Departmental Liaisons

Contact your liaison

Mission
To provide academic divisions and administrative units with personal library contacts, enhancing communication between teaching faculty, administrators, and the library in order to assess each private sector division’s needs for library materials and services.

Services Provided

Collection Development
Liaison Librarians are assigned responsibility for building and maintaining Herrick's collections in certain subject areas. Assignments are based on their knowledge of the field, the content of courses, and familiarity with faculty research interests. Acquisition decisions are influenced by input from faculty and students, within the parameters of Herrick's collection policies. We encourage faculty to submit requests for materials in their subject area. Faculty can also use Choice Reviews Online to stay up-to-date with new books being published in their field.

Specialized Reference Referrals
Most reference questions can be handled by the reference librarian on duty at any given time, but there may be occasions when the liaison most familiar with Herrick's resources in your field should be requested. You might also wish to consult a liaison librarian for:

• assistance with electronic-database searching
• non-routine, in depth, subject-related research questions
• referrals to other appropriate information providers
• establishing the level of existing support for an area in which a new course is being developed

Research Services
Course-related instruction in library research is available for faculty, students and staff. Liaisons also provide introductory classes on the use of various electronic and internet research sources. Contact Brian Sullivan at x2268 or by e-mail at: sullivan@alfred.edu to inquire or request a class appointment. We encourage you to plan ahead and schedule a class at least a week in advance, and earlier if possible.

Other services include:

• general, introductory library tours
• development of subject-related user guides
• orientation for new faculty
• consultation for the development of library-related course assignments

Library Publications
Herrick's liaison librarians prepare research guides and other instructional materials designed to aid our patrons in satisfying their informational and research needs. These are often designed to supplement our class instruction, but are also created to meet particular patron needs as recognized by librarians and staff. Some examples are:

• Research Guides
• Bibliographies
• Policy Statements
• "How to" guides

Consultations
Feel free to contact your liaison librarian with any questions you may have regarding library policies and services. We welcome your comments and suggestions. If your comments or questions require another person's expertise we will refer you to the appropriate librarian or staff member. Please consult the liaison list to find your divisional contact person, phone number, and email address.

Liaison List