Collaborating for Impact: Special Collections and Liaison Librarian Partnerships. Edited by Kristen Totleben and Lori Birrell. Chicago: ACRL, 2016. 270 p. Paper $60 (ISBN 978-083898883-1).

As academic libraries restructure their services to meet the needs of 21st-century users, librarians and library administrators look to collaborative partnerships as a way increase library usage and visibility. Numerous successful collaborative partnerships between librarians and faculty and other campus stakeholders have been documented in scholarly research, and such partnerships are now commonplace among academic libraries of all sizes. Although these partnerships are undoubtedly beneficial, it is easy to overlook the need for collaborative partnerships within the library. Collaborating for Impact: Special Collection and Liaison Librarian Partnerships makes a strong case for partnerships between public services and special collections departments. In the introduction to this work, Totleben and Birrell argue that in the digital age, access to special collections is one of the most valuable services that academic libraries offer. The book is organized as a series of literature reviews and case studies that illustrate the value of partnerships between public services and special collections, and librarians with experience in institutions with special collections departments will recognize the problems described in these case studies. In some institutions, for example, collections that would serve the research and teaching interests of faculty are underused. In one case study, librarians at Georgia Tech were able to breathe new life into the institution’s science fiction collection through collection development and outreach collaboration. In another, an English department liaison and special collections librarian at Oklahoma State University partnered with a faculty member to incorporate early books from the library’s collection, including a 1587 edition of Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of the History of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales into a digital humanities assignment for undergraduates. Librarians at other institutions saw structural reorganization as an opportunity for special collections and liaison librarians to collaborate on reference and instruction services. At the University of Oklahoma, an administrative reorganization prompted a new working relationship between the history and area studies librarian and the western history collection librarian, resulting in noticeably improved services to faculty and students. This book will be a conversation starter for librarians at large and mid-sized institutions with established special collections departments. It makes a convincing case for such partnerships and explains how each institution made these partnerships a success. The focus of this work is necessarily narrow, and it does an outstanding job of filling a specific need in academic library publications. Librarians at small institutions, however, will probably find works that take a broader approach to collaborative partnerships more helpful.—Allison Embry, Youth Librarian, Tulsa City-County Library