QUESTION:

How do you and/or your campus ensure all non-resident faculty, i.e, adjuncts, are kept "in the loop" of campus news, resources, etc.? I have a way of contacting all of our students and all of our resident faculty through email lists.  However, I cannot systematically contact the adjuncts because there seems to be no requirement for them to submit this information and no one person is responsible for getting or compiling this information each semester in a timely manner. 

This makes my job of meeting the entire teaching faculty and making everyone aware of new services, hours, resources, etc, quite difficult.  I have to rely on the chance meetings, word-of-mouth (by students and other faculty), flyers, and the occasional mention in the paper.

If you have a great way of making sure you are communicating with all of the faculty and not just the resident faculty, please share!  I'd like to know how a current contact list of all teaching faculty is maintained each semester and who is responsible for doing it. 

ANSWERS:

Ours is hit or miss as well. Sometimes an adjunct is only around for one semester. There is no organized way to contact them all. Usually I make contact by walking around or attending the new faculty orientation or student orientation.

We have a similar problem on our campus & use similar methods you discuss, flyers, signs posted in each classroom (custodial staff help me) plus word of mouth (btw, my most successful tool so far). Since we are a facility used by multiple institutions, none of our professors or students really "belong" to us. We know very little about them until they arrive on site. Not even the possibility of email contact.

Our student service department distributes a packet to each professor (classroom) at the beginning of the semester (library information is included) & we have begun to compile some student demographic info using a survey tool. But, again, all official student & instructor information (i.e. contact) is owned by the universities. And it is kind of a touchy subject, since university librarians & student advisors are on staff at the home campus & expected to provide all necessary service to these off-campus students.

We have begun a new pre-semester open house for "new" faculty but attendance, so far, has been dismal. More presenters than attendees.

If library instruction is requested by a professor, I happily teach the class. And, of course, I am available during open hours in the library on our campus to both students & faculty. This is where word-of-mouth is usually initiated.

[.] It really is all about 'creative marketing' when you are the lone librarian at an off-campus location.

[.] I have double the problem as the college frequently uses lots of community members for faculty. Many of them do not get hired until the last minute.

I have to resort to stuffing mailboxes or talking to the department head which works for some but not all departments. [.] they get added to a listserv for the whole campus, but I am not permitted to post to the faculty listserv but I am considered staff. So I put out general e-mails and post signs and stuff maliboxes. Both schools have a part-time handbook in which we are listed, but it does not work for keeping them informed of new things. [.]

[.] we've made strides and hiring more full-time faculty, but we still rely heavily on adjuncts. Our problems are exasperated by our monthly course schedule. Each month is a brand new semester for us.

At each center we put flyers in faculty boxes. We also search the monthly course schedules for each location and identify key faculty for classes we want to encourage to use the library or have a library instruction session. The identified group is then emailed using the University email address. We do not have a monthly group email system to email only current faculty or current adjuncts. We either do everyone in the University mail system or we have to list each individual faculty member.

One of the things that works well at the regional centers, is the monthly faculty meeting held during the dinner break on the first night of class. The [.] librarians are invited to pitch the library and this physical contact makes a difference.

For us, as it is for many of you, it is a constant issue of trying to find as many ways as possible to make contact and improve communication.

Our Campus is a small one with about 500 students enrolled per semester. More than half the classes are taught by adjuncts. This is what we do -

•  The Campus secretary provides all resident Program Directors and the Library with a list of classes running each semester at the Campus, names of instructors assigned to teach the classes, and room numbers where the classes are held.

•  Every faculty member (full time and adjunct) is required to fill out a Faculty Information Form each semester they teach which helps in gathering/updating mailing addresses, phone numbers, preferred email addresses (one supplied by the College or a personal one), etc. The Secretary has this information in an electronic file and also in a rolodex file. Faculty and staff can get this information upon asking the Campus Secretary. This helps me in contacting instructors to "talk" them into bringing their students for library orientation/information session or to send us groups of students who need extra help. I have a fair rate of success with this but not as much as I would like to!

•  Instructors are required to fill the Faculty Information Form and pick up their roster and room assignments from the Campus Reception Desk on the first day of class. The Library prepares an information packet and this is handed out to the instructors at this time by the Campus Receptionist.

•  The Dean requests all instructors to submit a course outline to the Library and most adjuncts cooperate. It is the full time faculty who do not.

•  Every instructor (full time and adjunct) has a mail box in the Campus photocopy room and access to this room is restricted to faculty and staff. The Dean and myself can leave information in the mailboxes.

•  A week before the semester begins, the Dean holds Campus orientation sessions for new students, transfer students, and adjunct faculty, and I am given a 15-20 minute slot to speak about the Library and I make very good use of this! The Dean usually has sandwiches, sodas and cookies which encourages attendance! 

•  All audiovisual equipment is housed in the Library. Instructors requiring the use of any equipment have to come into the Library to sign them out for their class each day they need them and they have to bring the items signed out after the class ends each day. We do not deliver or setup equipment. This provides another chance for the Library staff to meet instructors.

[.]Our Campus CEO has the title of Chancellor, and his Administrative Assistant is our equivalent of the Campus Secretary, and contact information on adjunct faculty is available through her.  Emails directed to all faculty, or just to Resident Faculty, may also be sent through the Administrative Assistant.  We do not, however, receive copies of all course outlines in the library.  ---And there is a separate department for distribution of instructional hardware, including portable computer work stations and data projection units.  This department also coordinates the [.]System-wide offerings of interactive digital compressed video courses that may originate from any campus or learning center in the System and which may have students at any or all locations.  Campus computing is also coordinated by still another separate department, but both these departments and the library are administered by a Director of Information Services who is a librarian and who is my immediate supervisor.   [.]

I have a partial answer for you. National University has assigned university e-mail addresses - - to adjuncts also. Towards the end of each month I try to send email to San Jose instructors for the upcoming month - - usually just to let them know I am available for instruction and to help with information needs. If there are any highlights to mention, I include that. The National University Library System also has a quarterly electronic newsletter (sent to all users, and therefore, should also go to the adjuncts). We only have had one issue so far, but I think it s a very good start. The University also has at least one electronic newsletter that is sent to all users.

With all that, the question is, do the adjunct instructors access their university email? (Many don't; so I try to remember to mention it at faculty meetings)

Our campus is not large; 950 students tops.  We probably have approximately 25 adjuncts per academic year.  Each fall, the campus holds a drop in for all adjuncts to which all full-time faculty/staff are encouraged to attend.  If I desire a current list of adjuncts, I request such from our Academic Dean.

We are unable to keep a current list of all teaching faculty for all 7 of our campuses either. It changes too fast to be able to keep up with. However, our adjunct instructors, who make up about 85%-90%, are encouraged to sign up to college-wide mailing lists as much as our full-time faculty are. The responsibility to sign up falls on the instructor. However, I do hope that it captures a large portion of those who want to be in the know.

In addition, we use other electronic means of communication: library's web site (what's new, hours, etc.), college-wide electronic newsletter, library newsletters.

I have exactly the same problem as you! I have hundreds of adjuncts at seven regional centers and no central list anywhere on campus. I'm hoping our group will give some good ideas on how to deal with this.