A Holistic Approach to Academic Computing: Librarians and Instructional Technologists Are Better Working Together

The general principle of holism is that the whole is more valuable than the sum of its parts. What does it mean to situate academic computing into the library in a holistic way? We will explore how librarian and instructional technologist collaborations have reshaped the way each position has functioned in the past and is offering new ways of working more effectively.
 
Together, this team provides a unique package of services that are tailored to meet individual student and faculty needs and preferences. We will also examine the specific methods with which instructional technologists and librarians can work together to achieve the goal of providing services that bring authenticity to the institution’s many great resources and learning objects in ways that facilitate more meaningful understanding and knowledge sharing among its constituents. The collaboration allows us to support learning and instruction by leveraging and synthesizing our distinctive skills and knowledge of research sources and academic technological discovery tools. We will discuss our practical mapping approach for managing decision making, triaging the service supply chain, and capturing information on user preferences.
 
We will illustrate our process with examples of services that demonstrate the power of a team of professionals with different skills and training but a shared mission of supporting faculty teaching and student learning.