Breaking Silos--ER&L 2014

E R & L 2 0 1 4
L a u r e l S a m m o n d s C r a w f o r d , M L I S
C o l l e c t i o n D e v e l o p m e n t L i a i s o n L i b r a r i a n
U n i v e r s i t y o f N o r t h T e x a s L i b r a r i e s
Breaking Silos:
Interdepartmental Collaboration for Better
Electronic Collection Development
Crawford.Breaking Silos.ER&L 2014

Agenda
 Context
 Challenges to Electronic Collection Development
 Environmental Change
 Silos in the Library
 Culture Shock
 Reach Your Electronic Collection Development
Goals
 Structure
 Staffing
 Support
 Themes and Conclusions

Context

Context
Low
26.48%
High
94.48%
Average
62.24%
(ARL Statistics, p.56)
Percent of materials budget spent on electronic resources at
ARL Libraries 2009-2010

Challenges to Electronic Collection Development
• Environmental Change
• Silos in the Library
• Culture Shock

Environmental Change
Academic librarians…continued
to navigate a ‘new normal,’
characterized by stagnating
budgets, unsustainable costs,
increased student
enrollments, and reduced
staff.
(State of America’s Libraries Report 2012)

Evaluation Criteria
(Adapted from Johnson, p.112-114)

Complexity of E-book Acquisition
Business Models
• Subscription
• Perpetual
ownership
(cost up front
or paid out
over a few
years)
• Pay-per-view or
Short-Term
Loan
Acquisition
Methods
• Approval plan
• Firm order
• Patron-driven
selection
• Standing order
Acquisitions
Routes
• Publisher
direct
• Aggregator
(EBL, ebrary)
• Monograph
vendor (YBP)
(Adapted from Polanka, p. 98-106)

Purpose of Collections
Demand
Quality

Silos in the Library
Us Them

Culture Shock
In a 2009 survey on collegiality,
of college librarians reported
that collegiality was a problem
at their library.
(Freedman, p.377)
The librarians reported:
•Infighting
•Personality issues
•Not getting along
•Not speaking to one another
•Low morale

Reach Your Electronic Collection Development Goals
•Structure
•Staffing
•Support

Structure
The blurring of
traditional boundaries
has become a hallmark
of our age.
(Horava, p. 146)

Collegiality
Collegiality Bureaucracy
• Consensus-making
• Open discussions
• Personal and social
relationships
• Job rank less prominent
• Results are not pre-ordained
• Order and control are valued
• Hierarchical
• Deference to authority
• Adherence to rules and
regulations
(Adapted from Freedman, p.379)

Preconditions for Collegiality
Transparency
Time
Trust

Staffing
If collection management is to
be more than a sad relic of
the past or a reactive
function with a declining
future, some leadership and
broad oversight is required.
(Horava, p. 146)

Soft Skills
 Understands the scholarly communications and
technological landscape
 Passion for exploring new knowledge formats and new
approaches to learning
 Capacity to cultivate trusted relationships
 Ability to thrive in the messy and the ambiguous
 Systems thinking; analytical and problem-solving skills
 Political savvy, conflict fluency, and civility
 Strong leadership
(adapted from Horava p.151 and Jaguszewski and Williams p. 14-15)

Support
Consider what a collection
does rather than what a
collection is.
(Horava, p. 150 [emphasis added])

Support

Themes and Conclusions
 Transparency builds trust
 Early planning is key
 Collections are a means, not an end
 Difficulty coordinating CD activities, but…
 Public and technical services are both necessary for
good CD
 Frequent and thorough usage analysis
 Organizational structure must lose rigidity
 Fundamental change is here to stay

Contact Information
Laurel Sammonds Crawford, MLIS
Collection Development Liaison Librarian
University of North Texas Libraries
laurel.crawford@unt.edu
(940) 565 – 3956
•References and further reading:
http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277314
•Slides are available at http://slidesha.re/1ibnUkL

Breaking Silos--ER&L 2014

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