Working Together: A Literature Review of Campus Information Technology Partnerships <s> THE LITERATURE <s> For this second column in the IT I‐V (information technology interview) series, we interview academic chief information officers. The CIOs interviewed for this column use a wide range of titles, and half of them oversee libraries as part of their duties. We interviewed them to find out what challenges they believe libraries are experiencing that could be assisted by technology, and how they believe libraries and information technologists should be working together on those challenges. Some of the questions were: “What challenges do you see academic libraries experiencing now and in the near future that could be assisted by information technology?,” “What are some library challenges for which technology will not help?,” and “What do you see as the ideal relationship between information technology offices and the library on an academic campus?” <s> BIB001 </s> Working Together: A Literature Review of Campus Information Technology Partnerships <s> THE LITERATURE <s> Today's corporate environment demands that cross-functional teams come together at a moment's notice and collaborate effectively to rapidly resolve business problems. These short-term task teams are often composed of people who have never before worked together, and may never again. If the team is to be successful, the leaders, whether formally appointed or informally emerging, must determine quickly how to motivate their peers to contribute beyond the minimally required effort. Studies have reported that workers apply as little as 30% of their available effort (Yankelovich and Immerwahr, 1987). Only by harnessing the members' discretionary effort can the team begin operating in a collaborative fashion. The only tool available to accomplish this task is influence, because these teams are typically composed of peers and not direct reports. The literature reports three critical success factors necessary for establishing a relationship conducive to influence. These factors include a clearly defined and understood common purpose, shared responsibility for results, and mutual trust amongst the membership. Mutual trust requires individuals have: a demonstrated level of competence or relevant domain knowledge, a focus on the broken work processes versus blaming people, a willingness to admit individual mistakes and to acknowledge limitations, a spirit of cooperation not competition, and an ability to give and receive assistance from associates. The recent explosion of affordable information technology solutions has placed corporate librarians and information scientists squarely in the midst of many task teams with information technology professionals. Librarians are challenged to work with technology without becoming lost in it. This article offers one practitioner's views and experiences on how librarians can collaborate successfully with IT professionals without losing their identities as librarians. <s> BIB002 </s> Working Together: A Literature Review of Campus Information Technology Partnerships <s> THE LITERATURE <s> Abstract This article, co-authored by a hospital's Director of Library Services and its Chief Information Officer, examines the relationship between the Hospital Library and the Information Technology department. It describes the value of a collaborative relationship, the individual and common missions and visions of each department, the challenges facing each, as well as the challenges they share. Barriers to collaboration are identified and effective collaboration models are presented. Suggestions and recommendations for Best Practice in Library/IT Collaboration from the Library Director and the CIO are provided. Supporting the institution's mission and meeting its goals are more successfully accomplished when there is a strong partnership between these two departments. <s> BIB003 </s> Working Together: A Literature Review of Campus Information Technology Partnerships <s> THE LITERATURE <s> Abstract The liaison concept has moved beyond just collection development. St. Cloud State University's Learning Resources & Technology Services (LR&TS) has begun to provide a non-traditional liaison team model of collaboration led by librarians that draw on the expertise of a variety of professionals including information technologists, Web designers, communication and marketing specialists, media designers, and trainers who are critical to providing quality information services for the twenty-first century. <s> BIB004
The reviewed literature includes articles published in professional archives, library, and education journals over the past ten years, or since 1998. Subjects include partnerships, collaboration, and cooperation between content experts and technology experts, including obstacles to collaboration and models for working together successfully in academic settings. In her discussion of the foundations of the "Working Together" work shop series, Lippincott defines collaboration as being different from simply contracting work from another department. Instead, it is a joint effort based on mutual goals where the participants each bring skills and resources. Early workshop participants identified territoriality, physical distances (being housed in separate locations on campus), differences in professional culture, lack of respect for one another's professions, and a general failure to recognize the benefits of working together as key barriers to collaboration at their institutions. Furthermore, they