If you want to go fast, go alone;

If you want to go far, go together

African Proverb

Valerie Horton

Minitex

Valerie HortonMinitex

“The history of library cooperation is as long as the history of ‘professional ‘librarianship in America…”

Adrian Alexander

Cooperation: “a situation in which people work together to do something” Merriam-Webster

Collaboration: “to work with another person or group in order to achieve or do something” Merriam-Webster

“Collaboration is seen as requiring greater levels of engagement and goal alignment” Wheeler & Hilton

We are in the Library AGE of:

scarce resources

fierce competition

complex communities

Rebecca Gajda, librarian

“Libraries have a choice, we can collaborate or we can die!” William Jordan, librarian

Libraries

"The depth of your success rests upon the depth of your collaboration."

John Helmer, librarian

“I despise puny visions

Library collaborations aren't about 5% discounts” Stephen Abram, librarian

No single library -- no matter the size --

can compete alone in today’s marketplace

Gary Lawrence

Great Ideas Don’t Appear in Isolation

– Bill Gates

“Innovation is LESS an attribute of the exceptional individual and more an emergent property that bubbles up within communities of people solving problems together”

Steven Johnson “Where Good Ideas Come From” TED Talk

Why do collaborations fail?

Negotiating

Communicating

Building Team Skills

Resources

Staff Training

Time Commitment

Shared Vision or Goals

Leadership

Resource

Staff Training

Time Commitment

Shared Vision or Goals

Leadership

Deep Collaboration is two or more people or organizations contributing substantial levels of personal or organizational commitment, including shared authority, joint responsibility, and robust resources allocation, to achieve a common or mutually-beneficial goal.

Modified from the Ohio State University Libraries’ Collaboration Task Force, 2008

Deep Collaboration is two or more people or organizations contributing substantial levels of personal or organizational commitment, including shared authority, joint responsibility, and robust resources allocation, to achieve a common or mutually-beneficial goal.

Modified from the Ohio State University Libraries’ Collaboration Task Force, 2008

“Two or more public entities agree to create another legal entity or establish a joint approach to work on a common problem, fund a project, or act as a representative body for a specific activity”

Handshake

MOU

Legal Contract

Merged Functions or Organizations

“… to understand that control can only be achieved with a shared responsibility”

Yehuda Berg

low investment /

low reward

Contact

Cooperation

Collaboration

Convergence

high investment /high reward

-- Gunter Waibel

Examples of Deep Collaboration

Collection Development Acquisitions

Cataloging Digital assets

E-resources Digital preservation

Systems

2008, Open Source

Developed by academic libraries

Kauli Foundation & Mellon grants

Partners pay $80k-$100K

Partner must agree to develop the software

Partnership 90 organizations (UMN)

Not going it alone…

Mission: “…Collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge”

About 11,000,000 volumes & growing

DP.LA

Warehouse of metadata collected from many partners (1,200 partners)

“… offers a single point of access to millions of items—photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more—from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States.”

1. A portal that delivers students, teachers, scholars, and the public to incredible resources

2. An advocate for a strong public option in the twenty-first century

3. A platform that enables new and transformative uses of our digitized cultural heritage

Minnesota ReflectionsContributing Organizations

County Historical Societies – 49

Academic Libraries – 22

Area Historical Societies – 18

Other – 14

Religious Organizations – 13

Government Agencies – 12

Public Libraries – 6

Museums – 6

Non-profits with archives – 5

Specialty Archives – 3

How can we get people to collaborate more?

Gains in efficiency, services, or resources

+Cost not to improve

-

Productivity lost working with others

Value of Collaboration

Well-managed conflict, focusing on objectives, generates creativity

“Six Common Misperceptions about Teamwork” R. Hackman, HBR Onpoint, Spring 2014

The longer team members stay together, the better they do

Small teams are more effective and less frustrating

Ringlemann Effect –Individual efforts diminish as team size increase

Bring team members together periodically

1. Right group at the table

2. Clear statement of what success looks like

3. Adequate resources

4. Support services

Handshake

MOU

Legal Contract

Merged Functions or Organizations

Respondents say:

68% academic

71% say the Collaborative Culture is either Strong or Adequate in the region

100% are collaborating, and 42% are doing deep collaboration projects

“Together we can purchase what we

could never afford as individual

institutions”

“Allowed us to offer many technologies and services we otherwise

would have been unable to afford”

“Shared costs and shared knowledge

resources”

“It’s all about relationship…”

“Transparency! Honest sharing of

NEEDS of ALL participating libraries…”

“Open and honest communication has

been key…”

“Have a clear view of the road ahead…”

“Get everyone involved from the very beginning…”

“DO IT! You will get new colleagues and

benefits that initially were not

anticipated.”