Cara Bradley
Distance Education & Outreach Librarian, University of Regina
My notes on this presentation are fairly brief but my take away thoughts are pretty strong. Basically, Bradley conducted a survey of non-teaching university staff to ascertain what kind of professional (and persona?) information needs they had, how they met those needs, and if they used the library. She opened by mentioning that her partner is a non-teaching university staff member and he mentioned having a lot of difficulty finding some piece of information--yet it never occurred to him to contact the library for help.
The survey results indicated that many non-teaching staff not only didn't use the library, they frequently forgot it was there. Bradley didn't say this, but it sounds like the non-teaching staff mentally organized the use of the library with students and faculty and never considered it as a resource beyond the classroom.
Things that librarians might consider doing:
- Create liaisons to non-teaching departments along the lines of teaching departments--so the journalism/mass comm librarian might also work with the Communications office
- Extend invitations to new non-teaching staff to visit the library, take tour, or just offer information about services
My thoughts:
It seems that stronger relationships with non-teaching departments is win-win for everyone. Especially if those departments oversee the distribution of physical or fiscal resources. Many corporations have research services for their staff--a university shares enough similarities with corporations that it might make sense to offer similar services. And, if a librarian is able to locate a piece of information that would have taken an associate provost four hours to find, then there is cost savings to the university and a greater understanding of the library's role in the university.
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