Julie Arendt, Megan Lotts 155 portal: Libraries and the Academy, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2012), pp. 155–177. Copyright © 2012 by The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD 21218. What Liaisons Say about Themselves and What Faculty Say about Their Liaisons, a U.S. Survey Julie Arendt, Megan Lotts abstract: Liaison librarians and faculty in chemistry, English, and psychology departments at colleges and universities in the United States were surveyed. They answered questions about services provided by the liaison and satisfaction. Liaisons’ satisfaction with their performance was associated with active liaison service, such as recent contact with the department and more time spent on liaison work. Faculty satisfaction with liaisons was associated with contact with their liaisons. We did not ind associations between liaisons’ descriptions of their work and faculty satisfaction with their liaisons for the pairs of faculty and their liaisons we were able to match. Introduction [A head] A cademic libraries have used liaison programs as one way to develop cooperation and collaboration between faculty and the library. A liaison librarian is one who is assigned to a speciic department(s). The liaison serves as the main point of contact between library and faculty of the department. Common tasks for a liaison can include outreach to a department, responses to concerns about the library, selection of books and journals, research consultations for faculty and students, and in-class instruc- tion, to name a few. With our study, we investigate the services provided by liaisons, especially as they relate to the importance faculty and liaisons place on these services. Previous studies conducted at individual colleges and universities have suggested some liaison characteristics and activities are associated with faculty satisfaction and liaisons’ perceptions of their own success. We examine whether these factors hold true across institutions. By surveying both liaisons and their faculty, we hope to get a better understanding of what services liaisons provide and how, if at all, these are related to