French academic libraries: acting and supporting for the digital transformation of pedagogy, research and documentation in higher education

Abstract

The French academic library managers association (adbu) is now identified in the French higher education landscape as a key-partner in order to help any librarian who wishes to engage digital transforming processes by implementing similar workshops in his/her institution, consistent with national orientations.

Context: In 2016, the French Conseil national du numérique (CNNum) organized collaborative workshops on a design-thinking model, in which the French Association for academic libraries Directors and managers was acting as both a partner and a DIY-workshop kit tester.

National advocacy and leverage: following the partnership with the CNNum and this librarian-designed workshop, adbu provided CNNum with comments, suggestions and points of vigilance from library professionals, with a view to integrating in the best manner the human resources and action repository for transforming pedagogy/research/documentation digital policy and practices in both the local and national French higher education.

This framework (transformation repository and DIY kit for setting up a collaborative workshop in one’s working environment/institution) was presented to the Secretary of State in charge of Higher Education and Research, Mr. Thierry Mandon, on December 14, 2016, along with the the co-design methods of these collaborative and reproducible workshops.

Local pollinating: the adbu cross-pollinated this collaborative workshop model aiming at engaging digital transformation processes at a local level, considering that each and every librarian has all the potential needed to act as an incentive and a facilitator in his or her institution. You will find the restitution in images of the adbu workshop that took place on December 7, 2016 on https://padlet.com/AdbuPedagogie/TransfoNumeriqueESR . Various papers and posts were published in France about this initiative.

Today, some academic libraries started working on a local institutional background : they suggested and impulsed collaborative meetings and workshops in order to enhance or accelerate their institutional digital transformation.