Liaison Work Research Articles

Academic library liaison programs in US libraries: methods and benefits

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an updated definition of academic liaison work and examine methods for developing effective liaison relationships.Design/methodology/approach – The authors reviewed and incorporated recently published (1989‐2009) material relating to academic liaison work. In addition to published material the authors conducted a survey of faculty in their liaison areas during the fall 2008 semester in order to access their knowledge and satisfaction with liaison services.Findings – The paper finds that liaison work is multifaceted and success is based both on administrative support and the individual liaisons efforts.Originality/value – The originality of this work includes the definition of liaison work and requirements of academic liaisons in today's libraries. The paper is of value to current academic liaisons and librarians just entering the field of academia. The paper incorporates recent research, an author conducted survey and the authors' nearly two decades of com...

Giving Muslim girls ‘a voice’: the possibilities and limits to challenging patriarchal interpretations of Islam in one English community

This paper presents the philosophies and practices of ‘Laura’, a young English community liaison worker and former religious studies teacher who has recently converted to Islam. Drawing on data generated from a qualitative and predominantly interview‐based research project that investigated issues of pedagogy and social justice in English schools, the focus is on Laura’s efforts to support Muslim girls through an Islamic discussion group. The paper highlights how Laura draws on Islamic beliefs to support the girls’ questioning of patriarchal interpretations of Islam within their Pakistani immigrant community. The paper also provides insight, however, into some of the tensions and limitations of Laura’s liberatory approach in terms of her positioning as white, western, and middle‐class. Against this backdrop, a self‐reflexive approach that is sensitive to how ‘ethnic‐specific sociability’ shapes understandings and enactments of gender is advocated. Such an approach is presented as central in considering how spaces of gender justice might be mobilised within community environments where unprecedented levels of multi‐cultural fragmentation and diversity have amplified tensions and conflict between and amongst racial and religious groups.

Reference Services in Australian Academic Libraries are Becoming More Multifaceted

Reference Services in Australian Academic Libraries are Becoming More Multifaceted

Educational services for hospitalized children

Illness and hospitalization lead to loss of school days and education for some children. This issue has been addressed in published literature for more than three decades (1). Regular school attendance and swift school re-entry are considered to be important mechanisms for helping children cope with hospitalization and the management of their illness (2,3). Helping children stay connected with regular academic and social activities has been shown to reduce difficulties during school re-entry (4). Access to a teacher and being able to continue school within the hospital provides children with a sense of normalcy during the hospital stay. However, evaluating these educational services for children in Canadian hospitals seems less obvious compared with our counterparts in other countries, some of whom use Canadian educational researchers to assess hospital-based educational services (5,6). In an attempt to accommodate the educational needs of children and young people in hospitals, many paediatric hospitals have teachers who provide one-on-one teaching either in a hospital classroom or at the bedside of children who are hospitalized for extended periods. The involvement of a teacher in a patient’s total care enhances the student’s learning potential while ill, and facilitates a smoother return to school. Sometimes, the teacher’s responsibility may include course selection or rearranging timetables, work completion, test or examination proctoring, and/or initiating an Identification, Placement, and Review Committee if the illness has affected the patient’s learning abilities. By providing this liaison work, the hospital teacher can facilitate the school program at a time when the parents are possibly very preoccupied with workplace demands and other children at home, in addition to caring for a sick hospitalized child. We hypothesized that the information on educational services available to hospitalized children was not uniform across Canada, and that the information on these services was not easily accessible. We wanted to assess educational service information available to inpatient or outpatient children in Canadian paediatric hospitals that are accessible on the Internet.

What do LIS students in the United States know about liaison duties?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze job advertisements in United States academic libraries in order to determine the prevalence of jobs that contain a liaison component. It also aims to report on a survey of current library science graduate students to assess their level of understanding of what liaison work entails and what type of preparation they have had for such work in their LIS program.Design/methodology/approachThe study includes an analysis of 313 academic library job advertisements. It also uses a 12 question survey, which was distributed to 52 library school listservs throughout the USA. The survey announcements resulted in 516 responses from library school students nationwide.FindingsOf the jobs surveyed more than a quarter specifically mentioned liaison activities. The survey showed that few respondents have been exposed to a discussion of liaison work in their classrooms. Those who have demonstrated greater awareness of what constitutes liaison work demonstrate greater self‐confidence in their ability to become successful liaisons.Research limitations/implicationsThe anonymous survey did not require participants to indicate what school they attended, possibly resulting in a geographically biased sample. The survey also did not ask respondents at what point they were in their program, so that some respondents may have been very new to their library school studies and may not have had the opportunity to take many classes at the time of the survey.Practical implicationsThis study suggests that library schools should find ways to incorporate a discussion of liaison work into some part of their curriculum, especially for students interested in academic librarianship.Originality/valueNo other studies have analyzed job descriptions in terms of liaison work, nor have any studies surveyed students to determine their knowledge of, and preparation for, this type of work.

