Dorothy Stoltz - Inspired Collaboration: Ideas for Discovering and Applying Your Potential

Hey pardner, are you ready to journey into a new territoryto expand your collaborative capabilities and capacity beyond your current thinking? The word partner means joint holder in old French. In Proto-Germanic, it was skipam, meaning ship or boat. You might say were all in the same boator raft. However, the Proto-Indo-European root for ship or skei means to cut or splitas in cutting through the water. You could also make a case that each holder or partner is responsible for cutting or shaping a collaborative effort into a vessel for smooth sailing. We dont want to be ships that pass in the night. We do want to run a tight ship to create an effective partnership.

The ultimate partnership is between us (the authors) and the readerto translate practical programs into your day-to-day library service. Only you the reader can translate our ideas, make them your own, and put them into pragmatic service for your library.

As for this book, Dorothy Stoltz, head of programming and outreach at Carroll County (MD) Public Library, delights in telling how Kathleen Reif, director of St. Marys County (MD) Library, and Stephanie Shauck, youth services consultant (retired) at the Maryland State Library division, mentored her in the late 1990s to become an early literacy advocate. Putting a fire under Dorothy in Carroll Countyand many librarians across MarylandKathleen and Stephanie shaped libraries to exemplify the nationally acclaimed Zero to Threes description of the library as a natural community partner. Dorothy met Susan Mitchell in 2001, when Sue began her post as Carroll County Judy Center director, the school systems early learning prototype. Carroll Countys early childhood collaboration won three awards in recent years: Maryland Department of Education Judy Center Statewide Award for Most Improved Partnership (2008), Maryland Department of Education Judy Center Statewide Award for Innovation (2010), and the National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Award for Innovative Programming and Collaboration (2010). They all joined forces with Dr. Rolf Grafwallner, who has led the way in Maryland from his position as assistant state superintendent for a statewide early childhood education priority. Todays new and changing media, such as e-books and apps, offer unprecedented opportunities for early learning if grown-ups use the media as a tool to interact with young children. Cen Campbell, founder of LittleeLit.com, came on board to help our crew navigate the high seas of young children and new media.

Although our collective experience has focused in large part on early childhood initiatives, in this book we offer methods, strategies, and principles of collaboration that can apply to all age groups and aspects of the community.

With a tip of our Stetson to the Backyardigans, lets take a peek at a Texas adventure that can teach us something about collaboration.

Three cowpokes were enjoying a lazy day floating down a river on a raft:

Three musical instruments are better than one! Cowboy Joshua exclaimed. Together we could form a country folkjazz trio and throw in a little Piedmont blues.

What a terrific idea! Cowgirl Amber cheered as she plunked out a tune on her mandolin.

Hey, it looks like trouble downstream, Cowboy Colton alerted them. They were headed right for a waterfall!

The cowpokes worked together to lasso a tree branch. Then they helped one another climb from the raft to the river bankbut there wasnt time to rescue their instruments.

Our instruments are lost, but Im glad youre here, pardners, said Cowboy Joshua.

We make a laudable team, amigos, Cowboy Colton agreed. And we can still make it to the Longhorn Saloon for tonights dance.

At the Longhorn Saloon, the cowpokes discovered their instruments were ready for them on stage. Our friends must have found them floating in the river and brought them here! Cowgirl Amber exclaimed.

Joshua, Colton, and Amber picked up their instruments and began to play Nickel Creeks Elephant in the Corn.

The lesson to be learned in this story is how this group of three cowpokes had to rely on their own skills and courage, lean on each other for help, and depend on others outside their group. They ended up playing their musical instruments at the dance because of the help of friends outside their group. Collaborating with other people outside the library to do our best work is what this book is about.

Many libraries are not used to collaborating to the extent necessary to remain relevant for the next three hundred years. As you read, look for the potential within your situationno matter your starting pointto create a practical yet extraordinary and inspiring collaboration where individuals and families become self-reliant and flourish. To thrive is a communitys overarching goal. A library misses its full potential if it does not play a central role in helping a community shine.