SLO 8: The student effectively collaborates for the achievement of individual, organizational, professional, and societal goals.
The concept of collaboration can come in many different shapes and sizes. As children we are taught to share. First, we share our possessions and learn to cooperate with our peers. As we grow, sharing and working together extends to our thoughts and ideas in truly collaborative efforts. Throughout this program students engage in collaboration in a variety of forms. We post to discussion boards and engage with each other to explore new concepts. We participate in student organizations. We also work together on group projects to create something larger than we would be able to do alone.
My first group project was completed for LIS 643 (Metadata) with Fatih Oguz. Schemas-Structure and Semantics was a multi-stage group project that required me to work together with another student to develop an application profile for a digital collection, create a crosswalk to Dublin Core and finally write a specification for the complete element set. This project presented a few challenges as collaborate effort. I was very fortunate to have good partner but it was difficult to divide the work in an effective way. The subject of metadata was new to us both. As we split the work we sometimes discovered that it was difficult to complete our own part without having a better understanding of the other. We also sometimes understood the assignment differently. We had to communicate often and learn to provide real constructive criticism in order to create a unified project. In the end I got so much more of out of this project than just a better understanding of metadata.
My favorite group project of this program was a Group Database Selection completed for LIS 623 (Online Bibliographic Information Retrieval) with Dr. Richard Moniz. The goal of this project was to provide a real-world example of making decisions regarding database subscriptions in a university library environment. As a group we were responsible for reviewing, evaluating and selecting the databases we felt were appropriate based on the mission of a specific university while honoring a specified budget. This was my favorite group project for a couple of reason. I had an excellent group to work. We communicated well to achieve the goals of the project while showing respect for each other’s opinions and time constraints. The best thing about this project was the real-world approach that only works as a group project. The decision we were making required collaboration just like it would in professional setting. These choices would never be made by one person alone. Even though we decided to divide the work by each reviewing a selected set of databases, the final decisions had to be made as a group. We had to make arguments for the selections we made, make adjustments based on arguments and come to a consensus. While we learned to effectively evaluate databases, we also learned to work together.
Collaboration, whether as students or as professionals in the workplace, comes with a variety of challenges. I do not think that most of us are eager to do group work as a student. It is so much easier to rely solely on ourselves. But the ability to work as a team and collaborate on events, initiatives and program is essential for information professionals. I gained the additional benefit through these projects of learning to work with people in other locations. We were not able to sit down together to meet face-to-face. The skills we gained as we worked together to achieve a common goal will serve us well in a professional environment.