The Imperforate Anus Psychosocial Questionnaire (IAPSQ): Its construction and psychometric properties

The origin of the present study was to develop the liaison work between the disciplines of child and adolescent psychiatry and paediatric surgery and nursing, so as to improve the quality of treatment and care of a group of children with imperforate anus (IA) and their families. Imperforate anus is a congenital disease involving a deformity of the anorectum. The early surgery and invasive follow-up treatment associated with IA may affect the child psychosocially, including the child-parent relationship. By developing and testing a questionnaire for children born with anorectal anomalies, a tool for measuring psychosocial functioning can be realized.First, a literature review on "Imperforate Anus" was performed. Second, an exploratory interview study was conducted with patients/adolescents with IA and their parents. The findings from these interviews were the foundation for construction of the questionnaire. The Imperforate Anus Psychosocial Questionnaire (IAPSQ) was tested and revised three times before its completion. It contains 45 items on Likert scales. A total of 87 children completed the IAPSQ: 25 children with IA and two comparison groups. Face and content validity were considered. The Rasch approach, an item response theory model, was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the IAPSQ, where item difficulty and person ability are concurrently approximated.The findings of the Rasch analysis revealed that the psychological dimension was reasonable, and that person reliability (0.83) was moderate and item reliability (0.95) was sufficient. The social dimension showed satisfactory item reliability (0.87). The person reliability (0.52) of the social dimension was weak. Content validity seemed to be established and construct validity was recognized on the psychological dimension.The IAPSQ provides a reasonably valid and reliable measure of psychosocial functioning for clinical use among children with IA, although some revisions are suggested for the next version of the IAPSQ. By using the Rasch model, we discovered that specific items should be discarded and other items should be reformulated to make the questionnaire more "on target". The social dimension has to be expanded with further items to reasonably capture a social dimension.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Specialist Liaison Worker Model for Young People with Intellectual Disabilities with Challenging Behaviour and Mental Health Needs

Background Twenty six young people with intellectual disabilities and mental health needs from Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities were recruited as part of a bigger study to examine the effectiveness of a liaison worker in helping young people and their families access appropriate intellectual disabilities and mental health services.Method Twelve young people were randomly allocated to the treatment group, which had the help of the liaison worker, and 14 young people were allocated to the control group without the help of a liaison worker. Baseline measures were undertaken with all the young people and their carers. This was followed by a 9‐month trial, consisting of the liaison worker helping the treatment group to get in touch with and take up appropriate services, mainly in the areas of psychiatric appointments, benefits advice, house adaptations, leisure facilities and support and care for the young person. The control group participants did not have the access to the liaison worker and were accessing services using the normal routine. Assessments were carried out post‐treatment to assess whether the use of a liaison worker had had any effect on outcomes for the two groups.Results Twelve young people completed the study in the treatment group and 14 in the control group. Participants allocated to the specialist liaison worker had statistically significantly more frequent contact with services and with more outcomes, than the control group, and significantly lower scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).Conclusion The use of specialist liaison services in ensuring adequate access to services for young people with learning disabilities and mental health needs from the South Asian community proved to be significant and effective compared with young people and their families accessing services on their own.

Psychiatric Help for Caregivers of Infants in Neonatal Intensive Care

Psychiatric Help for Caregivers of Infants in Neonatal Intensive Care

Caractéristiques et prise en charge du patient psychotique en cancérologie

Not so familiarised with the mental pathology, the oncologist has to deal with psychotic patients and cannot hide their psychiatric problems. Some adjustments need to be implemented in order to obtain the best compliance to cancer care. In the face of such prejudices, resistances and fantasies driven by these patients qualified as "crazy", a close collaboration between the oncology department and the psycho-oncology team is essential in order to make easier and to optimise management's adequacy. Besides the adjustment of antipsychotic treatment to the somatic context, the liaison work with the caregivers' team made of explanations and advises remains a major step of the psychotic patient care. Some clinical case reports will illustrate this reflection, which will bring us to challenge the actual epidemiological hypothesis regarding the possible link between psychosis and cancer. Then, the indication of antipsychotic medications in oncology will be discussed. Finally, ethic issues such as informed consent and refusal of treatment in psychotic patients will be approached.

