The Subject Liaison’s Survival Guide to Technical Services

Subject liaisons act as a bridge connecting academic departments to the library and its services, helping facilitate instruction sessions, research support, and collection development. To be at their best in these roles, subject liaisons need a working understanding of technical services functions. This book represents the first guide to speak directly to the needs and responsibilities of subject liaisons, clearing away unnecessary information and jargon to bring them up to speed on how technical services staff get things done. Clear and concise, this guide

• covers policy, budgets and funding, submitting orders, acquisitions ordering, processing, cataloging, deselection and weeding, and other major technical services duties;   
• includes appropriate background information on each topic to enhance readers’ understanding;
• provides “Questions You Should Be Asking” connected to each chapter which encourage subject liaisons to be proactive in their learning; and
• offers a glossary of common technical services terms.

Armed with this guide’s targeted information, subject liaisons will be able to better position themselves to serve both instructors and the library effectively.

Krista Schmidt has worked in libraries for 15 years and was the first dedicated subject liaison hired by Hunter Library at Western Carolina University (WCU). She currently serves as the STEM liaison and maps librarian at WCU and has spent six years on the university library's collections advisory committee. She was named a 2013 Mover & Shaker by Library Journal.

Tim Carstens was a monographic cataloger at North Carolina State University from 1984 until 1990, when he began working for Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. He has served as head of the Cataloging and Acquisitions Unit and the Content Organization and Management Department, and his responsibilities have included collection development, acquisitions, cataloging and metadata, serials, and electronic resources. He was appointed associate dean of Library Services at Hunter Library in 2014 before retiring in 2016.