Librarian-Faculty Collaboration: An Imperative for Higher Education

1. Librarian-Faculty Collaboration: An Imperative for Higher Education Dane Ward Associate Dean for Public Services, Illinois State University

2. What is collaboration? What does it look like? Why is collaboration an imperative for academic libraries and higher education? If it is so important, how do we get there?

3. The Quest for Collaboration • Networking • Coordination • Collaboration

4. Collaboration and Related Concepts • Networking involves exchanging information for mutual benefit; an informal process with few clear goals. • Coordination occurs when individuals have identified a common goal, but work towards it independently, each completing their parts; they have no overlapping responsibilities.

5. What is Collaboration? “A mutually beneficial and well-designed relationship entered into by two or more individuals to achieve common goals.” --Mattesich and Monsey, Collaboration: What Makes it Work, 1992.

6. Looking at Collaboration

7. Martin Buber’s I and Thou

8. Martin Buber’s I and Thou “All real living is meeting.” “Only when things become our It, can they be coordinated. The Thou knows no system of coordination.” Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division,

9. Moments of discovery • “The moments of discovery, the ‘collaborative moments,’ take place when a pair of friends are so open and trusting with one another that they can share their wildest, most tentatively held ideas. In these moments, new ideas seem to emerge from the dialogue without ‘belonging’ to either of the pair, and afterward they may not be able to say who had the ideas first.” (Farrell, M. Collaborative Circles, 2001)

10. Three Phases of Collaboration • Collegial—the two partners stay in their own domains and work from the conventions of their own disciplines. • Interpersonal—the partners begin to explore personal and interdisciplinary areas of interest. They take an interest in aspects of the other field, and attempt to incorporate new ideas into their own.

11. Three Phases of Collaboration • Syncretic—the boundaries separating disciplines begin to blur, and the partners are in the space of collaboration, or of listening together in a special way. The partners find a common language and way of working.

12. http://youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o Why is robust collaboration like this important for the future of libraries and higher education?

13. What we’ve known: Deep relationships yield strong student learning Personal and professional meaning, Faculty and librarian retention Collaboration: Driving Forces

14. Collaboration: Driving Forces “…calls for accountability and for quantitative measures of library contributions to research, teaching, and service missions…” --Mullins, J.L., Allen, F. R., and Hufford, J. R. Top ten assumptions for the future of academic libraries and librarians, http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews /backissues2007 /april07/tenassumptions.cfm)

15. Collaboration: Driving Forces Employers want graduates who can: • problem solve • work in groups • communicate effectively

16. Collaboration: Driving Forces A pedagogical revolution focused on relational learning • Collaborative learning communities • Active, experience-based learning • Technologically enhanced learning (Gene Rice, Senior Scholar, American Association of Colleges & Universities, April 26, 2008)

17. Collaboration: Driving Forces American Environmental Photographs Collection, [AEP Image Number, e.g., AEP-MIN73], Department of Special Collections, University of Chicago Library. Generational changes in academic work, evolving from more individualistic to more collaborative work. (Gene Rice, AACU, 2008)

18. Collaboration: Driving Forces Emerging participative, boundary-spanning working and learning styles is gradually breaking down the departmentalization of an industrial-era institution. Centers Grants Non-Tenure Faculty

19. Lack of time Individualistic personalities Resilience of organizational culture Evaluation processes Inadequate institutional planning Barriers to Collaboration

20. “There are no recipes or formulae, no checklists or advice that describe ‘reality.’ There is only what we create through our engagement with others and with events.” --Margaret Wheatley Pathways to Collaboration

21. The 5 Ps of Collaboration • Passion—Discovering your enthusiasm as a librarian and collaborator • Project—Developing a clearly defined project with collaborative implications • Play—Finding the ability to play with another in pursuit of the project

22. The 5 Ps of Collaboration • Promote it—Talking about the project and searching for possible collaborators • Persist against opposition —learning how to sustain your project when confronted by obstacles

23. Developing the Collaborative Culture • “Transforming the culture—changing the way we do things around here—is the main point. This re-culturing (process is) one that activates and deepens moral purpose through collaborative work cultures that respect differences and constantly build and test knowledge against measurable results—a culture within which one realizes that sometimes being off balance is a learning moment.” --Michael Fullan, Leading in a Culture of Change, 2001

24. Must question “what we do around here” Moral purpose Collaborative work cultures that respect differences Tests knowledge against results Fullan on Culture and Collaboration

25. Clarity about what we want to accomplish and the ability to see gaps between our ideal or vision and the present How to create a collaborative organization

26. How to create a collaborative organization A Learning Library with Soul Everybody learns; it benefits our patrons and ourselves Greater intentionality through dialogue Structured to facilitate relationships and achieving our goals

27. Peter Senge’s Fifth Discipline • Personal Mastery • Mental Models • Shared Vision • Team Learning • Systems Thinking

28. Life is about Collaboration “We discover who we are face to face and side by side with others in work, love, and learning. All of our activity goes on in relationships, groups, associations, and communities ordered by institutional structures and interpreted by cultural patterns of meaning.” Robert Bellah et al, Habits of the Heart, 1985