As a result, library staff are required to be more agile and creative in responding to a growing number of challenges in the technological environment, parent institution programs, and available resources. Whether ARL libraries are mounting electronic reserve systems, supporting distance learning programs, or making collections dollars stretch farther, there is a strong movement toward meeting these challenges through new and more intense collaborations, both within the library and externally with partners. Inside the library organization, a significant trend appears to be toward the use of teams, occasionally manifesting itself in the form of a totally team-based reorganization. The purpose of this SPEC survey was to get a more specific sense of this apparent trend and study how extensively ARL libraries are either making selective use of teams or reorganizing into team-based organizations. The survey results indicate that teams are at least being experimented with in most ARL Libraries.
Most libraries also have cross-functional teams.
This SPEC Kit, however, focuses on teams as a permanent organizational mode. Seventy-two percent of the responding organizations have had teams for five years or less, suggesting tremendous recent growth. The number of teams reported in any single organization ranges from one to 29, with an average of eight. Teams are used for a variety of purposes, covering almost every function in the library. More than half of the libraries have instituted special training for staff related to teams.