Editor’s Note: This guest post has been authored by Amber Pierdinock-Weed. Amber is the Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she works closely with the First-Year Writing Program and Learning Living Communities on campus.
In June 2023, I started a position as a Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of Maryland, a Research I university. Previously, I worked at a small community college, where I was heavily embedded in several departments on-campus. The transition from a community college to a Research I university was intense. My current position includes providing support to non-degree academic programs, such as living-learning communities, the Honors College, and other special populations on campus. When I started my position, I researched the non-degree academic programs on campus, and I began reaching out to select programs to collaborate. I hit many roadblocks: some programs were not interested in collaboration with the library, some programs were content with the interventions the library already had in place, and some did not respond at all. I am a year into my position now, and looking back, I wish I had guidance on the best way to get started creating and rebuilding relationships with non-degree academic programs. This blog post will include what I have learned in my first year in my position and recommendations for new librarians who might be meeting with a program for the first time.
On a Tuesday afternoon, a year into my position at the University of Maryland, I got an email. An undergraduate research program reached out to me, unsolicited, and asked for a meeting to talk about collaboration between their program and the Library.
As a new librarian who was eager to make an impact, it was easy to almost overcommit to the partnership. Since I work in such a large library, I wanted to be the person who spearheaded an exciting new collaboration for the Library and felt ownership over this potential collaboration. As I read through the course plan the program sent me, I dreamed of embedding librarians into the program, creating benchmarks for librarian intervention in undergraduate research, and library instruction in the program’s for-credit class. All high-level work that would take years to implement well.
It felt high-stakes to talk with the program for the first time. I wanted to present the library as the best collaborator possible, while also maintaining realistic boundaries and expectations. Before the initial meeting, the nervousness kicked in. This program reached out to me, which meant they might already have an idea of what they wanted from the library. From there, the thoughts began to spiral: What if they want something my unit cannot provide? What if their ideas are not feasible? What if they aren’t willing to do a multi-year partnership? What if…?
The excitement and anxiety spiral is easy to fall into. It’s natural! The balance between doing meaningful, yet sustainable, work is thin. If you are looking to set up a partnership with a program on your campus (or maybe you already have a meeting on the calendar), here are some tips to help you prepare for that first meeting:
- Review program materials: Try to have a decent grounding in the program before the initial meeting by reviewing materials, such as their syllabus, course plan, or website.
- Review existing library materials: Review existing internal materials related to the program. In this scenario, the program had a general LibGuide, which I reviewed ahead of the meeting and identified areas for improvement in comparison with the program’s website to identify content that could be updated or that was not in the guide.
- Start small: Consider small manageable steps. While it may be the end-goal for the Library to have a deep and embedded partnership, consider taking smaller, more actionable steps to get started.
- Use asynchronous resources: While your immediate reaction might be to schedule tons of instruction sessions, consider creating something asynchronous, like a module in the learning management system. This will allow you to gauge interest without stretching yourself too thin.
- Utilize existing materials: Consider any materials your library already has in place. Quality custom materials take time to develop. Are there any videos, tutorials, or modules already existing at your institution that you could use as a basis? Are there other LibGuides that you could use content from or link to?
- Advocate for yourself: In a haze of wanting to be helpful or immediately starting a collaboration before it loses steam, it is easy to overcommit and overpromise.You have permission to leave the initial meeting with no hard plans, just ideas for further discussion or research.
For my initial meeting with the undergraduate research program, I reviewed the existing LibGuide and I shared some ideas of content I could add to it, mostly pulling from existing materials. We also discussed creating a module for our campus learning management system to provide asynchronous instruction for the program’s credit-bearing class. The potential module would be inspired by a module our library previously created on basic research skills that is used for our first year composition program. Both myself and the representative from the program left the meeting wanting to discuss further with our units and will be coming back together soon to solidify initial library support for the students.
Will this partnership evolve into something deeper? It’s hard to say, but I hope so. It will likely take years to get to where my initial thoughts ran to, and that is okay. Starting small is starting smart. Your students—and your future self—will benefit from a thoughtful, gradual approach.