Who Am I? The Transition from Science Librarian to Teaching & Learning Librarian

In October 2021, UH Libraries embarked upon a variety of organizational shifts, which included a reexamination of the liaison librarian model. The Liaison Services department restructured, and liaison librarians transitioned into roles as members of new functional services departments: teaching & learning, research services, and collections. With this restructure, some of our science librarians were tasked with gaining knowledge and developing confidence in teaching different subject areas while sharing our previous knowledge with others. All of the science librarians in Liaison Services moved into the newly formed Teaching & Learning department, while science librarians in other departments maintained their roles and identities. We’ll discuss how we’ve maintained a connection with science librarianship, how we’ve grown in fields we are both familiar and unfamiliar with, the benefits and challenges of no longer being “science librarians,” and how the former “liaison” work of instruction, reference, outreach, and collections has continued.