The Northwest Voice

  One of the most compelling topics in the library world today is collaboration. It seems some of the largest businesses and corporations in America have already been doing this on a regular basis over the last two decades, but under another name: merger.
 
Since 1990, we have seen Exxon and Mobile unite (now called ExxonMobile); we've seen Chevron and Texaco join hands (now it's ChevronTexaco); KLM and Air France tied the knot, and so did Sprint and Nextel. The moral of all this is summed up in simple arithmetic: one plus one equals two, two plus two equals four, four plus four equals eight -- and so on. The larger the corporate number is, the greater the power and effectiveness (not to mention the profits).
 
The Kern County Library belongs to one of the largest and most impressive collaborative information systems in the state, if not the nation. The group is called the Heartland Regional Library Network, and in addition to the Kern County Library, it has some 56 other participating libraries or institutions, including public, academic, school and special libraries. This network serves six counties: Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa and Tulare. They produce a number of scholarly publications and have a Internet Virtual Catalog.
 
One of the main missions of the Heartland network is to facilitate cooperation and to enhance the sharing of resources among its members. Some other area partners include the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, California State University Bakersfield, the Kern County Law Library, the Kern County Medical Center Library and Cerro Coso Community College in Ridgecrest. It's encouraging to know any library card carrying citizen in our community can have immediate access to this sea of information.
 
While this is a prime example of regional, city and county cooperation, collaboration can also be simplified, like a fraction, to involve teachers and librarians within the same building. In fact, some of the greatest teaching and learning fun I've ever had was accomplished last school year through a project I developed with a local Northwest art teacher in middle school. This project was called "The Great Art Odyssey of 2004." Fifty-six students participated in the six-week project, and believe it or not, most of them enjoyed it.
 
Although this project has already been created and executed, there may be some readers in the community that would like to use it--and we are willing to share. Educators must be just as willing to form partnerships, mergers and collaboratives as anyone else. For more information, e-mail me at readingmobile@fastmail.fm.