Susanna M. Cowan

I've inhabited several roles in higher ed at this point in my professional life: student/grad student/researcher, teacher, non-library administrator, and librarian. Moving in and out of these different campus identities has helped me see the degree to which our day-to-day worlds greatly overlap, but also the ways in which we move in parallel ways that don't always connect neatly. The more silos we bust in higher ed (I believe), the greater the outcomes will be for our academic communities. But for historical and practical (only so much time in the day to get things done) reasons, we spend most of our professional time in our "lanes." Especially in larger institutions, librarians often have minimal contact with the many offices in student affairs, enrollment management & planning, and academic affairs that do the work students (for example) interact with daily, from dorms and dining halls to financial aid and advising. At smaller institutions, silos are less prominent - and I think there's something there we could all learn from. At small libraries, for example, librarians often wear many hats - at larger ones, specializations and unit/team functional territories often result in great output and accomplishment, but also (perhaps) get in our way sometimes. In my role as an assessment librarian, I'm always looking across those lines at "the library" and its impact - and also at "the library" as a culture/organization. We do amazing things, but more energy devoted to silo-busting at home might go a long way to taking us even further within our libraries, and it might also further empower us to minimize the barriers between our work and that of our natural partners outside the library.