Summit Wrap Up - Group 2

At the close of the summit we all reconvened and each group gave a short summary of what they had discussed.

Group 2: Issue Category B

External (i.e., non-library) Partnerships and
“Plugging into” the Global Information Network

1. To better serve our users, what are the public, private, educational, and commercial entities (non-libraries) we should partner with to deliver information and services to the people who need them?

2. What vital roles can libraries play in these networks? How can we sustain these networks over the long term?

Summary points:

• reframed question - idea of long term sustainability as a starting point can be a barrier
• how am i going to form a partnership if i'm already worrying about how it will look in 10 years?
• partnership as process and relationship that perhaps ends
• this was their attitude/philosophy as they thought about actionable items - all working from an experimental starting point
• think of examples form yesterday's speakers: greyhound, mothers of multiples
• not obvious partners, but may be something there
• think experimental not necesarily long term project
• go where constituents already are
• put the library where they will stumble and find
• 3 examples they came up with ways you might form partnerships with external groups
• start by talking about something you can do (on the individual library level) encouraging librarians to get involved with the community - as librarians, but something they are interested in.
• put together some joint conferences. build in assessment from the start. example TAM (museum association) and TLA. other possibility - conference within a conference. encourage librarians to participate in non-library conferences. always feels welcome.
• getting on to state level. building on library as books - texas is big. we can leverage that brand to talk to important people. put together some joint conferences. build in assessment from the start.we could work with google, OCLC
• date before marry - don't have to have a sustainability plan on day one