identified the elements of a successful collaboration as including long-term commitment to working together, shared risks and benefits, and participation in decision making on both sides. In 1999 Meri Beth Lavagnino interviewed top-level administrators of library and IT departments from several university campuses. Both groups envisioned increasingly close collaboration between library and IT staff as the only possible solution to the blurring of roles taking place between the units and the overall lack of space and financial resources facing both. They agreed unanimously that organizational or managerial structure mattered far less than mutual trust, respect, and understanding in the forging of successful, synergistic partnerships. BIB001 Initially composed of four technologists and three librarians, Colgate University's Collaboration for Enhanced Learning (CEL) is a cooperative effort between IT and the library to support teaching and learning on campus. Mary Jane Petrowski and David Baird identify a shared commitment to the mission of the CEL and the presence of 'collaborative personalities' as important elements of the success of the initiative. Several early actions meant to foster the formation of strong bonds among team members, including attending a conference together and holding group meetings, actively helped these elements along. Based on the CEL experience the authors conclude that true innovation requires group participation and an open atmosphere of creativity, freedom, and fun.  Martha K. Heyman finds that in addition to trust, good partnerships are built on equal relationships, including equitable risk, equitable responsibility, and equitable contributions from both parties. Trust requires that the participants demonstrate competence or relevant knowledge, a focus on fixing problems (not blaming people), a willingness to acknowledge mistakes and limitations, a cooperative spirit, and a willingness to give and receive help. To become a truly integrated peer in a collaboration, the content expert must recognize and clearly articulate what he or she brings to the table, namely expert knowledge of information resources, skill in conceptual analysis, ability to structure and organize content, and ability to synthesize information. Without this clarity, the skills of the content expert may be underestimated or undervalued, resulting in an artificially asymmetrical, rather than equal, relationship between collaborating partners. Learning IT terminology and understanding its tools and techniques can facilitate communication with IT collaborators. Credibility as a team member must be built over time by contributing to successful projects. BIB002 Janet L.Cowen and Jerry Edson identify the missions of library and IT units as having several points in common: commitment to the organization's strategic objectives and the use of information to support those goals; stewardship of the organization's information assets; providing users convenient, secure, and confidential access to information; and meeting user expectations. Likewise, the two groups share several problems-inadequate budgets, insufficient staffing levels and staff expertise, lack of high-level administrative support, and high user expectations-that consistently require technology upgrades and innovation in response. Cowen and Edson suggest that librarians can improve library/IT partnerships by aligning library projects with specific organizational goals so that they also become de facto IT goals, by taking an interest in IT projects that do not affect the library directly, and by attending meetings about technology even if the language used is unfamiliar to them. Both sides of the partnership can improve collaboration by recognizing differences in professional culture while respecting differences in areas of expertise and responsibility. BIB003 Mark Cain observes that despite differences in professional culture it is essential for libraries, as one of the largest campus consumers of IT services, to maintain good relationships with IT departments. These differences are the result of professional history: Libraries are long established and steeped in traditions of both thought and practice. IT departments are newer, less welldefined, and respond rapidly to changing environments. Currently, distinct sets of credentials, jargons, and standards reinforce these differences, yet the two cultures are moving ever closer together. As they become increasingly interdependent, their common goals will matter more than their differences.  At Hamilton College, library and IT collaborators began their partnership by participating in a two-day, facilitated retreat meant to help them reduce misunderstandings and see beyond their stereotypes of one another in order to find common ground.  Similarly, St. Cloud State University's staffers initiated the Learning Resources and Technology Services (LR&TS) group with a joint library/IT retreat but in support of a different sort of collaboration built on the librarian liaison model. BIB004 Librarians and technologists paired up in teams as co-liaisons in order to provide a broader range of information services to academic departments. While initially the co-liaison concept appears most applicable to librarians already participating in liaison relationships, a similar model could be applied for archivists and others engaged in educating academic departments about electronic records creation, retention, and deposit, especially in support of institutional repository development.