Registration Cost: $150 Register Now
Add to Existing Conference Registration - log in and click gear icon in the "Actions" column to the right of your 2018 Conference registration information.Libraries and vendors are all too often trapped in the paradigm of swapping content and services for dollars. Pivoting from this transactional model, we will explore answers to questions like the following: How can librarians and vendors collaborate to create better resources and services? What can impede these relationships? What are best practices for working together effectively and ethically? How can we build, negotiate, and sustain these relationships for mutual benefit? And when conflict inevitably arises, how do we deal with it?
This proposal is based on a well-received and well-attended panel held at ALA Midwinter 2018. Building on that Midwinter event, this Charleston preconference features a mix of librarians and vendors who will each present and share stories illustrating principles and practices of good/bad relationship management. They will participate in a moderated discussion drawn from prepared questions and live attendee Q&A. We plan to solicit questions from attendees in advance of the event. We will conduct think-pair-share exercises and potentially small-group workshops to discuss real-world scenarios.
This session is distinctive because it focuses uniquely on vendor relationships. This topic is necessary because these relationships enable and sustain collaborations, facilitate negotiations, and mitigate discord. This preconference is relevant because panelists come from a variety of vendors, institutions, and backgrounds and come primed to address attendees’ expressed information needs.
