Collaborative Design - Collaborative Technologies and Applications for Interactive Information Design - page 213

Figure 4. Perception of interactive processes

satisfying relationships with library staff, whose
work has also been transformed in the process.

The figure illustrates the workplace learn-
ing enabled by SSM rethinking activities. For
instance, the librarians refer to themselves as
Knowledge Managers (KMs). They reside in the
same circle as RISE 2, an enlarged group of in-
formation and instructional services support staff
whose transformation processes were reported in
the earlier section. To the right, the importance
of relationships with students and faculty are
recognized. Another circle indicates the need to
also serve the community. The drawing on the
left indicates recognition that both these groups,
librarians/knowledge managers and research
information and instructional services/support
staff, interact with (increasingly digital) infor-
mation resources which, the left most drawing
illustrates, are acquired and organized by collec-
tion development and bibliographic services staff
and made accessible by information technology
specialists. Finally, at the top of the figure, the
relationships with university administrators,
campus information technologists, and library
leaders are acknowledged, as is the California
State University (CSU) system in which Cal

orgAnizAtionAl leArning
Assessment

In an evaluation session held at the end of this three
year action research study, the external consul-
tant invited all library participants to apply 'soft'
systems principles and practices to depict their
enlarged workplace context. Their conceptions
were captured in visual SSM-like drawings which
provided a common reference for renegotiating
increasingly more complex and better contextual-
ized organizational effectiveness, as well as larger
boundaries of influence and concern. Illustrative
of the renderings, the Rich Picture in Figure 4
presents an enterprise level l model of university
interactions—including consideration of what
parts and relations to include—e.g., hierarchical
levels, main processes, primary beneficiaries,
relevant perspectives, and leading questions.