Community-Driven Projects - Characteristics of Quality Collaboration in Information Services in Liberal Arts Colleges

Project name: Characteristics of Quality Collaboration in Information Services in Liberal Arts Colleges

Project lead: Tom Kirk, Coordinator of Information Services, Earlham College in collaboration with Charlotte Slocum Patriquin, Director of Information Services and Resources, Beloit College and Peter J. Gilbert, University Librarian, Lawrence University.

Project update

July 22, 2008 -- Faculty, librarians, technologists, and senior administrators from participating institutions in the Midwest will be invited to participate in an event to be held July 25 - 26, 2008, at Lake Forest College. Participants will examine collaboration through their diverse personal, professional, and institutional lenses. This workshop will 1) seek to identify the characteristics of effective collaboration, 2) permit participants to apply the tools and techniques at their own institutions and assess the outcomes, and 3) distill the ideas and experiences for wider dissemination.

Cultivating Quality Collaboration
supported by an award of the NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund, based on a proposal submitted by Beloit College, Earlham College and Lawrence University

The deep, synergistic linkages that exist among information, teaching, learning, and technology require concomitantly deep and synergistic partnerships among librarians, technologists, and faculty to advance our campus’ learning goals. But what are the underlying fundamentals of, and best practices for, successful faculty, librarian, and technologist collaborations at liberal arts colleges? How can we enhance and develop these synergistic partnerships on our individual campuses to advance institutional learning goals? These are the basic questions this project seeks to answer.

The resulting project proposal is for a workshop that seeks to identify the characteristics of effective collaboration, permits participants to apply the tools and techniques at their own institutions and assess the outcomes, and distill the ideas and experiences for wider dissemination. Midwest NITLE faculty, librarians, and technologists and senior administrators will be invited to participate in examining collaboration from our diverse personal, professional, and institutional lenses. The event will be held July 25-26, 2008, at Lake Forest College.

All developments in the project are reported at http://sites.google.com/a/earlham.edu/cultivating-quality-collaboration/

Summary: The project intends to develop a practical workshop for librarians, technologists, teaching faculty, and administrators from interested NITLE institutions to explore the question: "What are the underlying fundamentals of, and models for, successful librarian and technologist collaborations in liberal arts colleges?" The goal of the workshop is to compile the outcomes into a toolkit or set of documents that can be used to assist in more effective planning by these institutions and a broader audience. This project is important because: (1) effective partnerships and collaborations between librarians and technologists do not exist at all institutions, (2) they may exist but not function up to their potential, (3) administrators are interested in knowing more about the alternatives and the considerations involved in developing new models of support, (4) and as users’ behaviors evolve, and technology, information, and the needs of our institutions change, we all have need to enhance our understanding of the art and science of effective partnerships. More information on the project is at http://www.earlham.edu/library/Project Description.doc.

Intended outcome: By the February deadline of the Midwest NITLE Instructional Innovation Fund this project will have developed a proposal to conduct the workshop on successful librarian and technologist collaborations in liberal arts colleges. The proposal will include an initial draft of the toolkit which will be the subject of the workshop.