Book Reviews

Ellen Hampton Filgo and Sha Towers. Liaison Engagement Success: A Practical Guide for Librarians. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2021. 158p. Paper, $65.00 (ISBN: 978-1-5381-4463-3). LC Z682.4.L44 F57.

Academic libraries have experienced a myriad of changes during the past few decades as new technologies have led to significant shifts in how people view and use their services. In the midst of these changes, liaison librarians have had to adapt to ensure they meet the needs of their diverse communities. In Liaison Engagement Success: A Practical Guide for Librarians, authors Ellen Hampton Filgo and Sha Towers explore this topic and address ways that liaison librarians can enhance their services and develop strong connections with faculty and students. Filgo and Towers both hold leadership positions within Baylor University Libraries and have extensive experience working with liaison librarians. Their deep knowledge of and enthusiasm for developing liaison programs permeate the book and make it a highly readable and effective guide.

The first four chapters of the book serve as a foundation for greater understanding of the necessary elements of success in the work of all liaison librarians. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for modern liaison librarianship, describing the changes over time that have led to a prominent focus on engaging with users. Chapter 2 explains the importance of getting to know various department members such as program directors, staff, and faculty. An emphasis is also placed on becoming familiar with faculty members’ curriculums and areas of research. Chapter 3 describes specific mindsets that are crucial for modern liaison librarians. Essential skills such as adaptability, emotional intelligence, empathy, and communication are discussed. Chapter 4 then gives specific ways of conducting outreach with a focus on developing connections through online and in-person methods.

The next part of the book shifts to a narrower focus. Chapters 5 through 9 discuss liaison work in specific disciplines. These include the humanities, social sciences, STEM, the ARTS, and professional disciplines such as journalism and public administration. Chapter 10 highlights the importance of building connections with nonacademic units. This can apply to liaison librarians in general as well as librarians whose primary focus (outreach, student success, and the like) requires working with student affairs and other groups. Chapter 11 has a similar theme of collaborating with others, but here the focus is on working with fellow liaisons, functional specialists, and technology specialists. Each chapter includes practical tools that can be applied right away. One example is librarian listservs that are related to the various subject areas. In addition, stories from liaison librarians are identified throughout each chapter to give further insight into different ideas and strategies; snippets from each of these stories are also compiled at the end of each chapter. While the full texts of the stories are not included in the book itself, they are included in a free PDF available at https://rowman.com/WebDocs/Supplement_Stories_of_Liaison_Engagement_Success.pdf.

The final two chapters are geared specifically toward leaders of liaison programs. The main areas discussed include developing a framework for success, creating a shared vision of engagement, and conducting effective assessment of liaison work. These chapters in particular highlight a main strength of the book as the authors share their personal experiences and resources they’ve developed as liaison librarians and leaders of liaison programs. One example is the specific templates the authors’ teams have created and used for tracking liaison activity and instruction data. Templates of a postinstruction survey and research consultation follow-up survey are also included. These templates will be a valuable resource for librarians at other institutions to build upon in the assessment of their own work. These materials may be especially useful for liaisons in libraries that have never implemented one or more of these types of tools before. A second example is a thorough and clear description of how the authors used a work retreat to create a shared vision for how to successfully do liaison work. The text lists specific and replicable tasks, including reflection and group work designed to identify best practices as liaisons.

One minor criticism is centered on the supplemental stories of outreach strategies listed in many of the chapters. In total, there are 56 of these stories in the online PDF. While these stories are helpful in providing a more varied understanding of how liaison librarians have served faculty and students, their presentation is less useful than it might have been. For example, the authors could have included one or two whole stories within each chapter of the book itself as opposed to snippets. These could have been combined with commentary that delved further into how these stories could be connected to exemplary liaison librarian practices. Including more of this narrative content in the text would have increased the breadth of the book itself, rather than requiring readers to visit the website to learn more.

As a whole, Liaison Engagement Success: A Practical Guide for Librarians serves as an excellent resource that will be useful to a few specific groups. New academic librarians who may not yet be familiar with all of the ways to engage in liaison work will benefit from learning about specific strategies they can immediately use in their work. Seasoned liaison librarians can learn new ways to approach their work by reading the stories of other liaison librarians. The book can also be helpful for individuals seeking to enter a career in academic librarianship, including librarians from other settings or LIS students who wish to gain a greater insight into the type of work liaison librarians do in universities and colleges.—Andrew Chae, San José State University