Taylor librarians supporting the Engineering and Physical Sciences departments presented a session called “Teaming up: Benefits of collaborating with library colleagues” at the Ontario Library Association Super Conference in Toronto.
Four years ago, we began discussing a new model of collaboration and workload distribution in our library. These discussions led to the creation of a team composed of physical sciences and engineering librarians, library assistants, and administrators. A similar team working with the health and life sciences was also created.
The Physical Sciences Team has worked together to provide consistent service, and to respond to strategic directions of the university as well as to student and faculty needs. We recognize the expertise of our library staff and regularly engage in skills development and cross-training. While your main contact with the library is still your specific subject librarian, you will likely see more of us over the course of a year – for example, three librarians and one library assistant work together to provide 15 hours of instruction for students in Chem 3300 – “Computer Methods in Chemistry;” four librarians and one librarian assistant instruct in ES (Engineering Science) 1050 – “Introductory Design and Innovation Studio." As a group we also try out new methods of reaching out to faculty and students – for example, hosting drop-in sessions, presenting at faculty development days, and setting criteria for collections assessment projects.
Interested in knowing how your subject librarian can work with you for your instruction or research? Your Physical Sciences and Engineering librarians are:
Lise Doucette (Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
Dan Sich (Applied Mathematics, Earth Sciences, Engineering Science, Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, Planetary Sciences, Statistics and Actuarial Sciences)
Shiyi Xie (Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Chemistry, Civil and Environmental Engineering)
You can view the presentation in PowerPoint format in the library’s institutional repository, Scholarship@Western
© 1878 - 2013 Western University
