Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / This presentation will discuss ClimateQUAL™ - Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment (OCDA), a joint project of the University of Maryland Libraries and Industrial/Organizational Psychology Program and the Association of Research Libraries. This national collaborative project, in its second year of a multi-year effort, has included other academic institutions to create a capability to measure organizational climate and diversity. A web-based survey instrument has been developed based on the University of Maryland Libraries model and is designed to provide participating institutions information on where their climate and diversity efforts need improvement, in the view of collective staff opinion. Based on the first year’s work, the results show that the instrument is applicable across institutions. Among the most important findings in Phase I, are clear positive correlations between customer satisfaction with service, the climate of the organization and the climate for diversty. This research is also developing a definition of the "healthy organization." The findings of the assessment can in turn lead to remedial action to improve climate positively. More information about the project can be found at http://www.lib.umd.edu/ocda/.

Plenary session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / CoLAB Planning® is a large-group facilitated workshop designed to connect participants’ resources, networks, and skills using a "speed dating" process created by Bess de Farber, Grants and Revenue Manager of the University of Arizona Libraries. This workshop will be held during the Living the Future 7 Conference on Thursday, May 1, 2008 from 1:30-3:50pm. CoLAB – Florida Atlantic University CoLAB Planning® is one method for supporting a renewed vision for libraries as conveners of academic or community resources. Learn to experiment with collaborative relationships that can yield creative ideas you never would have dreamed of on your own. CoLAB Planning® is a facilitative process that takes individual and organizational potential to its highest possible use. The workshop will illustrate the power of unearthing dormant resources within all participants. CoLAB - ACRL 2007, Baltimore, MD CoLAB facilitation methods have been used to connect more than 390 individuals and 272 organizations. 100% of those who attended CoLAB sessions shared that they walked out the door with new relationships and useful information. According to the director of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, "The CoLAB experience provided me with more collaborative partners than I could have anticipated."

Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Originally started as the Colorado Digitization Project (CDP) funded with an LSTA grant, the CDP was one of the earliest programs in the U.S. to embrace the participation of museums, libraries, archives and historical societies in its statewide digital initiatives. The recipient of a number of additional LSTA, IMLS, and NEH grants, the CDP expanded into a multi-state initiative. Now referred to as BCR’s CDP (Collaborative Digitization Program), the program continues to build on the strength of its members to collaborate on setting standards and best practices to be used in group digitization projects. This session will cover the evolution of the program, including the governance structure, the initial planning process, techniques used to effectively move the initiative forward and the evolution of the organization into its current incarnation.

Breakout session from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Learn about a real life collaboration between institutions from Becky Senf, Norton Family Assistant Curator of Photography, who has a joint appointment at the University of Arizona and the Phoenix Art Museum. She will highlight the advantages and benefits that have become evident in the collaboration’s first 18 months. She will also discuss the challenges she has encountered and answer questions based on her experiences

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Seattle University began planning in 2002 for a renovation of and addition to A.A. Lemieux Library. The University wished to transform the current Library (built in 1966) into a dynamic learning resource center, integrating traditional library services with a wide range of collaborative programs. As planning proceeded, the programs to be added were identified as the Learning Assistance Center, the Writing Center, and a new Oral Communication Center. Library administrative staff and our Learning Commons Partners initially met with architects and facilities staff to discuss space needs. As the architectural designs developed, participants recognized a need to create a shared vision of the Learning Commons. Sharing began with a monthly meeting of the Learning Commons Partners. Our poster session will illustrate the activities we are using to create a shared understanding of our Learning Commons and how it will operate. We are in the early stages of a process intended to create a better understanding of our various service areas and challenge us to develop a shared mission, vision, and goals for our Learning Commons which is expected to open in September 2010.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Creating opportunities to share student learning and assessment resources with faculty can be a daunting challenge. At Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, the leaders representing six different service units and committees united to create a flexible outreach session for academic units on campus. Here we share our collaborative approach to "unite and conquer," combining the human, technical, and financial resources of six service units and institutional committees to produce an informative outreach program for some 1,100 full- and part-time faculty members. Participating units included Cline Library, E-Learning Center, Office of Academic Assessment (OAA), Faculty Development, the University Assessment Committee, and the Liberal Studies Committee. During our "pilot" year, we visited 23 academic units and some 290 faculty members at faculty meetings. We experienced significant improvements overall with our approach and presentations between the fall and spring semesters. Our poster informs viewers of our organizational strategy, followed by an overview of successes, challenges, lessons learned, and future plans. We view this outreach effort as a pilot-project success story, looking forward to reviving the collaborative outreach sessions during 2008-2009.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / This session will focus on how strategic directions are established for the University of Arizona Libraries in order to satisfy customers information resource needs in a timely, efficient, and transparent fashion. We will discuss how the Library develops cost-effective solutions meetings customers' needs for access to information.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The information landscape is in flux -- customer’s use of traditional reference services are shrinking while libraries are being called upon to take on new responsibilities. This poster shows how the UA Libraries shifted its reference services to meet customer’s needs in the new landscape and allow librarians to have the flexibility to take on new work.

Poster presentation from the Living the Future 7 Conference, April 30-May 3, 2008, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / The need for reference librarians to assume new roles has been widely discussed, and being more proactive in working with faculty generally plays a large role in these discussions. In many institutions, however, these shifts have not occurred as quickly as hoped. Although there may be a number of reasons for this, one of the most important is that there is no best practice that can be broadly implemented across libraries or even within a single library. Rather, it is critical to identify the needs of faculty and match them with both the skills and knowledge of librarians and the resources of libraries. Identification and exploration of these possibilities is only viable through dialogue and partnership with faculty. This poster will present a number of examples of these partnerships at Purdue University, as well as support resources that need to be in place for success. Examples will include partnerships with academic programs to increase faculty awareness of resources to improve teaching, fostering information literacy in interdisciplinary courses, and collaborating to curate research data.

Conference proceeding from the Living the Future 6 Conference, April 5-8, 2006, University of Arizona Libraries, Tucson, AZ. / Drawing on the personal experiences of the presenters and from discussions held at the UCLA Senior Fellows 2005 program, participants will be provided with an overview of the Kegan and Lahey book, "How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation." Participants will also take part in interactive exercises that will help them create a process for making transformational changes in both their personal and professional lives.