WCU Spring 2025 Magazine

WCU Associate Professor and Business Librarian Grace Liu recounts how a former student inspired her when she was staffing the research help desk in the Francis Harvey Green Library.

A senior finance major asked her about how to understand a financial statement for a class assignment and they struck up a conversation. “He had exceptional interpersonal communication skills and a deep sense of responsibility for his family,” she recalls. “He wanted to help others, something many students told me. However, he was struggling to find a clear career path that would lead to success after graduation. It led me to ask, ‘How could I introduce actionable research strategies to help students develop a roadmap for their career success?’”

The University libraries enlist 12 specialist librarians, experts in the resources and research methods specific to each field, to support students and others using the libraries. While Liu’s focus is on serving students in the University’s College of Business and Public Management (CBPM), specifically, its accounting, business analytics, economics and finance, management, marketing, and MBA programs, she envisions the library as a cross-disciplinary, collaborative, and empowering space that fosters student success.

“I see the value of the library as a way to bring people together.”

 

Liu has most recently employed that vision to build a group of collaborators from WCU and three other institutions of higher education to develop a CareerLit Learning Module Series for students to advance their career information literacy and career research competencies. The project intends to transform how libraries serve the nation through a learning-centered collaboration model among libraries, career centers, and colleges.

The project highlights Liu’s scholarly interests: information literacy, student success, and advancing the leadership and impact of academic libraries in higher education.

It is supported by a $249,975 National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. As project director, she is partnering with colleagues at WCU, as well as Indiana University Bloomington, Western Michigan University, and Delaware County Community College. The project leverages the collective expertise of education professionals from diverse disciplines and knowledge domains: career management, career counseling, library research, information literacy, philosophy, psychology, education, and organizational behavior.

The team will develop three modules that will guide students in exploring career paths, resources, and opportunities, and creating a personalized roadmap for career success aligned with their intrinsic values and personal definitions of success.

Liu describes her work as “self-actualization as an educator. I am strongly attached to my core value to help students succeed, to help them build bridges and reach their potential.”

The project is directed toward first- and second-year students. The team will take two years to develop the learning modules, with pilot implementation to business students in its third year (August 2026 to July 2027). The team will promote the learning module series to other institutions and will work with their libraries to customize and implement the modules.

Since joining the University in 2019, Liu has initiated, secured funding for, and directed 10 grant projects at the university, state, and national levels. Through these projects, she led teams that engaged about 3,000 WCU students in developing information literacy skills for evaluating online sources and more than 4,000 librarians and data professionals in enhancing data quality literacy.

She created a comprehensive resource guide for student entrepreneurs and initiated a campus-wide survey to gain insights into the entrepreneurial spirit of WCU students. Responding to the WCU Provost’s Enrollment Planning Investment grant initiative, she led a team to conduct a rapid systematic review and contributed to the publication of an idea book that identified 120 best practices and strategies across colleges and universities to improve student retention and success.

Her team also piloted library-supported, student-led peer mentoring and learning community programs for business students. They are now developing an internship opportunity map for WCU business students and expanding their efforts to establish an internship-focused peer mentoring program for the business school — all driven by Liu’s aspiration to harness academic libraries’ potential to support student success.

Liu is chair of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) Business Librarians Affinity Group for 2024–2025. In this role, she leads a steering committee that brings together business librarians and library leaders from around the world to support the development of business schools and business education, while advancing AACSB’s mission of cultivating the next generation of great leaders.