As the Spring semester wraps up over the next 4 ½ weeks, my work has shifted from formal classroom instruction to research consultations and reference interviews, sharing surveys with faculty and students, planning for the summer, and reflecting on the past four months. As I look back on the classes I taught and what further growth I need, one thing that comes to mind is my relationships with faculty.
This Spring, I tried to be more intentional about finding ways to collaborate with faculty and their classes beyond the one-shot library session. Part of this effort was motivated by my anxiety about not reaching students at multiple points of need during the semester and uncertainty around whether they would use our library again. A second motivation was my reservations about the one-shot instruction model (which I’ve written about in a previous post). I wanted to create a way to sustain engagement with the classes I teach and put into practice something I say at the start of each session: “I am here to support you during this semester and the rest of your time here.” A key to building this process was fostering closer partnerships with these classes’ instructors.
Much commentary and research has been shared, such as on this blog, about the complexities of relationship-building between instructional librarians and faculty. For example, stereotypes prevail that librarians are either warm, caring, and fully responsive or cold, strict, and unapproachable. These stereotypes have impacted how we are perceived by faculty, affected possibilities for partnership, and resulted in the misuse of our roles (Pagowsky & DeFrain, 2014). A 2022 survey of US instruction librarians found that a majority felt that faculty “minimized or misunderstood” what they did (Becksford, 2022). Other research echoes this observation, finding that misalignment of teaching goals and confusion about what instruction librarians do can hinder relationship-building. Misalignment and confusion can also cause faculty to view librarians as “service providers” – staff who only introduce students to research skills and guide them toward resources they need, rather than as teaching colleagues (Dennis & Dees, 2024). Gender stereotypes and misconceptions about instruction librarian roles thus impede productive librarian-faculty relationships.
I have often found, across the 20 or so classes I have had over the last two semesters, that while faculty are excited for me to reorient their students to our library and introduce them to critical research and information literacy skills, my engagement is usually limited to a one-shot session. While syllabus constraints typically cause this limitation, I’ve reflected that I often allow my lack of experience as an instruction librarian to elevate faculty above myself and undersell my services. However, the few occasions I did extend my collaboration with a faculty member beyond the one-shot were due to the relationship we built over time, in addition to advocating for the various ways I could support their students.
Lessons I learned for Fostering Productive Faculty Relationships
The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education encourages librarians “to work with faculty, departmental or college curriculum committees, instructional designers, staff from centers for teaching and learning, and others to design information literacy programs in a holistic way” (Association of College and Research Libraries, 2016). While I am still growing each semester as an instruction librarian, I have managed to gain some lessons along the way for creating productive relationships with faculty:
- If possible, conduct outreach early
Once I scheduled the classes I would teach at the start of the semester, I reached out to faculty as soon as possible to establish expectations around what my instruction and support would be, as well as the logistics of the session (will it be in the faculty member’s class meeting location or the library? What is the date and time? Etc.). Early contact helped me feel more comfortable and better prepared to teach my classes, and also enabled me to build early rapport with the faculty member I would support. A systematic review of library-faculty relationships made a similar observation when it identified communication as an important avenue to commitment and trust by faculty (Phelps & Campbell, 2012).
- Take faculty workloads into account when proposing areas of collaboration
Even as I have sought to find further areas of partnership, I have tried to keep in mind how busy faculty members are, especially if they are adjuncts or graduate students who might teach in multiple institutions or are trying to graduate. A 2016 study of faculty-librarian collaboration in a First-Year Seminar program found in interviews with faculty that they “admitted the difficulty of incorporating course content and the four liberal arts skills into their one-semester seminars” due to “pressures and time constraints” (Douglas & Rabinowitz, 2016). I often found that giving faculty the option of working together outside the one-shot without expectations brought ease to our communication and also gave them something to consider if they worked with me again in the next semester.
