Over the summer Theresa, Janette, Brian and I undertook a project looking at how Subject Librarians engage with academic staff. We were asked to identify training opportunities and ways we could promote our services.

We did a detailed analysis of consultations we had with academics during 2016 (there’s a SharePoint page where we record pretty much every interaction we have with students or staff members). From this we could see the types of queries we get and our busy times of year.

Training: We noticed we get a lot of questions at the start of the year about linking to Library resources in Learn and decided to run a workshop for academic staff during Teaching Week in February. Quite a lot of library staff time went into preparing a session and we were disappointed no one came to the workshop. It drove home that academics seem to prefer one-to-one assistance at the time they need it.

Promotional material: A pamphlet, 7 things you need to know, was printed along with a postcard (featuring an artwork by Max from the UC collection). They outline the key services offered by Subject Librarians for academics. There are copies at the info desk in each library if you haven’t already seen them.

We also updated the ‘New Academic Staff Induction Checklist’ – it lists in detail Library services offered to academics. It’s a long list and a few of us realized there were things we’re a bit rusty on – so a number of these topics are going to be turned into PD sessions for Subject Librarians over the coming months.

– Margaret