The University of South Florida Libraries’ Evolving Service Model: From ROLES to Research Platform Teams

Responding to the profession-wide challenge to articulate the value and impact of academic library programs, the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries Academic Services department embarked on an ambitious exploration of the institution’s need for and expectations of research and instruction services. Initiated in 2015, the study of USF’s academic landscape concluded that it was time to substantively reconfigure the existing Liaison Program to meet requirements for the coming five to seven years. The Re-Imagining Our Library Engagement Services (ROLES) project began in March 2016 and teams were created to examine various aspects of the Liaison Program and to determine how the program could be re-imagined to more effectively support the research and teaching mission of the university.