Beyond the Silos of the LAMs - Organizer and Moderator: Elisa Lanzi, Imaging Center, Smith College
Speakers: Martha R. Mahard, Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science; Marilyn Nasserden, Centre for Arts & Culture, Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary; Michael Fox, Minnesota Historical Society; Ann Whiteside, Harvard Graduate School of Design
Abstract: Collaboration among libraries, archives, and museums has been a popular theme at conferences for the last five years. As we acquire a continually increasing amount of born-digital materials, our traditional boundaries are beginning to blend. The convergence of collections and technology, and the desire for users to easily access institutional content provides us with an important moment in time to break down our institutional silos and begin to work collaboratively across communities so that access to content is more transparent. The work done by Diane Zorich, Günter Waibel, and Ricky Erway and their subsequent 2008 report titled “Beyond the Silos of the LAMS: Collaboration Among Libraries, Archives, and Museums” offers some pragmatic ways for institutions to work across boundaries to break down their local silos. The result of the LAMS report is that several institutions have been purposely working across institutional boundaries to eliminate their silos in an effort to bring the management of cultural heritage materials together for the benefit of those who use those previously disparate collections for research and teaching.