Dean’s Corner: Collaborating at Home and Abroad

One of UC Libraries’ greatest strengths is its partnerships and collaborations. On or off campus, at home or abroad, the Libraries are always looking for opportunities to forge new relationships, while engaging in the university’s global agenda. As library dean I am fortunate enough to be involved with many of these relationships from their infancy.

This spring I traveled to China with UC’s Provost Kristi Nelson and Vice Provost for International Affairs Raj Mehta to visit Beijing Jiaotong University and Shandong University. In my role as Special Advisor to the Provost on China Initiatives, I have traveled to China on many occasions with various members of UC’s senior leadership, assisting in UC’s China engagement. More often than not, these trips include tours of university libraries (see the picture on the bottom left corner of Provost Nelson and me at the new Shandong University Qingdao campus library).

Pictures from China:

With 10 on-campus locations spread out across UC’s East and West Campuses, UC Libraries is an expansive operation. We are always looking for ways to foster collaboration amongst our far-flung faculty and staff, and what better way than to give each library the opportunity to share their work and space with their colleagues? “Learning About Libraries,” an internal event series coordinated by the libraries’ Office of Human Resources, does just that.

This month the faculty and staff of the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library hosted a treasure hunt to show off their new Visualization Laboratory and Data & GIS Collab, along with a couple of their special collections, like the Willis G. Meyer map collection and the Kenneth E. Caster paleontology collection.

Scenes from the Geology-Mathematics-Physics Library Learning About Libraries:

For several years now, UC Libraries has been building a partnership with the University of Botswana Library.  Here I am with the Libraries’ senior associate dean Leslie Schick and global services librarian Hong Cheng in a virtual meeting with our counterparts in Botswana.

Talking to Botswana:

UC’s College of Nursing is currently engaged with a Chinese Company, Cosmos, on a joint international nursing education program. I have assisted nursing Dean Greer Glazer and her senior team in many of the core business negotiations. Last year I traveled with Dean Glazer to China to participate in the Cosmos-sponsored International Specialty Nursing Education Conference in Hangzhou, China.

From the UC College of Nursing: