Catching Fire: Burning Down Our Silos to Fire-Up Our Communities

In this era of specialization and “target markets”, opportunities to partner with outside organizations to reach new groups of users are frequently overlooked or ignored. We have to work together with other groups on campus and in the community in order to let people outside appreciate what we have gathered inside our walls and web sites. Building these working relationships with museums, campus offices, and other library departments can have unexpectedly good results for everyone involved! We have had success in collaborating with other campus units to develop presentations, host social events and create exhibits highlighting our libraries and museums by linking current events to our collections and to campus history. These programs are attracting the attention of students, faculty and community members, resulting in increased contact with new and existing users and invitations from other groups to visit and talk.