THINKING OUTSIDE THE BORDERS:

Library Leadership in a World Community

The second “Thinking Outside the Borders” library leadership institute took place November 7-10, 2006, at Allerton Park Conference Center in Monticello, Illinois. This year’s institute brought together 15 librarians from Canada, Mexico, and Latin America with 15 of their U.S. colleagues and 2 others from South Africa. The agenda included presentations and small-group work on leadership issues affecting all librarians, including cross-cultural communication. The group had a wonderful experience, enjoying the beautiful fall weather and Allerton Park grounds in between institute sessions and lively discussions. Our distinguished panel of presenters included Carol Brey-Casiano, El Paso Public Library; Tom Clareson, PALINET; Mary Ann Mavrinac, University of Toronto Mississauga; Sandra Rios Balderrama, RiosBalderrama Consulting; Ujala Satgoor, University of Pretoria (South Africa); Susan Schnuer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Tom Teper, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Harry Triandis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The Mexican and Latin American librarians also visited the Mortenson Center and the Illinois State Library for two weeks of technology training prior to the retreat at Allerton Park. The technology training program included a trip to Dublin, Ohio, to visit OCLC, OhioLINK (a consortium of Ohio’s college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio), and the technologically innovative Westerville Public Library.

“Thinking Outside the Borders” goes on the road to Arizona in February 2007 and to Nebraska in October 2007, which will complete the three-year grant. As the grant ends, training “modules” will be developed and refined by our presenters so that libraries anywhere in the world can conduct similar leadership institutes on their own.

List of participants

Presentations given at conference