Going down a different road: first support and information needs of families with a baby with Down syndrome

To explore the experiences of families with a baby with Down syndrome at the time of diagnosis, and their preferences for information and support in the early period after diagnosis. A qualitative, interview-based study of 18 families living in Victoria with a child with Down syndrome born between 2002 and 2004 who had not been diagnosed with the syndrome before birth. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and interpretive content analysis was undertaken. Parental coping with the unexpected diagnosis of Down syndrome in their infant was influenced by the time interval between birth and disclosure of clinical suspicion of Down syndrome, the level of certainty of the attending physician at the time of disclosure, and the time interval between disclosure of clinical suspicion and confirmation of karyotype. Initial uncertainty and a delay in the diagnosis were detrimental to parental coping, as was premature communication of the news. Perinatal complications increased parental anxiety regarding their child's condition and future. Individual communication style of midwives and physicians was a powerful predictor of parental adaptation. Parental needs for support and information were facilitated through normalising postnatal care, ensuring privacy, and providing early access to peer support and up-to-date written information. Many parents would have appreciated access to a liaison worker. The experiences of parents in this study provide practice points for improving postnatal care with minimal changes to formal service systems.

Exploring interlibrary loan usage patterns and liaison activities: the experience at a US university

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore actual interlibrary loan (ILL) usage patterns as a way to improve ILL services and assist in library liaison work.Design/methodology/approachThe study assesses ILL services at a mid‐size comprehensive college library in order to see who is utilizing the current service. Usage patterns are constructed and explored based on data collected over a three‐year period. The requested materials' publication date and Library of Congress subject heading, as well as the requestor's academic status (faculty, graduate student, undergraduate student) and department are addressed.FindingsUsage patterns can accurately illustrate trends in the borrowing behavior of patrons in order to gain a better understanding of their needs. The majority of users were faculty members from a limited number of academic departments. Usage patterns can be very helpful in constructing and focusing liaison work. A thorough study of ILL usage patterns is a viable undertaking worthwhile for any institution looking to improve and expand its ILL and liaison services.Practical implicationsThis paper recommends that The College of Staten Island Library utilize ILL statistics to improve and redesign Liaison activities to under‐represented departments. Assessing ILL usage patterns can enable a quick and accurate overview of actual use for improving ILL and liaison services.Originality/valuePrevious research has linked Interlibrary Loan services to collection development. The current study links the assessment of actual ILL usage patterns with liaison activities beyond collection development.

85 Pioneering Specialist Palliative Care Outreach within a Prison

With an increasing prison population and rising numbers of life sentences in the UK, many older prisoners have chronic medical conditions requiring palliative interventions. The healthcare unit within HMP Norwich is the only unit in Europe providing a service specialising in the care of such prisoners. This paper describes innovative liaison work designed to develop a high-quality palliative care and end-of-life …

Cooperation between Pediatrics and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Children visiting pediatric institutions may have psychosocial problems. A consultation and liaison work between the child psychiatric department and the pediatric disciplines could be a help for these children and their parents. This paper aimed to scrutinize and evaluate the attitudes for an improved cooperation between child and adolescent psychiatry and pediatrics at a hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, and how such cooperation would be implemented. More than hundred nurses participated in the groups interviewed, 22 program directors were interviewed in pairs and 5 executives were interviewed individually. Eventually, 7 follow up interviews were carried out. The interviews showed that knowledge of the role of child psychiatry team was limited. Psychological and psychiatric care for children and parents was frequently needed. More psychological and psychiatric education and training was required and the cooperation could be improved. Although most nurses knew little about the psychiatry unit, they wanted a closer relationship. An important link between the two specialties would be provided by a nurse trained in child and adolescent psychiatry. Taking the noted steps will improve cooperation to the benefit of patients who along with their parents have a tremendous need of psychological care.

Library Liaison with non-academic units: a new application for a traditional model

This paper suggests that traditional models of liaison librarianship, which focus on liaison with academic units such as teaching departments and specific colleges within institutions, should be adapted and then expanded to include non-academic units as well. Although the literature demonstrates that understandings of liaison work have evolved, it still contains almost no examples of how to extend library liaison beyond traditional academic units in a systematic way. As a result, existing liaison programs are too narrowly conceived, and the strengths of the liaison model are not being fully exploited. By adapting the structures in place to support traditional liaison, such programs can be expanded to include non-academic units as well. As a result, libraries gain opportunities for broader collaboration on campus. Suggestions for identifying targets for formal non-academic liaison are provided, as are guidelines for determining suitable liaison activities and ensuring administrative support within the library.

