Collaborative Librarianship: New Light on a Brilliant Concept
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Collaborative Librarianship Volume 1 Issue 1 Article 1 2009 Collaborative Librarianship: New Light on a Brilliant Concept Ivan Gaetz Collaborative Librarianship, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship Part of the Scholarly Communication Commons Recommended Citation Gaetz, Ivan (2009) "Collaborative Librarianship: New Light on a Brilliant Concept," Collaborative Librarianship: Vol. 1 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29087/2009.1.1.03 Available at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/collaborativelibrarianship/vol1/iss1/1 This Scholarly Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Collaborative Librarianship by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Gaetz: Collaborative Librarianship Collaborative Librarianship: New Light on a Brilliant Concept Ivan Gaetz ([email protected]) General Editor, Collaborative Librarianship and Dean of Libraries, Regis University Abstract Libraries around the world have enjoyed a remarkable history of working together. The present contexts of collaboration in other sectors of society, of a growing literature on collaborative man- agement theory and practice, of the Colorado experience in library collaboration, constitute fertile soil that nurtures new initiatives in collaboration. No Brief Candle provides perspectives on the importance of collaboration for libraries of the 21st century. The new journal, Collaborative Librari- anship, builds on the great traditions of the past and seeks to promote library networking, coop- eration and partnerships in new ways. Readers are invited to participate in this new venture. Libraries and librarians working together is sources, asserts that collaboration will be the not a new concept or a new phenomenon. redefining principle of libraries in the 21st In fact, collaboration is at the heart of what century. He believes academic libraries in- libraries are about, and it has been for some creasingly will become multi-institutional time. As represented in any given sampling entities, and this change, moreover, is “not a of library mission statements, chief among passing phase in higher education. It is a their aspirations is the goal to provide access transformational period that requires inno- to information by bringing together a scope vation and risk.”1 While Henry’s statement of resources and services pertinent to the describes the context of academic and re- users of a library, a goal best achieved search libraries, I am convinced the applica- through partnerships of one kind or an- tion is much broader than that. It relates, as other. This is true for school libraries, public I point out later, to wider communities of libraries, special, academic, corporate, or libraries, and to those not only in America most any other type of library. Collabora- but around the world. If we are in a trans- tion occurs at a basic, minimal level where formational period that will lead to a fun- formal or informal understandings between damental and substantive change in librari- libraries permit reciprocal borrowing and anship, then a new journal should be part of interlibrary loan. Collaboration may be ac- the “tool chest” used to bring about the complished formally on a wider scale change. I will discuss, below, the historical through rather sophisticated interlibrary precedence of library collaboration, what loan agreements and delivery systems. On a changes might yet occur as libraries meet more elaborate level, even wider access to the radical shifts in society, and introduce a resources is achieved through extensive col- new and exciting adventure in library col- laborative partnerships, consortium licenses, laboration. What follows covers (at risk of joint service programs and shared web- overdoing the metaphor): 1. Beacons from based technologies. the Past; 2. Illuminations of the Present Con- text; 3. No Brief Candle: Reflections and Fore- In what I regard as a paradigmatic and pre- shadows; and 4. A New Light: Overview scient statement, Charles Henry, President, and Invitation to Collaborative Librarianship. Council on Library and Information Re- Collaborative Librarianship. 1(1): 1-12 (2009) 1 Gaetz: Collaborative Librarianship libraries increasingly will thrive, or lan- 1. Beacons from the Past guish, or possibly even die, to the extent to which they capitalize on and expand oppor- Libraries around the world can boast a re- tunities for collaboration. markable history of working together. This rich past, both remote and proximate, truly Certain literature of the profession that also is cause for honor and celebration, a past has given voice to this crucially important that also constitutes, I believe, a reminder of aspect of librarianship deserves special men- partnerships that need to be strengthened tion. In additional to the occasional mono- and expanded. Leading lights from the graph, such as Collaborative Collection Devel- 8 past, of course, include from around the opment: a Practical Guide for Your Library, world the histories of the formation and over the past two decades, there have been successes of formal library associations, two journal publications that have dealt those remarkable organizations that repre- thematically with this topic in various sent the most enduring and extensive in- forms. Although there was one short-lived stances of library collaboration. Monographs journal published by Emerald, Library Con- 9 chronicling association histories abound.2 sortium Management: an International Journal, The library profession as a whole is in- a more substantial Haworth journal, Re- debted to those individuals and groups that source Sharing & Information Networks, has have produced these careful accounts. In been in publication now since 1983. This addition to formal professional associations, journal covers the crucially important mat- there emerged more recently various types ters of interlibrary cooperation. Its topics of library consortia. Sharon Bostick’s histori- span the operations of academic, public, cal overview of the development of aca- school and special libraries that address is- demic library consortia in the United States sues of interlibrary loan, cooperative collec- uncovered articles published in Library Jour- tion development, document delivery and 10 nal as early as the 1880s that encouraged “transborder dataflow.” Published in libraries to work together to share their col- both print and electronic formats, the jour- lections. Although it took several decades to nal weighs heavily on the side of technolo- see one of the first full-fledged academic gies that advance networking and resource library consortia come into existence, the sharing. However, it also encompasses vari- North Carolina’s Triangle Research Librar- ous personnel matters, budgeting and gov- ies Network formed in 1933, other initiatives ernance as they pertain to interlibrary col- in collaboration emerged earlier in regards laboration. Of course, this begs the question, to development of classification standardi- why another journal on library collabora- zation and cataloging services.3 The United tion? The answer to this, as becomes clear States did not corner the market, so to later in this article, will highlight some im- speak, of consortium development. Recent portant differences. Before moving to this articles trace the development of library col- discussion, however, an account of the pre- laboration in India,4 in Kenya,5 in the Neth- sent contexts giving rise to Collaborative Li- erlands,6 in Venezuela.7 brarianship will be helpful. Leaders of regional and national library or- ganizations, as a rule, appreciate and pro- 2. Illuminations of the Present mote library cooperation. For one, Dr. Context Camila Alire, President-Elect of the Ameri- can Library Association, 2009-2010, states in In 2003, Library Management, another Emer- an interview published in this inaugural ald journal, published a theme-based issue issue of Collaborative Librarianship that librar- entitled, “Information as the Currency of ies are at their best when they collaborate. Democracy”11 followed in the next issue Perhaps it is no exaggeration to suggest that with a set of articles on the topic, “Democ- Collaborative Librarianship. 1(1): 1-12 (2009) 2 Gaetz: Collaborative Librarianship racy and the Management of Information.”12 stage, witness the creation and development Both publications stressed the important within the last 20 years of the European Un- role of libraries in advancing and enhancing ion. The “Treaty on European Union” the values and processes of democratic so- signed in Maastricht on February 7th, 1992, cieties. Democracy rises or falls on an in- brought about the shift from “European formed population, and an informed popu- Community” to “European Union.” This lation relies on full and, as much as possible, was followed by the establishment of a sin- free access to information. Libraries meet gle European market in January 1993, and this challenge by not only providing access the widespread use of the “euro” by January to a wide range of information, but they also 1, 1999.13 Even with all its tensions, compet- assist users in assessing the quality of that ing interests, histories, and any number of information. When the role of libraries is mitigating factors, this amazing interna- seen in terms of the fundamental character tional phenomenon