Introduction
SCUBA is a collection of organizational development activities designed to help participants (“divers”) take an introspective look at their own organization and to plan for possible changes. Activities are organized into “tracks,” which guide divers from more broad conversations to more specific actions (see Tracks Explained for more information). Local organizers choose a track or set of activities to complete with their group and run those activities. Each activity has a designated form that allows divers to openly share their outputs/findings in the hopes that it will spark conversations and even allow divers to find targeted cross-institutional collaboration opportunities.
Why SCUBA?
The Big Thinking Reason: To broaden the conversation about the role of libraries in scholarly communication and the technologies we use; to dream up as many great ideas as possible for how we might tackle a set of sticky problems.
The Practical Reason: Most institutions are offering scholarly communications services, platforms, and tools, though the specifics are quite variable. Our needs overlap, but we often differ in our approaches and priorities. This is an opportune time to think more deeply about our own practices and to learn from one another.
Planning an Event
- Step 1: Define your event
- Who should be involved?
- This will likely start with people at your own organization but could expand to people doing similar things at different institutions.
- What is your goal?
- Groups don’t necessarily need a specific goal to start with, but it is recommended that they think about what they want to accomplish, even if it is as simple as getting a better understanding of what they do. As you dive deeper into other tracks, more specific goals may arise.
- Step 2: Plan your event
- Choose a track to follow or create your own combination of activities that will help you reach your goal.
- It is recommended to set aside a half day per track and choose activities accordingly. Be sure to build in flexibility in case groups want to spend more time discussing an activity and its outcomes. Note that you may complete tracks 1 and 2 in the same day, but it is recommended to space out tracks 3 and 4.
- Determine a location, date, time, etc.
- Invite people to join.
- Choose a “divemaster” (a moderator or moderators) to be in charge of running the activities and leading discussion.
- Step 3: Hold the event
- Run activities.
- Collect feedback and read about other divers’ experiences.
- Report back to the larger community via activity forms.
- Step 4: Repeat as needed/dive deeper into more advanced tracks.
Copyright
All works in the box, unless otherwise indicated, are under a CC0 1.0 license. Any activities submitted to the Box are under under a CC BY 4.0 license.
The Team
SCUBA and its core activities were originally conceived at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, but we hope that it will ultimately be the product of the scholarly communications community, not a single university or group. We thank SPARC for their help in shaping this work and providing support for its dissemination. Questions? Email us.