Library Skills: synchronous (live and face to face) training guide

This guidance is to help ensure minimum disruption to service provision and manage user expectations related to liaison support, or one-to-one library skills consultations, during planned or unplanned absence of library skills trainers / liaison librarians. It supports our commitment to Customer Service Excellence, in particular:

• We have policies and procedures which support the right of all customers to expect excellent levels of service.
• We agree with our customers at the outset what they can expect from the service we provide.
• We identify individual customer needs at the first point of contact with us and ensure that an appropriate person who can address the reason for contact deals with the customer.

This guidance may be adapted according to local settings and requirements, in agreement with line managers. There are existing examples of good practice in referring and covering liaison and skills support. If you have any to share to further inform this guidance, please contact Angela Young. 

This guidance is for colleagues in the following capacities:

1. Skills trainer / liaison librarian taking absence: Colleagues in academic liaison / library skills trainer roles with planned or unplanned absence.
2. Line manager: Line managers of colleagues in academic liaison / library skills trainer roles.
3. Cover contact: Colleague(s) in a pre-arranged agreement to provide cover for liaison or skills in the absence of the colleague responsible.
4. Referral / triage contact: Colleague(s) triaging requests for liaison or skills in the absence of the skills trainer / liaison librarian responsible. These will often be through a queue in LibAnswers. The referral / triage contact will vary depending on the library. For sites, this may be the generic site email address, (or other jointly staffed e-mail address, e.g. the IOE Subject Liaison e-mail). For Subject Liaison Librarians in Main and Science libraries, the referral / triage contact may be libraryskills@ucl.ac.uk (for skills) or another Subject Liaison Librarian based at Main or Science libraries (for liaison).

Colleagues in any of these roles only need read the guidance for that role, although it may be helpful to read the entire guidance to get an overview of the process.

This guidance has been agreed by: Angela Young, Lindsay Ure, Kate Cheney, Anna Di Iorio, Michelle Wake.

Please contact us if you have any comments or suggestions for improvements.