Collaboration in libraries and learning environments

CHICAGO — With the constant changes in higher education, innovations such as outsourced shared services, the convergence of many different student-facing services and the development of more active collaborative networks are more important than ever before. “Collaboration in Libraries and Learning Environments,” published by Facet Publishing and available through the ALA Store, recognizes and uncovers the innovations that leaders and practitioners are implementing to transform and develop the provision of sustainable and creative support services. Editors Maxine Melling, Margaret Weaver and several international contributors consider the foundational principles that affect library services, give case studies of changes that have already taken place and show how various institutions are rising to the challenge. Their essays address a broad spectrum of contexts both inside and outside library and information services and cover such key topics as:

• The changing higher education context and how to build service success in uncertain times;
• Connecting with the student perspective;
• Working with professional associations;
• Culture, values and change: observations from three consortia in Canada;
• Managing complex change collaboratively and creatively;
• Leaders and influencing skills of the future;
• The role of technology in enabling collaboration and the role of shared data in extending the library’s value;
• Changing the boundaries and the communal nature of space in the academic library;
• Collaborative service provision through super-convergence;
• Joint use libraries and transformational change.

Melling is director of library and student support at Liverpool John Moores University, UK. Weaver is head of learning, information and student services at the University of Cumbria, UK.

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. Founded in 1976 by Patricia Glass Schuman and John Vincent Neal, ALA Neal-Schuman, now an imprint of ALA Publishing, publishes professional books for librarians, archivists, and knowledge managers. Contact us at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5418 or editionsmarketing@ala.org.

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