WSU Library: Liaisons to Teaching Departments

Advanced Reference

The liaison will be a resource for both faculty and students in the department needing assistance finding library resources. While straightforward questions can be handled at the Reference Desk, the liaison can act as guide for advanced reference needs. Both students and faculty can make appointments with the department's liaison to explore indepth projects.

return to top

Library Instruction

The first stop for faculty in requesting an instruction session for your classes is your department's liaison. Because many of our resources are now Web-based, we can often come to your classroom if you have a projector for a computer. We are also usually willing to help design library assignments to utilize our library's resources and services most effectively. If the liaison is unable to teach a session he or she will usually be able to arrange for another librarian to do so instead.

return to top

Collection Development

The Liaison can help your department build and manage its book collection, as well as journal subscriptions. The activities include:

to help select material to be added to the library collection;
to act as an information source for your department;
to review material requests generated by your department;
to facilitate the acquisition of needed materials;
to serve as a collection development specialist for your department;
to be responsible for book budgets for your department.

return to top

Creating Course Pages

The department liaison can create a Web page for your course. That page can include the text of the library assignment, as well as resources, both in paper and electronic, that will be useful for the course. The system that we use for course pages even allows usage statistics to see how heavily the resources are being used. (NOTE: We do not keep statistics by student.)

return to top

Department Communication

Your department's liaison will be in contact with the faculty and staff in the department each year. The liaison can notify your faculty about new databases or problems discovered with current databases. The liaison can send out book announcements from publishers and book dealers. The liaison may also notify faculty about upcoming events, such as athenaeum presentations.

return to top