This study looks at how 53 academic libraries, especially research universities, use personnel teams drawn from more than one and often many departments and divisions of the library.
The study helps its readers to answer questions such as: how effective are such teams? What are they generally used for? Does effectiveness vary by function? When do they fall apart and why? How many cross functional teams do academic libraries have? Who is able to form a cross functional team? What are the lines of authority and to whom do team leaders report? How open are the team members to active participation? When are they enthusiastic and when not?
The study was devised and the data summary written by Susanna Cowan, Coordinator for Library Research & Assessment, UCONN Library.
Data in the 82-page report is broken out for type, enrollment size, tuition level, library employee level and public/private status of the institutions, and gender, age and library title of the individuals responding to the survey.
Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
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More than 36% of the research university libraries in the sample had more than five cross functional teams.
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Divisional directors and department heads viewed nearly 23% of their employees as resistant to joining cross functional teams.
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For 22.64% of libraries sampled, only senior library leadership could create cross functional teams.
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Colleges in higher tuition ranges were more likely than those in lower ranges to view cross functional teams as critical to their mission.