Faculty–Library Teamwork in Book Ordering

Abstract

Faculty liaisons help to select books and other materials in many libraries, especially those without specialized bibliographers. To get the best results from a faculty liaison system, library staff must take into account the varied nature of academic collections and the uneven pricing of materials, respect departmental cultures and be willing to make adjustments for them, and frequently reassess and fine-tune the system. Using these principles, the College of Charleston has developed a liaison system that permits a range of practices. Two examples, the computer science collection and the English collection, illustrate this range: the former requires the most recent information available and uses relatively little faculty input; the latter seeks to balance primary and secondary materials and benefits from extensive faculty advice. In conclusion, the authors suggest how the institution might further improve its system in the next few years.