The Power of Groups: a session at ALA Anaheim

At ALA in Anaheim this past June, the OCLC Partner Program brought together speakers from three groups and consortia to showcase recent, big collaborative efforts. These organizations leveraged their shared missions to form something tangible for their members and the communities they serve. After hearing from our three speakers, attendees were able to talk with them one-on-one about how their projects could translate to other groups throughout the country.

OCLC's President and CEO, Jay Jordan, frequently quotes the African proverb - "If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." Nothing exemplifies this better than the power of groups, where like-minded people join together to do something BIG.

• April Ritchie, Adult Services Coordinator from the Kenton County Public Library in Kentucky worked with her leadership and other Kentucky public libraries to come up with the "Kentucky Sister Libraries Project" where better funded, larger public libraries paired up with smaller public libraries. Creating a forum for sharing information, best practices and staff workflows gave everyone new perspectives and continues to be mutually beneficial for the libraries involved. You can learn more about her program by watching her presentation at the ALA event.

• Triangle Research Libraries Network's Project Librarian, Joyce Chapman joined us to share information on their large-scale digitization project focused around the Civil Rights movement in North Carolina. Member libraries throughout the group have worked to share their materials in a way that is easily accessible to the entire Triangle area community. View her presentation here.

• Representing the Orbis-Cascade Alliance, Erica Findley, Digital Resources/Metadata Librarian at Pacific University shared how their Collaborative Technical Services program worked together over several years to identify projects spanning the various university libraries serving the West Coast community. Watch Erica's presentation to learn more about how technical services can work on a group level.
  

Overall, the lessons from these three experienced groups remind us that it's important to focus on both planning and adaptability. Having a shared mindset is important. But clearly defining the project's audience and focus -- and building in the fact that priorities will shift -- helps keep everyone on the same page. Yearly reviews to reevaluate the program and make changes help serve competing needs that arise throughout the process.

Over the past year, the OCLC Partner Program has been reaching out to these vital organizations to better connect the work we all do for our shared membership. The Partner Program will continue to showcase projects like these. If your group is interested in starting a similar project to any of these mentioned, or would like to be highlighted at an upcoming event, please contact us at partnerships@oclc.org.

Irene Hoffman,
Executive Director, OCLC Partner Programs