Why Would I Share?

Abstract

Cultures of sharing and collaboration are essential to supporting instruction practices, yet there is limited literature on how these cultures are successfully cultivated in libraries. In this paper, I explore cultures of sharing and collaboration among instruction librarians in Canadian academic libraries. I report on a series of semi-structured interviews (n=14) I conducted with librarians who support or provide information literacy at their institutions. The interview data was reviewed using a thematic analysis approach (Braun and Clark 2022) and coded in NVivo. I explore the barriers and supports to sharing and collaboration as documented in the interviews. Barriers include a) instructional silos caused by the liaison model; (b) a lack of trust in sharing one’s teaching with colleagues; (c) the lack of prioritizing instruction in institutions; and (d) limited time to engage in collaborative work. The supports for sharing and collaboration include (a) intentionally building personal relationships, (b) developing a structure for sharing, and (c) having dedicated time for collaborative work. Based on these findings, practical ways sharing and collaboration can be cultivated in libraries will be explored.