Jane Lawless

Background

About Jane Lawless

I most enjoy working with a motivated team on collaborative creative work. The more types of collaborators and the more varied the tasks involved, the better. I am inspired by working with others to identify critical elements, synthesize evidence and ideas, and create useful tools to support implementation. Some recent examples of collaborative efforts include: • With fellow library faculty and college administrators, developing an information literacy program (curriculum, learning outcomes, and assessment) that integrates with the College General Education programs, and with majors in the disciplines. • Implementing new discovery and link resolver software with a team of technical services librarians. • Revising research instruction, including development of focused online tools, with members of the Community Health Nursing faculty. This project resulted in a poster presentation and an ongoing writing collaboration. In these and other projects, I am fascinated to see how our collective knowledge is so much greater than the sum of our parts; and ways in which this process requires trust and directness if it is to succeed. I am a person who is happiest when moving between a high level view of a subject, and engaging in detailed work. Both views are important to my sense of satisfaction. My hands-on experience with the multiplicity of tasks involved in electronic resource management helped me design a new workflow that integrates and empowers liaison librarians, supporting development of new competencies while identifying tasks that can be discontinued. I benefit from a mix of working alone and working with others. In my experience clear communication, written and oral, is central to successful work environment, not easy to achieve, but well worth the effort. Although most of my adult work experience is in libraries, I believe my skills in project management, planning and assessment are highly transferrable.