Breaking Down Silo Walls: Successful Collaboration Across Library Departments

Library work has historically been organized into silos - public services, technical services, and administration. Shifting trends, technology, and staff changes, however, are necessitating that organizations adapt to the current needs of their users. Given these new requirements, the traditional library silos create unnecessary barriers to collaboration across departments. Silos must be broken down if libraries are to operate successfully in today’s information environment. This article discusses how to identify problems and resistance, the benefits to breaking down silos, and offers recommended methods for collaboration that help remove the silo mindset to create a holistic library mindset.