Going Boldly Beyond the Reference Desk: Practical Advice and Learning Plans for New Reference Librarians Performing Liaison Work

Our article provides new reference librarians with practical recommendations and learning plans so that they can succeed as liaisons. Drawing from our experiences as new librarians, we explain how to practice continual learning, stay on top of the constantly changing environment of a liaison, pilot different techniques, and assess liaison work.

Working with an Aboriginal Community Liaison Worker

FPA Health (Family Planning NSW) has conducted two integrated clinical and health promotion projects with Aboriginal communities in western NSW, Australia. The first was in Coonamble, a small rural community which had been selected as a pilot site for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Women's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Project and was managed by FPA Health with support from the Dubbo/Plains Division of General Practice and Macquarie Area Health Service. The second was in Dubbo, a regional city where FPA Health had an existing centre and which had funding support from the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation. The aim of this article was to share the learning and knowledge gained in managing these projects and to describe the experience of working with Aboriginal Community Liaison Workers who belong to and are supported by, the local Aboriginal community. The article aimed to illustrate the role and value of utilising these workers within a mainstream health service. The beneficial outcomes include improving service provision to Aboriginal women, adding to community knowledge about reproductive and sexual health issues and increasing the cultural knowledge and competency of a mainstream health service organisation.

New ways of working and new ways of being: Multi-agency working and professional identity

As professionals working within children’s services move towards more integrated networks and teams, they work alongside colleagues from different disciplines, professions and agencies. Although liaison and cooperative working have been in existence within localities throughout recent history, the new structures and reorganisations are requiring new ways of working with the aim of delivering better services for children, young people and their families. This paper considers some of the effects of the formation of new multi-agency teams upon the professional identities of the people involved. This is considered with reference to a national four-year research project concerned with learning in and for inter-agency work that uses activity theory as its organising theoretical and conceptual orientation. It is suggested that there is a need for greater understanding of the processes of team formation and membership, distribution of work and expertise, rule-bending and practitioner improvisation.

Paediatric Liaison Work by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Although psychiatric morbidity is common amongst paediatric patients, little is known about the availability of CAMH paediatric liaison services. We surveyed all Trusts with specialist CAMH services and paediatric units in Greater London, enquiring about the nature of liaison that CAMHS provide. We found that although liaison paediatric work was common, dedicated paediatric liaison services were provided by only a minority of specialist multidisciplinary CAMHS. Their work involved most aspects of child psychopathology, and included emergencies and children with joint physical and psychiatric problems. About 2/3 of paediatricians were satisfied with CAMHS liaison services, but virtually all desired to see them developed further. There were few indications of co-ordination between specialist multidisciplinary CAMHS and other paediatric psychosocial support services.

Overview of Culturally-Based Mental Health Care in Vancouver

This article is a description of how cross-cultural services in mental health have evolved in Vancouver. With 49% of Vancouver's total population described as a 'visible minority' by Statistics Canada, it has been essential for the city, in its efforts to provide health care that is accessible, available and acceptable to all, to develop health care that acknowledges racial and cultural diversities. Vancouver's Cross Cultural Mental Health Services had their beginnings over 25 years ago. The services encompass both formal and informal sectors of the healthcare system, are provided at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of healthcare delivery and are available through hospital- and community-based services. With recent regionalization of British Columbia's health services, the cross-cultural mental health service has experienced increased coordination under the administration of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (one of six British Columbia health regions). The initial elements of a cross-cultural mental health service consisted of the Vancouver Association for the Survivors of Torture, the Cross-Cultural Clinic at Vancouver General Hospital, and the Multicultural Liaison Workers Program of the Vancouver Community Mental Health Service. Collaboration and partnerships between the formal and informal sectors support each other, bridge gaps in services and provide a milieu for growth and development.

Business Faculty Research: Satisfaction with the Web versus Library Databases

Business faculty members teaching at undergraduate campuses of the Pennsylvania State University were surveyed in order to assess their satisfaction with free Web sources and with subscription databases for their professional research. Although satisfaction with the Web's ease of use was higher than that for databases, overall satisfaction for professional research with databases was higher among those who use them than Web users' satisfaction with the Web. The findings also have implications for marketing and librarians training faculty in database use as well as having implications for reference and liaison work with business faculty members.