Liaison Librarianship in Shiny Packages: An Exploration of Product Ownership in Academic Libraries

Abstract This column investigates the emerging role of the product owner (PO) – an individual tasked with ensuring that a specific service meets the needs of users – in academic libraries. It explores the PO role at the intersections of functional specialization, public services, and technical services, as well as from critical perspectives on gendered labor in librarianship. By examining how our library used the PO model to address pressing problems with our library’s institutional repository (IR), we demonstrate the value that the PO approach can bring to improving library products, especially when the PO is appropriately positioned to advocate for user needs. We also interrogate the overlap in responsibilities between the PO and liaison librarian and argue that the role of the product owner is a rebranding of the liaison librarianship model in an effort to make the emotional and relationship labor more masculinized. By emphasizing traditionally masculine work such as technology and innovation, the PO model allows libraries to market these specialized liaison librarian roles in ways that are more prestigious and aligned with corporate culture, while also downplaying traditionally feminized library work, such as service.