摘要：Antelman, Kristin and Mona Couts, “Em-bracing Ambiguity ... or Not: What the Tri-angle Research Libraries Network Learned about Collaboration” College & Research Li-braries News, Vol. 70, no. 4 (April 2009): 230-233. http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publica-tions/crlnews/2009/apr/ambiguity.cfm The Triangle Research Libraries Net-work (TRLN) consisting of Duke Uni-versity, North Carolina Central Univer-sity, and the University of North Caroli-na-Chapel Hill represents one of the longest (since the 1930s) and very suc-cessful library collaborations in the United States—this despite the absence of a union catalog. A plan to create this missing important piece of the collabo-ration mosaic was started in 2006 and led to the launch of the union catalog, “Search TRLN,” in 2008. In the process, a few things were learned about colla-boration. First, relationships matter. This begins with knowing and trusting the partners involved and developing relationships at all levels of the library organization. Second, build on a simple and clear ob-jective. Third, use the sense of urgency to propel collaboration forward. Fourth, balance a focus on both “us” and “me.” Fifth, agree to share the risks. Sixth, be willing to sacrifice some autonomy. Se-venth, share the work load according to roles and skills of the partners. Eighth, know how to set goals but exercise flex-ibility in developing work strategies. In most, if not all, of these lessons learned, it became clear that an essential quality of all the partners was to be comfortable with ambiguity while also knowing when too much ambiguity really is too much. Brown, Ladd, “E-Journal Workflow, Staff-ing, and Collaboration in Technical Services: a Taste for Coffee, a Tolerance for Ambigui-ty, and a Happy Ending” in E-Journals Access and Management. Wayne Jones, Ed. New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 289-302.
