This report outlines the findings of the University of Iowa (UI) Executive Leadership Academy – Higher Education (ELA) project team GLAM1 during the 2017-18 academic year. Team GLAM was charged by the UI Stanley Museum of Art Interim Chair James Leach and UI Librarian John Culshaw with investigating the present state and potential of new collaboration between the Stanley Museum and those UI Libraries with the greatest focus on the visual arts. This report provides the team’s findings, as well as its recommendations for forging new relationships and leveraging the strengths of both types of institution to transform them into places where bold experiments will generate new ideas for research, teaching, and service. Based on our discussions, research, site visits, interviews, and ideation sessions held between October 2017 and April 2018, team GLAM recommends implementation of the following five broad collaborative practices. Full details around these recommendations can be found on pps. 18-20 in the final report: Establish a formal GLAM committee that is empowered to shape an environment on campus where GLAM can flourish and be sustained. Increase opportunities for collaborations across staff positions. Reward and recognize staff and faculty who actively and productively collaborate in GLAM research, teaching, and service activities. Identify and proactively pursue grants and other funding opportunities that support collaborative activities across GLAM. Invest in digitization and joint technologies related to accessibility and discovery.
GLAM on the UI campus faces enormous budgetary, technology, and other environmental challenges that are most effectively addressed by broader collaboration across campus, beyond traditional organizational structures and disciplines. By strengthening current collaborations while seeking new ones across campus, the Stanley Museum of Art and the UI Libraries can leverage the strengths of both entities and advance their missions in service of UI’s broader strategic goals
