We Couldn’t Have Done It Alone: Reflections on Getting Started with Cross-Campus Service Coordination

Abstract

For librarians, working with campus partners to achieve a mutual goal can feel both exciting and daunting. With the research landscape becoming increasingly competitive, this kind of teamwork can produce outcomes that have greater impact, and librarians should consider how they can successfully work with other units on their campuses to better fuel success. Significant changes to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data Management and Sharing Policy (DMSP) that became effective in January 2023 served as a catalyst for us to work with several key research-support departments at our institution. In this column, we describe our experience, lessons learned, and how this partnership is leading to formalized commitments that can potentially sustain change. Though our work is specific to data management and sharing, the lessons we share could be applied to any large collaboration in an institution.