Liaison Program
Who is my Department's Library Liaison?
What is Library Liaison?
Library services are critical to the mission of Penn State Hershey through the provision of current, necessary, well vetted information. With the Liaison Program, Library services are tailored to the specified needs of each department at Penn State Hershey. The Liaison Librarians provide library services to the staff and faculty, Nursing and Allied Health programs by supporting their teaching, clinical, and research endeavors.
Harrell Health Sciences Library Liaisons:
- Are well-informed about the library’s collections, services, policies, and resources; they also have skills in interpreting and promoting these to the staff, faculty, Nursing and Allied Health professionals of Penn State Hershey.
- Develop knowledge of the subject matter and nature of teaching and research conducted by the departments at Penn State Hershey.
- Develop partnerships with teaching faculty to ensure that relevant information access skills and tools are incorporated into the academic program
What does a Library Liaison do?
The Harrell Health Sciences Library Liaisons are prepared to provide you with the following services:
- Teaching – the Liaison Librarian can arrange classes for your department. A list of classes are available from the Class Registration Web site. The Library Liaison can customize classes for specific departments’ needs.
- Communication – through promoting and developing the robust collection. While the George T. Harrell Health Sciences Library provides access to state of the art online journals, in scope online books and searchable databases, the Library Liaison will promote these resources through education. All Electronic Resources are available on the Resources Web site. The Library Liaison’s goal is to promote and identify needed resources to suit the needs of their user groups.
- Reference – Liaisons will assist users in locating information. They will instruct departments in how to research a topic, choose an appropriate database or resource, construct an effective search strategy, and evaluate the literature. Training users in using library resources empowers users to conduct their own research.
- Providing expert literature searching assistance – your Liaison Librarian can work with you to develop search strategies and to choose the correct databases or resources for your research and clinical work. While search requests can be made through the Search Request Form, users should expect to spend time with their Liaison Librarian to discuss details of their search.
- Assessing Liaison user-group needs – Liaisons reevaluate Library services to better support the needs of the user-groups. Harrell Library Liaisons periodically contact users to ascertain that all library needs are being met. The Liaisons will introduce themselves to all staff and may make periodic contacts with user-groups via email or department visits.
Expected Benefits of the Library Liaison Program
- Increased collaborative relationship between the Harrell Health Sciences Library and other Penn State Hershey Departments.
- Users to develop an increasing awareness of the Harrell Health Sciences Library’s resources and services.
- Open line of communication with Library users for questions or feedback on Library services.
- Extend Library services to users in their offices or Departments.
- Teaching programs developed for the needs of Liaison user groups.
Personal Librarian Program for Medical and Graduate Students
- For more information about the Harrell Library Liaison Program, please contact the library at herref@hmc.psu.edu