LIBR 210 – Information & Reference Services – Dr. Stentrom
Week 13 – Discussion Post
“Collaboration”
In this week’s readings, I particularly liked the article by Bernadette Hodge and Rebekah Tanner (2003) about the unique partnership between the public library and a community of farmers. The article describes: “Identification of the community’s needs is an important first step. . . . How much does the local library reflect the current interests and needs of its patrons?”(Hodge & Tanner, 2003, p. 121). Due to the fact that farmers in the community constitute a majority of the population, and they urgently need information regarding all aspects of agriculture since it is essential to their livelihood and the community’s economy. As a result, it makes sense to create a special library for the farming community in a new location (as in the article), or acquire additional resources for the existing library to meet their specific information needs.
Hodge and Tanner’s (2003) article states that: “The experiences described herein are focused on how the farmers in a rural village made known that their local library was not addressing their needs” (p. 121). As an example of a grass-root movement, I think it’s great that the farmers stood up for themselves, voiced their opinions, and requested resources for their specific information needs.
According to the article, there are several farming communities in upstate New York forming a large segment of the population. In addition, the farming community urgently needed a new hub to receive information targeting their needs. Obviously, the topic of information required for this particular community in upstate New York is agriculture. As tax-paying citizens, the farming population has the right to request, access resources, and receive necessary information about agriculture collected in one place.
In turn, I’m also glad that the community’s public library addressed the issue and responded to the farmers’ information needs by providing them with agricultural resources, which is over and beyond what they would ordinarily provide for the community. The community’s collaboration resulted in “A successful outreach effort that saved a village library, improved community relations, enhanced awareness of the role of libraries, and disseminated information necessary for sustaining a viable and healthy farming community” (pp. 107-8).
Successful collaboration creates a “win-win” situation for all. An apt definition of a “win-win situation” can be found on WiseGEEK.com that states: “A win-win situation, also called a win-win game is a situation by which cooperation, compromise, or group participation leads to all participants benefiting.”
References
Hodge, B. & Tanner, R. (2003). Grassroots to grassfed: Libraries partner with local organizations to address the information needs of farming communities in upstate New York. The Reference Librarian 39(82), 107-124.