Listening to Many Voices: Community Conversations and the Graduate Experience with Jonathan Sauceda and Laura Palumbo

1. Presenters: Nancy Kranich, Laura Palumbo, Jonathan Sauceda
Library Research Seminar IV, U. of Illinois,October 9, 2014
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2.  What is the future role for library
liaisons at Rutgers?
 Conversation in the academic
library community
 Formed a Liaison ActionTeam
 Developed an Action Agenda
 Created aVision
 Convened a Liaison Assembly
 Defined new roles for liaisons
 Planned and convened community
conversations
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3.  Libraries can’t live on love alone…
 Eager to engage but uncertain how
 Focus more on specific communities
 Work in teams and build
partnerships
 Use library space to build community
 Get in the flow of users
 Build connections, not just
collections
 Provide students a comfort zone
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4.  Generate constructive
and inclusive discourse
 Envision a greater sense
of possibility
 Increase relevance and
significance
 Act with intentionality
based on readiness
 Increase our impact
 Achieve shared goals

5.  Understand our campus communities better
 Become more deeply rooted in the life of our
communities
 Create a narrative around shared community
aspirations
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6. Starting Point
1. ID problems
2. Visioning
3. Aspirations
What we Get
 Rooted in
Complaints
 Blame
 Wish lists
 Disconnected
from Reality
 Based on reality
 Focus on
community
What it Creates
 Problem lists
 No shared sense
of direction
 False hope
 Not rooted in
people’s reality
 Shared
aspirations that
roots work
 Possibility
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7.  Convened faculty,
administrators, and students on
campus and library faculty and
staff
 Focused on undergraduate,
graduate, and international
education
 Listened to understand people’s
shared aspirations and concerns
 Engaged in authentic dialogue
that reflects people’s reality
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8.  Met with the Graduate School
before and after
 Engaged a cross-section of
Rutgers graduate students:
 44 total—4 conversations
 Shared the findings with a
group of 8 faculty and
administrators
 Liaison Assembly open space
discussion with 20 librarians
and library staff
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9. Identify Aspirations
1.What kind of Rutgers graduate community do you
want?__________________________________________________
_____
2.Why is that important to you?
_______________________________________________________
3. How is that different from how you see things now?
_______________________________________________________
4.What are some of the things that need to happen to create that
kind of change?
_______________________________________________________
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10. 1. Interdisciplinary collaboration and interaction in a
comfortable setting
2. Acceptance and inclusion
3. Access to information of interest to graduate
students
4. Creation of more of a graduate identity
5. Differing needs for different communities
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11.  What did you make of the
conversations?
 What are we learning?
 Why is this important?
 What are the implications for
our work?
 What possibilities are there for
moving ahead?
 What insights did this
conversation spark?
… A different conversation
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12.  Develop strategies that achieve results and
also build community
 Identify and act on specific pockets/areas of
change that align to local context
 Focus on creating conditions necessary for
community change
 Determine “who to run with” as partners
 Develop networks for innovation/learning
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14.  How broad and deep is the community’s leadership?
 How strong and constructive are the community norms?
 How broad and deep are the informal networks and
links?
 How strong is the collection of catalytic organizations?
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15. 15
Source:WorkingTogether Project, Community-Led LibrariesToolkit, p. 16,
http://www.librariesincommunities.ca/resources/Community-

16.  Laura 1st – actions lower on the continuum
 Jon 2nd – higher level actions
 Can create a different slide for each or just
one slide with 4 bullets) and a visual
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17.  Meet your community where they are
 Solutions for the “Waiting Place” and
“Impasse”- Graduate Student Information
Resource
 We have identified a need, and can provide
resolution with limited outside assistance
 Moving into the “Catalytic” stage- Graduate
Student LightningTalks, Research Cafes
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18.  Cultivate a can-do community narrative
 Build the capacity of partners and other groups
to strengthen our community together
 Recalibrate our efforts based on changing
challenges and conditions
 Apply Harwood practice across the main
functions of your organization
 Align our organizational structure, staffing, and
resources outward facing
 Adopt outward facing organizational
performance measures
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19.  Shift our thinking to turn outward
 Recognize new opportunities and connections
 Uncover a sense of common purpose
 Set realistic goals
 Engage more deeply with graduate students
 Act intentionally to reflect aspirations
 Align our strategies with others on campus
 Partner with the Rutgers community in
meaningful and significant ways
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20.  Brown, Karen and Kara Malefant. (2012). Connect, Collaborate, and Communicate:
A Report from theValue of Academic Libraries Summit (Chicago: Association of
College and Research Libraries),
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/value/val_summit.p
df.
 Covert-Vail, Lucinda and Scott Collard, (2012). New Roles for NewTimes: Research
Library Services for Graduate Students (Washington, DC: Association of Research
Libraries, http://www.arl.org/storage/documents/publications/nrnt-grad-roles-
20dec12.pdf.
 Dewey, Barbara. (2004). “The Embedded Librarian: Strategic Campus
Collaborations,” Resource Sharing & Information Networks 17 (2004): 5-17.
 The Harwood Institute. (2014). Public InnovatorsWorkbook. Chicago, IL: ALA.
http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/sites/ala.org.transforminglibraries/files/
content/LTC_Binder_FINAL_0.pdf.
 The Harwood Institute and American Library Association. LibrariesTransforming
Communities. (2014).Tools for Community Engagement and Innovation,
http://www.ala.org/transforminglibraries/libraries-transforming-
communities/resources-for-library-professionals
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21.  Kranich, Nancy, Megan Lotts, and Gene Springs. (2014). “The
promise of academic libraries transforming campus communities,”
College and Research Libraries News. 75 #4 (April): 182-186,
http://crln.acrl.org/content/75/4/182.full.
 Lougee, Wendy. (2002). Diffuse Libraries: Emergent Roles for the
Research Library in the Digital Age (Washington, DC: Council on
Library and Information Resources),
http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub108/contents.html.
 Shumaker, David. (2012). The Embedded Librarian: Innovative
Strategies forTaking KnowledgeWhere It’s Needed (Medford, NJ:
InformationToday).
 Williams, Karen. (2009). “A Framework for Articulating New
Library Roles” in Karla Hahn, Research Library Issues, Special Issue
on Liaison Librarian Roles, no. 265 (Washington, DC: Association of
Research Libraries), http://publications.arl.org/rli265/4.
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22. Thanks!
 Nancy Kranich, nancy.kranich@rutgers.edu
 Laura Palumbo, laura.palumbo@rutgers.edu
 Jonathan Sauceda,
jonathan.sauceda@rutgers.edu
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24.  Celebration of passing qualifiers—liked this idea
 Coffee with the deans—a modification of one of
the ideas from the library with modifications.
Food helps. Gave example of similar effort by
graduate dean at U. of Maryland holding grad
student events at the libraries
 Networking tool—powerful, could make a big
difference
 Space planning—repurposing library spaces,
including grad student spaces. RUL would like
to identify graduate students from GSAs, GSOs
to help us identify interests/priorities.
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