Librarianship for Teaching and Learning
  • Outreach: Making Stronger Connections with Faculty and Students Through Liaison Work
  • Collection Development: The Advantages and Challenges of Liaison Models for Collections Work
  • Reference: Providing Reference Support at the Reference Desk and Beyond
  • Faculty Research: Partnering with Faculty to Support their Scholarly Work
  • Management: Staffing, Managing, Developing, and Evaluating Liaison Librarianship Programs

Proposals should include author name(s), institutional affiliation, proposed chapter title, a summary of the proposed chapter (300-500 words), and a current CV. Authors of selected proposals will be notified by October 1st, 2018. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by March 2nd, 2019. Chapters should be unique to this publication. No previously published or simultaneously submitted materials should be included. Additional information about this opportunity is available from the following website: http://bit.ly/acrlliaison.