- A Pre-session meeting (on or offline) can help with preparation and connection
Traditional faculty-librarian collaboration can often present as a librarian introducing students to a library and what services it offers them, and then the faculty instructing their students to contact the librarian for help if needed. While students will get assistance, it might feel as if their instructor and the librarian are not on the same page regarding what the students need (Colantonio-Yurko et al., 2020). A best practice in my library’s instruction team is to share teaching materials with faculty before a session so that they can provide feedback and input. I follow this practice and also propose a 10-15 minute meeting. When they do happen, I have found these meetings to be extremely productive, not only helping us confirm what the session should cover but also specific areas of focus and granular class information like accommodation needs.
By talking together outside email, faculty members and I were able to construct shared language around information literacy and research concepts that could be reinforced throughout the rest of the course (Shields, 2012). These short meetings provided an opportunity for me to communicate with a faculty member on a personal level, learn successes and pain points they are facing, and find connections in our lives outside of the classroom, helping to encourage what Colantonio-Yurko and others call “positive personalized relationships” (2020). As a result, I found that an increased level of trust could be achieved, and got faculty members thinking about other possibilities for working together.
- Don’t forget post-session communication
At the end of each session I taught, I briefly met with a faculty member to thank them for inviting me to teach their class, find out how the session went, and remind them of other areas of potential collaboration. While this lesson might seem obvious, it can be easy to overlook, especially if a session went poorly or if a faculty member does not attend the session with their class. There have been multiple times over the last two semesters when a session did not go as planned, and I felt the urge to run from the classroom as soon as I finished teaching. While it was difficult on those occasions to stay behind and meet with faculty, it was a rewarding decision because of how grateful faculty members frequently were that I taught their class and how excited they were to scaffold some of the concepts I taught. Meeting in those times helped rebuild my confidence and morale, and reminded faculty of the benefits of collaboration for their students both from the session and outside it.
Looking ahead to the future
As I start planning to teach in the summer and fall, I hope to continue building on existing relationships I have made with faculty this academic year and foster new ones. It was sad to hear that a faculty member with whom I had formed a close and meaningful partnership did not plan to teach in the fall and would likely move to another institution. However, I am excited that they are taking the next step in their professional journey. I will also always appreciate the lessons I took away about what an effective collaboration could look like and look forward to applying them with other faculty members I work with.
At the same time, I want to approach future partnerships with more grace and patience, knowing that folks who teach in American higher education are navigating multiple pressures. These pressures could mean that my relationship with faculty changes each semester due to factors outside of my control. However, I think what makes any working relationship successful is knowing when to set small expectations and goals, when to aim for more, and how both will impact how I collaborate with another person. It is a delicate balance I am still beginning to learn.
References
Association of College and Research Libraries. (n.d.). Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, Appendix 1: Implementing the Framework. Retrieved April 14, 2025, from https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframeworkapps
Becksford, L. (2022). Instruction Librarians’ Perceptions of the Faculty–Librarian Relationship. Communications in Information Literacy, 16(2), 119-150. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2022.16.2.3
Christiansen, L., Stombler, M., & Thaxton, L. (2004). A Report on Librarian-Faculty Relations from a Sociological Perspective. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 30(2), 116–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2004.01.003
Colantonio-Yurko, K., Kalenda, P., Olmstead, K., Rath, L., & Wright, A. (2020). I never knew a librarian did that!: Exploring how faculty and librarian relationships support meaningful collaboration. Journal of New Librarianship, 5(1), 25–44. https://doi.org/10.33011/newlibs/9/2
Dennis, M., & Dees, A. S. (2024). Strategic alliances: The library as a partner for student success. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 50(6), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102964
Douglas, V. A., & Rabinowitz, C. E. (2016). Examining the Relationship between Faculty-Librarian Collaboration and First-Year Students’ Information Literacy Abilities. College & Research Libraries, 77(2), 144–163. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.77.2.144
Pagowsky, N., & DeFrain, E. (2014). Ice Ice Baby: Are Librarian Stereotypes Freezing Us out of Instruction? In the Library with the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2014/ice-ice-baby-2/
Phelps, S. F., & Campbell, N. (2012). Commitment and Trust in Librarian–Faculty Relationships: A Systematic Review of the Literature. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 38(1), 13–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2011.11.003
Shields, K. (2014). Research Partners, Teaching Partners: A Collaboration between FYC Faculty and Librarians to Study Students’ Research and Writing Habits. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 19(3–4), 207–218. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2014.983286