Amy Ward, DSW

“My librarian is always right there for my students and me. Anything I need, I go to her and she is always happy to help. ” – Amy Ward, DSW

1. Back ground

“In the past, it felt like ‘good luck,’ but it is more interactive here. With my liaison librarian, if I can’t find something, she is always there to find it WITH me.”

2. Expectations

“First, maintain good internal customer service and be approachable for students and faculty. We need to know you will be kind to us. Second, curate updated and relevant information. We expect you to be the expert in information retrieval.”

3. What Works

“My librarian and I care about each other. Collaboration is all about relationships, and if you don’t have a strong relationship, you could be the best liaison in the world and you still won’t be collaborative.”

4. Advice

“Take the library and academic discipline out of the equation and come to faculty openly to try to establish a genuine rapport. Than you can introduce how you can be useful to one another.”

Amy Ward, DSW, is the Director of the Social Work Program at East Central University in Ada, OK.