Finding that special someone: modeling collaboration in an academic context

Journal of Education for Library and Information ScienceAs research collaboration in academia has increased over the past century, we now see a similar increase in collaboration across disciplinary boundaries, particularly in the field of library and information science, a field that has long been viewed as highly multidisciplinary. This increase is driven by the pressures on faculty seeking career advancement and also by the challenges faced by the scientific community that require teams of researchers with complementary skills. Finding the solutions to today’s research problems can require increased integration of research; a move from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary research. This work examines collaboration as it is studied from several disciplinary perspectives to lay the groundwork for a better understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration and the challenges it presents. It also provides a pathway for LIS educators to harness the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration and to advance research and teaching in the field