Tales from the Other Side: Librarians and Vendors Get Real

Abstract

Three professionals who have worked as vendors and as librarians throughout their careers discussed overlapping competencies for both roles. These were outlined as adaptive negotiation, managing and prioritizing tasks, optimizing the library/vendor partnership, coping with unique stressors, understanding how to frame your own career, clear communication and expectation setting, recognizing patterns and adapting, and empathy. The presenters encouraged listeners to move beyond understanding the relationship between librarians and vendors as adversarial or as one of simply buying and selling products. They advocated instead to think of the relationship as one of mutual respect and collaboration, where people in both roles share common goals of delivering excellent customer service.