This Fall Semester, Drexel University has assigned each of their 2,750 freshman a personal librarian. This “Personal Librarian Program” was drawn from similar programs at Yale and other institutions. The Drexel Library program has been been mentioned in articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Library Journal and other publications.
Dr. Danuta Nitecki, dean of libraries at Drexel, was quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education article, “The program is a natural extension of what libraries have done for a long time, but now we are adding a more personal element.” The role of the personal librarian is designed to be introductory, where the student will use the librarian as a primary contact for using the library throughout the year. Twenty librarians support the Personal Librarian Program.
An article in Medical Reference Services Quarterly details the results from a librarian and student experience survey of the Personal Librarian program at Yale’s Cushing/Medical Library. This program was established in 1996. The mission here was to “encourage more personal contact with individual students.” The results of a student satisfaction survey shows 95% of survey respondents knew who there Personal Librarian was, and that 53% had taken initiative to contact them for guidance on library materials and other questions. The following is a link to Yale University Library’s guide to what a personal librarian does: http://www.library.yale.edu/pl/
Spak, Judy M., and Janis G. Glover. “The Personal Librarian Program: An Evaluation of a Cushing/Whitney Medical Library Outreach Initiative.” Medical Reference Services Quarterly 26.4 (2007): 15-25. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 29 Sept. 2010.
