The 10-Minute International Librarian #68: Think of a barrier to collaboration

Librarianship is arguably a naturally collaborative profession.

We work together to develop services, to share resources, and of course – through associations at the national, regional and global levels – to develop common understanding, standards and positions.

We also know that collaboration is good for us, and for the services we offer.

IFLA’s Global Vision process underlined this point, setting out how respondents globally valued working together. They even suggested that we needed to do more to make collaboration an instinct – something at the heart of our work!

It’s therefore important to try and understand what might be stopping us from doing more here?

So for our 68th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, think of a barrier to collaboration.

Try to think of a time when you could have worked with someone else – a colleague in your institution or another library, or even someone outside of the library field in general.

Why didn’t you do this, and could you do something about it?

For example, if time is a concern, is it possible that collaboration would in fact have saved you more time than you would have used for it.

Is it different goals and priorities? If collaboration would be helpful, is there a way of getting better alignment?

Share your experiences in the comments box below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! 3.2 Support virtual networking and connections.

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box.