On the morning of Thursday, January 27, over 30 academic law librarians braved snowy conditions to gather at Harvard Law School (HLS) to discuss innovative ways to deliver faculty services. Based on the theme of the Price is Right television program, the free event was titled: Faculty Services Showcase Showdown (FSSS), and was hosted by the HLS Library Faculty Services Team.
FSSS was relaxed and collaborative, and librarians took the opportunity to share successes and frustrations. Librarians came from all parts of New England and as far away as North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and New York. A few even participated via Skype from the Chicago-Kent School of Law.
FSSS started with coffee and pastries. HLS Library Director John Palfrey offered a few introductory remarks, and then joined the first of two roundtable discussions.
Roundtable discussion topics included:
At the ‘Creating Great Relationships with Faculty’ table, which might have also been called ‘Managing Faculty Expectations’, librarians from Georgetown, Western New England, UNC, Columbia, Boston University, and Harvard discussed various models for serving faculty. Everyone seemed to agree that creating the right level of expectation and service could be a challenge. Librarians discussed whether libraries should actively promote service (potentially diluting overall service) or work reactively to faculty requests. There was also discussion on the inter-generational differences among faculty expectations and work styles.
After the roundtable discussions, librarians were invited to provide “showcase talks” or lightning talks. Seven librarians (and one empiricist) showcased their work.
The Chicago-Kent crew spoke first (by Skype) about a project to design a dynamic website to promote and supplement a faculty publication:
http://supplements.kentlaw.edu/energylawcasebook/
Next, Yale presented on its efforts to support faculty scholarship from start to finish, including hosting book talks, and developing dynamic websites to help promote book publications:
http://documents.law.yale.edu /representing-justice
Examples of other talks include: Western New England College School of Law talking about how it used an annual holiday party as a faculty outreach opportunity, and UNC and Harvard talking about upside and challenges of offering empirical research services to faculty.
Throughout the day, raffles were held to keep folks energized and entertained. A few lucky attendees even left with a fun prizes, like Starbucks Gift Cards and brand new cars (miniature ones, that is). The day concluded at 12:30 pm, when folks went out for lunch around Harvard Square, and a few even enjoyed a tour of the HLS Library and Special Collections.
Special thanks to all who traveled to HLS in over six inches of snow to make it a lively and exciting gathering. This librarian picked up a few “best practices” from colleagues far and wide, and met some really great people.