15 Interinstitutional Collaborations to Forge Intracampus Connections: A Case St
15 Interinstitutional Collaborations to Forge Intracampus Connections: A Case Study from the Duke Endowment Libraries
Sarah Hare, Andrea Wright, Christy Allen, Geneen E. Clinkscales, & Julie Reed
Introduction
Academic libraries are increasingly providing education and support for faculty interested in open educational resources (OER). Some academic libraries offer comprehensive training programs and dedicated staff to support the creation and adoption of OER. Other libraries focus on smaller initiatives seeking to explore the interests of OER stakeholders on their campuses. However, there are still a significant number of academic libraries with little or no experience supporting faculty OER needs. This was the situation at Duke University, Davidson College, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University in early 2016.
Most of the librarians at these institutions had minimal to no experience working with OER, and had no clear concept of which of their faculty had adopted or contributed to OER. Fortunately, these institutions have access to a shared endowment that facilitates collaborative programming across their institutions. Beginning in the summer of 2016, librarians from these four schools joined together to develop a unique OER pilot program that pooled resources and created a support structure across institutions with notably different student populations, faculty interests, and library structures.
TDEL OER Pilot Program
The OER pilot program implemented by Duke, Davidson, Furman, and Johnson C. Smith benefited from external funding and interinstitutional collaboration made possible by the Duke Endowment. Established in 1924 by the tobacco and hydroelectric power magnate, James B. Duke, the Duke Endowment is a permanent trust fund with designated beneficiaries. Among these beneficiaries are four institutions of higher learning: Davidson College, Duke University, Furman University, and Johnson C. Smith University. In 2001, the libraries from these four institutions established an informal group called the Duke Endowment Libraries (TDEL) to foster collaboration and share knowledge and training across the institutions’ libraries. In 2015, TDEL established a project fund to provide financial support for joint projects among two or more of the Duke-endowed libraries. During preliminary discussions about possible uses of this fund, the topic of OER presented itself. With the exception of Davidson College, the OER experience among the libraries was fairly limited. Working collaboratively, the Duke-endowed libraries could realize the following benefits:
- Connect librarians at different institutions with a shared interest in supporting open access and OER.
- Collect and analyze OER information from several institutions to identify larger trends and interests in higher education.
- Maximize resource utility by pooling training and funding across institutions, while still facilitating a program that best suits the needs of each individual campus.