Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Meaningful and productive collaboration between librarians and faculty remains a significant, though frequently elusive goal for many academic institutions. Paradoxically, while the depth and power of collaboration emerges from the interactions between librarians and faculty, the possibilities for success often results from various institutional factors. Authentic collaboration does not exist in isolation. It is found in colleges and universities that act on their belief in the potential of these relationships to benefit students, faculty and staff. In this presentation, we will explore various understandings of collaboration, as well as the barriers and pathways to success. Perhaps most importantly, we will discuss and highlight individual and organizational actions that facilitate a capacity to manifest the collaborative imperative. Interdisciplinary research on caring and community-building, organizational culture and learning organizations will provide the basis for this presentation and discussion.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 8 Conference, April 23-24, 2012, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Academic libraries have not typically been able to build partnerships with K-12 education in ways that could both impact our information literacy mission and the goals of our universities surrounding student achievement and academic persistence. However, these partnerships are important in the big picture, as libraries try to affect information literacy and student achievement. Partnerships with pre-university students can be accomplished in various ways, but one avenue is working through college preparation and academic outreach programs affiliated with the university. Since 2010, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries have been collaborating with the Office of Admissions on an innovative program working with high school seniors through the Nebraska College Preparatory Academy (NCPA). The UNL Libraries have been able to demonstrate a strong connection with the students as they enter college, helping impact student retention and achievement statistics. Moreover, the project has improved the information literacy skills of the cohort’s students, by starting to work with them from the high school level.

The creative potential and work of the performer in new music extends from the moment of conceptualising a concert to the moment of presenting it on stage and comprises many areas between and around those two points. In this thesis I explore the nature of this activity, from the act of playing itself to the commissioning and creating of new pieces, curatorial and collaborative tasks, and the actual concert presentation. I deliberately include interrelations between performer and music promoters, composers and the audience. This leads me to further areas of investigation, namely the question of the performer’s leadership, the charismatic bond with the audience and the creation of what I call “concert aura”. I do not strive to offer all-purpose formulae for the “perfect concert” or for the ideal collaboration. I investigate performance practice not as an absolute art but rather as something embedded in and shaped by social relations and society. Accordingly I understand this thesis as an empirically based study of the questions performers could ask, as well as processes in which they might want to engage, to find meaningful solutions for each new situation. Not all of the questions I raise will be new to each performer, but in their collaborative and concert practice many performers rely on a random, unsystematic, empirical understanding that has been gained by chance. In contrast, I attempt to draw a theoretical basis for my investigation from the fields of psychology, philosophy, media science and sociology, together with the evaluation of my own and other artists’ performance practice. In this way I hope to develop an academic foundation and a comprehensive, systematic approach that can be applied to different collaboration and concert situations. Part 1 of my thesis is concerned with theories and concepts relating to creativity, collaboration and presentation (concert aura and charisma) and aims to establish a firm theoretical basis for application in practice. Part 2 presents, discusses and analyses a selection of case studies from my own practice, considered in relation to the theories discussed in the first part. I conclude by offering guidelines to collaboration and giving a model example of how one might plan a future performance, aiming to create a Gesamtkunstwerk through the totality of the preparation and presentation, its social and psychological connotations. The thesis includes two DVDs with Quicktime Movies and two CDs with recordings of the compositions, commissioned as part of this research and discussed throughout the thesis. The Appendix contains three sample-CDs with an accompanying commentary which give an introduction to contemporary playing techniques for the acoustic and electronic violin and acoustic viola. This CD is intended as a guide for composers to get acquainted with the instruments and was given to each composer involved in this research.

The aim of this research was to conduct a pilot study to identify if increased written communication at restaurants would affect customer and staff awareness of the restaurant’s sustainability efforts. By using before-after questionnaires among employees and customers possible changes among the two stakeholder groups be recorded. As the restaurants had recently joined the new network Sustainable Restaurants in Sweden, the effect of this collaboration on their CSR efforts and communication was evaluated through semi-structured interviews with the restaurant representatives. Social marketing was the underlying theory for this study, with focus on opportunity and ability. The restaurants communication efforts were identified as nudges. The study showed that collaborating in order to start communicating can prove to be an effective support mechanism. Increased communication proved to have somewhat an effect on customer awareness and staff awareness. Increased awareness amongst all actors of the food chain is a necessary step for a sustainable future.

The research purpose was to learn about existing joint use public-academic libraries in Canada including their establishment, structure, benefits, and challenges and to determine the requirements for successful partnerships. Following a literature review, a short survey was conducted to gather data on the number, location, and types of public-academic library partnerships. In-depth telephone interviews were then held with key personnel from joint use libraries to learn more about the libraries and the nature of the partnerships. The research surfaced three unique examples of joint use public-academic libraries. In addition, key requirements for successful partnerships that were posited through the literature review were supported by the research data – commitment, a shared vision, and a need that requires fulfillment. Possible limitations of the research are the initial survey’s reliance on responses from academic library directors and the survey timing. There is limited information about partnerships between Canadian public and academic libraries and no single document that brings together data on partnerships across Canada. With this study, public and academic libraries will learn of successful joint use Canadian public-academic libraries along with the key requirements for sustainable partnerships.

