Building a ship while sailing it: Perspectives on developing a collaborative teaching program in the post-liaison environment

This article offers the experience of the teaching department of one academic library in developing an instruction program after moving away from the traditional subject liaison structure. Drawing on perspectives from both new professionals and long-serving library faculty, our department examines how instructional work is reframed when individual disciplinary assignments recede and functional, collaborative teams become the organizing principle. We explore several challenges articulated in the literature and reflected in our own transition and consider the opportunities made possible in our new environments. This article provides pragmatic guidance, theoretical grounding, and multiple practitioner perspectives on navigating instruction work amid these widely felt shifts in organizational structures.