Library team believes in its mission

This story is part of The Well’s series showcasing employees who work well together to further Carolina’s mission.

When The Well talked to the organizational experts at Kenan-Flagler Business School about teamwork, they emphasized these four pillars: identification with group and mission, trust, distributed expertise and shared leadership.

Building these pillars takes time and lots of positive interactions as a team, they said. For the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center, also known as DigitalNC, that means dedication to their mission as well as time for taste-testing Oreos and sharing pet photos. The team — eight University Libraries employees in the Wilson Special Collections Library in Chapel Hill plus three Elizabeth City State University employees in a satellite office — are there for the work and for each other.

They work hard to preserve the state’s heritage. They have digitized more than 630,000 newspapers, yearbooks, photos and other items from 320 partners in all 100 counties. Nearly half a million people visited the online DigitalNC archive last year alone.

This shared purpose binds the team, a bond strengthened by the way they interact. They swap childhood memories and talk about what makes them happy. They’re honest with each other.

“It’s such a great team,” said Kristen Merryman, digital projects librarian. “You can be transparent about what’s going on, and you know you’re going to receive empathy and support.”

That mutual respect radiates out to the center’s relationship with its partners statewide, team members said. In April, the Office of the Provost recognized their partnership with the State Library of North Carolina with an Engaged Scholarship Award.

Nominator Judy Panitch, director of library communications, praised the staff’s generosity, openness and inclusion. “No partner is too small; no document too minor; no user unimportant,” she wrote. “NCDHC’s values include the belief that ‘community history and culture have the power to enrich the lives of all North Carolinians.’ Every aspect of the program enables and promotes these encounters.”

Flanked by Provost Chris Clemens and Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, Lisa Gregory accepts the Office of the Provost’s Engaged Scholarship Award. (Alexander Saunders/Carolina Center for Public Service)

Mission and more

DigitalNC is serious about its mission and has set these 2023-25 strategic goals: collaborative work ethic, inclusive and diverse collections, accessible and engaging content and expanded newspaper collection. As the Kenan-Flagler experts said, this shared identification with the mission strengthens the team.

“Our mission is to support cultural heritage organizations around the state in their goals for access to their collections,” said Lisa Gregory, the program coordinator who supervises the team. “Everyone who works for the center has a passion for access to information and the cultural heritage mission. That helps make us a strong team.”

Lisa Gregory scans documents in Camden County. (University Libraries)

So does the distributed expertise pillar. One example was the migration of the center’s content management system, a project spearheaded by Stephanie Williams, digital projects programmer. “That’s a lot to put on one person, but I felt really comfortable doing that because Stephanie has such a long history with the center,” Gregory said. For her extra effort, Williams received a 2022 University Libraries’ Annual Excellence Award for Innovation and Problem-Solving and Customer Service.

“We don’t distribute expertise just around our group. We really believe in distributing expertise to the folks across the state,” said Merryman, who oversees the center’s day-to-day scanning and metadata creation operations as well as social media and the blog. “Our partners are the experts of their content, and we are just here to facilitate.”

The satellite office in Elizabeth City is also building those connections, said Vicky Tillett, the digitization services operator there. “The connections we make with the partners have grown.”

Importance of trust, empowerment

The teamwork pillar of trust threads through all the others, according to the team, and extends from top library leadership and the center’s major funders all the way to individual work arrangements.

In a Twitter post, DigitalNC shares a glimpse #BehindTheScenes as the team preps over 150 yearbooks for digitization from 10 different institutions.

“The State Library could have been extremely prescriptive about what we do. But they have shown a lot of faith in our work and a lot of trust that we know what we’re doing,” Gregory said.

Both digitization technician Ashlie Brewer and graduate assistant Sophie Hollis said their supervisors’ trust allowed them to learn new skills and integrate graduate studies requirements into their regular job duties. Others mentioned the flexibility that allows them to work remotely or on a hybrid schedule — a flexibility that they also extend to their outside partners, who may need them to pick up or scan items in the evenings or on weekends.

That trust leads naturally to shared or empowered leadership, the team said. Library leaders “get what we do and the way we operate. That’s key to our success,” Gregory said.

Gregory’s leadership is also empowering, Merryman said. “Lisa doesn’t have time to be out across the state, and she trusts me and Ashlie to be the voice for the center.”

Librarians who lunch

Because of the workplace changes wrought by COVID-19, the members of this close-knit team aren’t always in the office at the same time. But they have developed a few rituals to make sure they stay connected. One, suggested by Williams, is time set aside on Fridays to talk about “something that made you happy.”

“That’s kind of fun because we all have different interests,” said Gregory, who shared her own experience taking a painting class taught in the style of the late Bob Ross, known for his distinctive hair and soft voice.

Merryman’s idea was to ease back to in-person contact as the pandemic subsided with a team lunch once a month. At the most recent gathering, staff members munched on apple slices, carrots and pasta while sharing school talent show highlights, memories of favorite history teachers and gaming obsessions.

Instead of pursuing video game goals, Gregory has another pastime in mind for her staff. With their collective knowledge of the ephemera in the DigitalNC collection, they would be a cinch as a Tar Heel trivia team.

“We’ll take a North Carolina trivia contest by storm,” she said.