EDITOR'S NOTES
Agility Through Collaboration
by Dick Kaser
As 2020 draws to a close—and it cannot happen soon enough—we turn to the things that librarians have had to do this year to adjust to rapidly changing conditions and what they are refocusing on in preparation for a less predictable future. Ray Uzwyshyn (Texas State University) shares his vision for supporting academic researchers with a digital ecosystem built collaboratively with OA software components and supported by active user communities.
In his regular column, Terence Huwe (University of California–Berkeley) also foresees a collaborative future. “The new rule is this,” he writes, “Not
only must we always be on the lookout for partners and collaborators, we must also look for opportunities to merge services, join forces, and reframe our organizations as partnerships that respond to the changing times.”
Collaboration is threaded through all of the case studies in this issue, as our authors report on the projects they have rolled out during the pandemic.
Law librarians Rachel Evans, Stephen Wolfson, and Thomas Striepe describe how they (and others on their team) quickly transitioned their in-house OCR digitization project for completion by a contingent of library staffers working from home.
And Helene Gold (New College of Florida) writes about how she kept sent-home college students engaged and connected to campus culture by producing a YouTube show featuring, among many other things, guest appearances by her cat Roger, who became the show’s mascot and pandemic hero.
As for keeping younger students engaged, Jennifer Sturge (Calvert County Public Schools) shares her recommendations for digital storytelling apps for both in-class and remote education.
Join us next issue for more reports on how librarians are showing agility in responding to a rapidly changing landscape.
Dick Kaser, Executive Editor
kaser@infotoday.com
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