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ACRL Liaison Guidelines and Tips

Keep in mind the three goals of your liaison appointment:

• You are to become a visible and respected member of the organization.
  
• You are to promote the concept of library resources and services as a valuable means for accomplishing the priorities of the liaison organization and its membership. This will be accomplished through regularly scheduled programming, articles in the organization's publications, and/or service on key committees. REMEMBER: You are not there to promote libraries per sé nor are you there to get the organization to focus on library issues. You are there to help people understand the value added asset libraries can be to whatever it is they want to accomplish.
  
• You are to model effective partnerships between you (as a librarian) and other professionals

To accomplish the above, the following are some practical suggestions based upon successful liaison experiences.

When you begin as a liaison:

• As soon as you are appointed, learn as much as you can about the organization.
  
• Check its Web site, read its statements of goals/priorities, scan its journal(s), newsletter, etc, for the past year or two, be sure you know how the organization is structured, how its officers are appointed and what committees it has. If you have replaced an ACRL liaison, set up a time to discuss his/her experiences and to decide on a strategy for how that person can introduce you to key people. BE SURE TO PUT THE DATE OF THE ORGANIZATION’S UPCOMING NATIONAL CONFERENCES ON YOUR CALENDAR AS WELL AS THE DEADLINE FOR CONFERENCE PROGRAM SUBMISSIONS.
  
• Based on the above research, map out a strategy for what you hope to accomplish initially. Be sure to test your ideas out on the previous liaison and to arrange for any introductions necessary. (Note: If you wish, ACRL will send a note to the president and executive director of the organization informing them of your status.)

When you plan a program:

• Make sure it focuses on a major conference theme.
  
• Include people on the program who are not librarians (e.g., a faculty member, a provost and a librarian).
  
• Avoid the “talking heads” format. Structure an interactive discussion based upon a list of questions agreed upon before the conference. Serve as or have someone else play the role of a TV press interviewer who is looking for agreements, difference of opinions, trends, etc.
  
• Allow time for questions from the floor and for a final brief thought from each of the panelists.

When you plan an article:

• Focus the article on a topic of high concern to the organization.
  
• Promote joint authorship between a librarian (yourself or someone you recruit) and a professional from the organization’s primary membership group. This provides greater credibility and models partnering between librarians and people in their profession.
  
• Be prepared to happily do 3/4 of the work and give away 3/4 of the credit; i.e., have heavy-duty upfront consultation with the co-author as to what the articles focus on and the outline for development of the paper, but be willing to do the first draft if appropriate.
  
• After the article is published, encourage the subsequent highlighting of the article at both meetings of ACRL (or other library organization) and at national or state level meetings of the organization to which you are liaison. People who have read the article will be interested to learn more from “the experts.” The partnering model is highlighted, AND the non-librarians partner gains in commitment to libraries/librarians, thus becoming an advocate for us.
  
• Keep in mind that the article with some revision might also be appropriate for publication in a higher education and/or library journal. Keep joint authorship in place.

When you seek to become active in the organization:

• Don’t wait to be sought out. Volunteer! A particularly good way to get involved is to volunteer to take and write up notes from meetings or discussion groups. This puts you in a pivotal position, provides reasons for interacting with leaders and allows you to be sure that library related “benefits” show up in the report.
  
• When membership is asked for ideas/suggestions, be sure to get in some good ones. If you have good ideas and no one asks, sent them in anyway.
  
• Send notes if appropriate to selected speakers and; if possible, include an article relating speech topic to libraries/librarianship. (For example, if the speech is on service learning, send an article that provides examples of how information literacy skills help ensures success of service learning projects.) Consider asking a question that could facilitate dialogue.
  
• It should go without saying that, if other librarians are at the conference, you should not be spending time with them. Rather use your meal and other free times for networking with target liaison group. Follow up after the conference with emails to those whom you met, calling to mind something from your discussion with a hope to meet again. In order to follow up, jot notes on the back of calling cards or in a notebook during the day and consider actually putting drafts of follow-up correspondences in writing that very night so they are ready to go out when you get back to your office.
  
• If you get appointed to chair a taskforce or committee, try to have one informal meeting of the members before leaving the conference at which you are appointed. This early jump-start will allow your group to be productive with less effort.

If you get discouraged:

• Remember, it takes time to go from being a big fish in a well-known pond to being a big fish in a new pond. Just keep plugging away at building relationships with individuals.
  
• Remember to confer with other liaisons, ACRL Board members and staff. They know how important your outreach efforts are and may well have a suggestion to make – or, at the very least, they can give you a pat on the back!