The paradigm of design is changing. Designers now need to be equipped with the skills and knowledge that will enable them to participate in the global move towards a sustainable future. The tenets of Sustainable Development and Design: economy and environment are being dealt with extensively in both practice and theory. The social elements, unfortunately, have proven more difficult to define and implement. The challenges arise as social sustainability deals with softer and more complex issues as diverse and unquantifiable as ethics, values, cultural diversity, holistic perspectives, collective and personal responsibility. The competencies needed to address these wicked problems are based in the realm of Social Sustainability and require a shift in how designers are taught as students and will subsequently practice as professionals. This thesis proposes that by introducing various models of collaboration into design education the capacity for responsible design practice can be developed. Arguably, by capitalising on the process of collaboration a culture of individual and collective sharing can be encouraged leading to new knowledge and openness to multi-disciplinarity, holistic perspectives and diverse cultural backgrounds. Across a Delphi Study and four consecutive phases of Action Research, the competencies for social sustainability in design are identified and their emergence evaluated through practical collaborative projects in an educational setting. From the panel of twenty-one design experts the Delphi Study developed a construct for social sustainability in design, as well as an initial Framework of the key competencies. These two tools were then used to underpin the planning, implementation and subsequent analysis of the four Action Research phases. The pragmatic nature of Action Research allowed for continuous iteration and development, where data gathered through each phase informed the proceeding phase so as to fix on an approach that is both realisable and realistic. This thesis does not offer a panacea solution but rather a pathway towards achieving the necessary changes in design practice. The findings clearly show that building capacity for responsible design practice is not a simple or one size fits all approach, as each individual experience is different. The construct, framework of competencies (and their interconnections) along with the guidelines for effective collaboration, provide a starting point that can be built upon, evolve and progress as the debate around sustainability becomes more clearly defined. Over time these generic design skills can be honed and refined to meet previously unmet societal challenges.

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Art integration research has received much attention of late, yet the focus generally examines ways integration practice and pedagogy support or enhance outcomes of high stakes testing. Serving as a counterpoint, this qualitative action research study, grounded in my experiences as a middle school arts integration specialist, addresses the value of visual culture art integration as a site of youth empowerment. Working collaboratively over a period of four months with three non-art educators to create and teach a series of social justice art integration units with sixth graders, I examined ways an integrated art and visual culture curriculum fostered safe spaces for students to take risks by deconstructing and reconstructing their identities, beliefs and understandings of others and their world through artmaking. In chapter one, I recount early teaching experiences that prompted the research questions in which an examination of which arts integration pedagogies best stimulate students to examine visual culture, articulate voice, and question power relationships that perpetuate social inequities. I address the theoretical lens of social justice art education as it frames the study and examine and discuss the current literature surrounding visual culture and art integration in chapter two. Chapter three delineates methodologies employed in the action research study including data collection measures of visual journaling, artmaking and photography. In chapters four, five, and six, I recount the process in which students engaged with, responded to, and created artwork through three curricular units--in social studies examining the intersections of culture and visual culture as evidenced through advertising, in language arts class collaboratively exploring persuasion through environmental and ecological art installations, and in math class integrating Fibonacci's theories through art making. Findings, discussed in chapter seven, indicated that visual culture art integration, used by teachers is often mislabeled out of insecurity and is a viable methodology for increasing student engagement. When students work collaboratively a space is created for them to regain power in the classroom and increase empathy awareness for themselves and others. Furthermore, art making, within a non-art classroom, can be a particularly successful arena through which middle school students articulate and clarify their voices.

After years of education, many people enter the workforce without the team-working skills fundamental in today's innovation economy. As one of the primary goals of education is to prepare students for the workforce, a shift from individual learning to collaborative learning is recommended. One way to incorporate collaborative learning in formal education is through students' engagement in the collaborative development of plays. When understanding of collaboration is achieved, according the theories of Teaching for Understanding, the learner can apply knowledge outside of the domain in which it was learned. Team-based management in business and collaborative playbuilding in theatre share congruent structural principles, therefore, the application of knowledge from one domain to the other is natural. This study investigated how university students came to understand collaboration through involvement in a Collaborative Play Development course. Findings support the recognition of collaborative theatre as an opportunity to develop marketable skills for the learners.

Little is known about the communication principles necessary for the design and implementation of health information technology (HIT) that supports the needs of healthcare providers from multiple professions. The purpose of this descriptive, exploratory research was to examine the patterns and methods of communication used by nurses, physicians, social workers, respiratory therapists, and pharmacists to share patient information during a patient handoff between units. The principles of complexity science were used as a theoretical framework and an original model of the healthcare organization consisting of embedded complex adaptive systems is presented.Five patient handoffs from the emergency department to participating inpatient units were included in the study. Providers responsible for the care of patients during the designated handoffs were identified through observation and snowball sampling and asked to complete a survey asking whom they communicated with and how. Social Network Analysis was used to map, analyze, and compare the communication patterns used by healthcare providers. Inferential statistics and thematic content analysis were used to examine provider characteristics and satisfaction with the quality of information available.The multi-professional collaborative patterns that emerged revealed the simultaneous use of both synchronous and asynchronous communication methods. HIT was shown to play a major role in the coordination process. Centrality and centralization measures identified that there is no one particular professional group dominating communication and hierarchy metrics indicate a unidirectional communication flow with tiers of dominant providers filtering information to providers on the lower tiers. These patterns suggest that the coordination of patient care during a handoff is a complex process that is the domain of more than one professional group.Satisfaction with the quality of available information was higher for providers working in the ED compared to the admitting units. Verbal communication was preferred by most participants despite difficulties identifying or contacting providers in other units. This study provides a foundation for future research that examines how communication principles that reflect the needs of multiple providers can be incorporated into healthcare provider workflow and HIT design.