Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

2017

Journal / Book Title

Vale NJ (2017)

Abstract

This talk focuses on how a government documents librarian, with professional experience in social sciences and information literacy and a projects specialist with experience in fundraising and research were thrust into leadership roles for establishing an Institutional Repository at Montclair State University with no prior experience. Our seemingly unrelated backgrounds served us well to bring an essential and much needed service to our university. As “Agents of Change,” we will discuss the process involved for promoting the value of the Repository to administration, faculty and library staff through our own antidotes for success based on our extensive research and collaboration. Introducing a new service such as an Institutional Repository requires the development of a range of new skills and expertise. It forced us to examine our traditional roles within the library and the greater academic community and to address the shifting nature of libraries in an emerging and changing information landscape. Librarians must be open to embracing our changing roles and in developing new competencies in scholarly communication and open access and requires the enhancing and cultivating of skills that many librarians already possess. But for a non-librarian, such as a Projects Specialist, embracing a new role was somewhat more challenging. Because not only did the Projects Specialist need to acquire certain knowledge and skills related to professional librarianship she also needed to translate those skills into a new professional ethos. The collaboration and merging of our experiences and skills as well as the obtaining of new competencies and knowledge, helped us drive home the importance of how an institutional repository would have a significant impact on our campus as well as the greater community and how it would also support the institutional mission of our university.

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