Relationship Building in Entrepreneurship Liaison Work: One Business Librarian's Experience at North Carolina State University

This article presents the growth of entrepreneurship education on college campuses as an opportunity for business librarians to engage strategic initiatives that reach beyond the business school. Drawing on the experiences of one business librarian serving as the primary liaison to a campus wide entrepreneurship initiative at North Carolina State University (NC State), this article illustrates how a relationship-building approach to liaison work can lead to iterative collaborations with faculty over time. An in-depth consideration of the relationship-building process offers a model that librarians in business and other subject liaison roles can adapt and reflect on their practice. The model considers three stages: recognizing events as opportunities, developing those opportunities into relationships, and cultivating those relationships through collaborative projects that can improve student learning and scholarship through synergistic outcomes.