CRIV CONNECTION

Author: Syd L. Stephenson, Technical Services & Systems Librarian, Thurgood Marshall State Law Library 

As anyone in the acquisitions or electronic resource management realm could tell you, relationships with vendors are built through time and trust. For early-career librarians in particular, building relationships with vendors can be a daunting task on top of learning the ropes of a new job. Rather than throwing newer librarians into the deep end of the pool with this, those of us with more experience should provide guidance and serve as a pillar of support as they learn to navigate vendor relations. 

Listed below are five tips for supporting early-career librarians as they build these relationships with vendors and take on more responsibilities in their roles.

1. Allow Newer Librarians to Shadow Vendor-Library Interactions

One of the most helpful things for me during my days as an early-career librarian was getting to “sit in on” interactions between my superiors and vendor representatives. This can include cc-ing on troubleshooting tickets, observing contract negotiations, shadowing the procurement process, or sitting in on committees for larger projects such as platform migrations. 

2. Give Early-Career Librarians Practice Taking the Lead

Giving early-career librarians practice coordinating with vendors on projects is key for supporting whatever role they may have in vendor relations. For example, if you have early-career staff working in electronic resource management, a good starting project would be coordinating with a vendor and your institution’s IT department to configure an authentication method for an electronic resource.

3. Seek Out Professional Development and Training Opportunities

As a supplement to mentoring and training early-career librarians, take a proactive approach in setting up your early-career staff with professional development opportunities. Professional library organizations offer online trainings and webinars on a variety of topics relating to acquisitions and vendor relations. Additionally, professional organizations like AALL can offer involvement opportunities, like the Committee on Relations with Information Vendors (CRIV), that focus on vendors, licensing, and copyright.

The word proactive is key here, as seeking out these opportunities on behalf of your early-career staff shows that you are invested in their professional growth.

4. Communicate!

Additionally, it is vital to establish a communication channel between experienced staff and early-career librarians for vendor-related issues. This should also be done proactively, both so that staff can feel more confident navigating a variety of vendor-related tasks and projects and information does not remain siloed.

Take the time to let your early-career staff know who to talk to when they have vendor-related questions. Who are the major vendor contacts for the library? Who handles procurement? Who manages institutional accounts? Who is responsible for troubleshooting access issues?

5. Discuss Career Goals

Finally, be willing to have conversations with your early-career staff about their career goals and skills that they would like to learn. This is an opportunity to build a mentorship-driven relationship with your staff, as well as an opportunity for early-career librarians to explore what their career path might look like.