collaboration | The Journal of Creative Library Practice

By Garrett Trott
University Librarian
Corban University

Introduction

Faculty are often known for their depth of knowledge in a particular domain. From this depth, faculty teach, introducing students to various disciplines. While it is not uncommon for librarians to have advanced degrees in specific fields along with a master’s degree in library science (or a related field), they often offer services such as information literacy instruction and reference inquiries for disciplines where they may not know much more about the topic than students. Unfortunately, a librarian’s lack of disciplinary mastery may be challenging when collaborating with faculty, individuals with expertise. Additionally, departmental silos, often made up of individuals who have mastered a specific discipline and the subsequent disciplinary jargon, are typical in many academic contexts and can easily intimidate any individual lacking expertise.¹ While interdisciplinary work has striven to bridge departmental silos, the knowledge needed to work in almost any discipline can be provoking and challenge many interdisciplinary components of academia.

Continue reading Connecting with Faculty and Students by Taking Courses: The Role of Humility in Building Relationships →

By Rachel A. Knapp, Applied Sciences Librarian, University of Colorado Boulder,
Paulina Borrego, Science & Engineering Librarian, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Thea Atwood, Data Services Librarian, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Introduction

The authors of this article focus on the best practices we learned through our experiences in scholarly writing, with a specific focus on the collaborative writing process. For the sake of this paper, we define collaborative writing as a collective process of creating a scholarly work for distribution, either through formal (e.g., peer-review) or informal (e.g., white paper) venues. This article is, in part, in response to our lack of formal training and addresses a situation in which we felt other researchers might find themselves. We hope to provide starting points for others interested in writing collaboratively and help empower those wishing to have a broader conversation about writing. Our scope here is limited to collaborative writing, and as such, we exclude other components of collaborative scholarly work, such as generating an idea, pursuing a grant, or analyzing data. Nevertheless, we do endeavor to provide resources and advice broadly applicable and relevant to all disciplines.

Continue reading Yours, Mine, Ours: Some Best Practices for Authors Writing Collaboratively →