The original intent of this sabbatical was to explore the innovations and ingenuity of libraries and librarians in public four-year institutions of higher education in the intermountain states of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. The geographic area was expanded to include Alberta and Alaska.
The universities were chosen based on two criteria. Either they met a Carnegie classification of equal to or greater than 'Doctoral/Research University', or the classification of 'Large Four-Year, Primarily Nonresidential.' A roster of institutions visited is located at the bottom of this page.
The main focus of the sabbatical research was on public and distance library services, but included any extraordinary or unique solutions for services, personnel and space in any and all library areas. I was able to meet not only with public services librarians, but with librarians in technical services, administration, and collection development. The tours of the libraries were particularly informative.
For the past eight years, the Idaho State University Reference Team has been involved in reference road trips. Every year we have gone to a different library for a tour and discussion. Every year, we have brought back new ideas on how to do our jobs better. These improvements have included ideas for handouts, staffing, workshops, technology, committee assignments and even things as simple as how to better answer legal questions from the general public. Not once have we been able to set out with a clear 'we're going to find out X' plan. Instead, we go and see and learn. This sabbatical proposal was based in part on this idea. The terra incognita of the other libraries and what they might be doing that is unique, and wonderful, but so commonplace to them that they don't necessarily recognize it for an innovation. Instead of looking for a specific item such as gold, I was prospecting for any and all valuable minerals.
A literature search found lots of articles comparing different bibliographic instruction methodologies and a couple on qualifications for library jobs. No article in the past 20 years was available comparing libraries (particularly those in the West) to each other in a holistic way.
Each Library site visit included a tour and a sit down interview with librarians. It was expected that each library would do this in a slightly different way. Each institution was asked the same list of questions. Additional conversation came from ideas generated during that interview or during the tour. The questions were exploratory in nature and a one-to-one comparison of specifics (other than basic demographic type information) may not be possible. This does not make it worthless; on the contrary, it is the singular efforts of the various libraries that may be the most interesting and valuable.