Collaborative Dialogue: Repositioning the Academic Library

The library as the heart of the university has long been symbolic of an academic truth: that knowledge grows best when built through a collaborative conversation among scholars. Certainly an academic library is the embodiment of this shared conversation. In the physical and virtual library collections, academic disciplines are congregated in a dynamic environment, which informs and stimulates academic discussions in unique ways. Not only the collections but also the services of an academic library are designed to facilitate this dynamic collaboration of disciplines. Long hours of operation, extensive collections and access, and facilities that encourage social interaction among scholars are all part of why the library is at the heart of the academic endeavor. But is facilitating the conversation enough? Can librarians be partners in the dialogue? Is the academic library ready to take on a more involved role in the university mission?

An Established Platform

Libraries in academic settings have beenreasonably successful in building visibility on campus. For example, it is a common organizational model for librarians to hold faculty status. With this status has come involvement in university governance and ample opportunities for campus networking. Moreover, most college and university libraries engage in aggressive marketing efforts to make the campus aware of collections and services.

No one could accuse academic librarians of relying on the philosophy of "build it and they will come." The campus communication airways are filled with new acquisitions lists, document delivery announcements, and so on. Most reference faculty design extensive instructional materials to dovetail with course work on campus. Certainly, the academic library is visible and involved throughout the campus. However, is this involvement more likely characterized as that of a partner or of an assistant? How frequently are the library faculty seen as having the same goals, roles, and objectives as other university faculty?

There are indicators that the academic community does view the library as its intellectual heart on some level. Consider two illustrations—it is common for library buildings to be centrally located, and freshmen orientation courses typically include a library component. At Northern Kentucky University (NKU), we have seen these specific indications, as well as others, that our university views the library in a central role for all academic affairs. For example,

• The faculty development center was established within the library building and is in a reporting structure that includes the head of the library.
• The head of the library has been elevated to an associate provost level, enhancing involvement in the broadest of academic planning.
• The library information literacy curriculum was recognized as one of four core educational competencies in a general studies program proposal.
• The library faculty are leaders in a growing learning-community effort on campus.

Perhaps the most vivid indication of this philosophical placement of the library at NKU is that the university's official welcome center is located at the entrance to the library. This placement was promoted as the one place on campus that belongs to all academic areas.

These recognitions of what the library has to offer an academic community, while positive, are still limited. They do not represent the powerful collaboration that is possible between library faculty and course instructors. Have we allowed the maxim "The library is the heart of the university" to become a mere cliché without the strength and the potential of these words fulfilled?

A Partner in the Conversation

So what would this stronger collaborative relationship between library and course faculty look like? In it, the library would be a full partner in the conversations that illuminate core educational goals, those that place discipline-specific curricula in a context of capstone competencies we all desire for our students. Indeed, library faculty—much like the library itself—occupy a unique role that could easily facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion.

Several NKU library faculty have pursued opportunities to engage in this level of university involvement. Our participation in a recent faculty...