SUBJECT LIBRARIAN RESPONSIBILITIES

SUBJECT SUPPORT TO TEACHING

Our role as subject librarians is to cultivate a close communication between the university and academic departments and programmes, and to ensure that the library’s resources are relevant and used effectively to support teaching and research.

The main functions of a subject librarian are the following:

•  Liaising with the academic departments
• Providing information retrieval and reference services
• Training & User Education of students and staff
•  Collection Development & Maintenance of the subject specific collections
• Promote and market Library services & products

LIAISING WITH ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS

Our role as subject librarians is to cultivate a close communication between the university and academic departments and programmes, and to ensure that the library’s resources are relevant and used effectively to support teaching and research.

The communication can be either in person or through electronic channels:

•  Attending/participating in departmental or faculty meetings
•  Visiting individual academics
• Academics visiting the subject librarians
• Using e-mails or web resources for communicating information
• Attending academic workshops, open lectures, etc.
• Prepares library reports for program reviews and accreditations

To keep the academics current, the subject librarians provide information on and seek feedback on such themes as:

• New Library resources (new books, databases & journals)
• New library services
• Library learning opportunities for faculty and students
• Developments in scholarly communications
• Information on any library developments that may be relevant
• Contact new department members to introduce them to the Library resources and services, and learn their specific needs

To ensure that the library resources are used effectively, the subject librarians can:

• Identify courses or programmes and ensure that the required resources are available in the library to support these activity
• The subject librarians can work with the academic staff responsible to incorporate library instructions through the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) or Subject web pages.
• Developing relevant course/assignments/projects instructions through the Virtual Learning environment: Library Live
• Advising you on assignment involving library or its resources

The subject librarians recognise the competencies that the different departments expect of their students and identify the role of the library in achieving them.

Let your subject librarian know if there are particular activities that the Library could undertake in order to address your teaching needs.

Tell your students about the library and how we can help their academic and research needs for information. They are not always aware of the role the librarians have at a university.  

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND REFERENCE SERVICE

This service involves the following activities provided by the subject librarians:

• Identify user needs
• Develop client information profiles
• Handling telephone, face-to-face interaction and e-mail queries from clients
• Develop appropriate and efficient search strategies
• Identify and select the most relevant resources to use
• Conduct searches  by using a range of resources
• Provide current information & develop a focused alerting service

Provide advanced research assistance to academics and students 

Contact the subject librarians if you need any help.

HELPING WITH COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE

It is a subject librarian’s responsibility to build, manage and maintain a balanced and relevant collection (print and electronic) in support to teaching, learning and research. This is done by:

•  Regular interact with the academics, students, book and journal publishers to ensure that they keep up-to-date with the latest developments 
• Analyse and recommend materials for purchase where gaps in the collection exist
•  Provide to academics publishers catalogues and useful electronic websites for selecting a new resources 
• Reviewing the donated materials and make recommendations for additions to the library collection
•  Reviewing journal subscriptions and options for alternative access
• Provide regular feedback to the academics on the status of the budget
• Make recommendations to the Departments and Faculty on acquisitions or cancellations of resources.
• Participate in maintenance and management of the subject specific collection