Library Research Sprints as a Tool to Engage Faculty and Promote Collaboration

To create more direct and equal collaborations with faculty, the University of Minnesota Libraries in the Twin Cities adapted a new model of engagement: the "Research Sprints." Research Sprints place librarians in direct proximity with faculty to rapidly and collaboratively work on a component of a research project in less than a week. In this article, we use a grounded theory approach, in which researchers review the data they have collected to find repeated ideas and then group them into concepts or categories, to analyze survey results from faculty and librarian participants across three iterations of Research Sprints. Research Sprints offer academic libraries an opportunity to build social capital with faculty but require strong project management to succeed.