1. Name of Nominee(s): The Dixie Chicks (Emily, Martie, Natalie)

7. Which award area are you nominating this individual or team for?    You may check more than one award area.

___ Innovation and Creativity
___ Communication and Collaboration
_x_ Results, Outcome, and Productivity
___ Community

8. Describe the nominees' contribution, and how, specifically, this work relates to the criteria and descriptions of this award. If you checked off more than one award area above, please comment specifically on contributions in each award area checked off.

The Dixie Chicks is a responsive and collaborative unit within [department/library], working effectively with all the members of the staff of both libraries and with each other. Each member of the [group] is responsive to individual requests for assistance and at the same time the [group] as a whole is responsive to requests for work on bigger collections projects. You can ask any member of the [group] or the whole [group] and the results are the same, the question or issue or project is done quickly and efficiently and with a smile. It is obvious that all the members enjoy working with each other and are committed to high quality outcomes. And that commitment is translated into high quality results.

As has been typical since their inception, the [group] has been highly productive again this year, working on, among other things, a storage project, a basement shifting project, a JSTOR storage project, a working papers project, the impulse borrowing collection, and cleaning up the journal use study database. And all of this was done while at the same time processing enormous amounts of serial and monographic materials and supporting the collections work of librarians.

As a team, the [group] takes its self-management very seriously, working together to manage projects, to do training and cross-training, to hire new members, and regularly assess their own progress. One of the most impressive things about the [group], is that they encourage and support all team members in taking on leadership roles for various work efforts. They really want all of their members to develop leadership and project management skills. This makes the [group] stronger and more productive over time and gives staff members new and useful skills.

Although the [group's] work seems to be focused internally and on internal customers, in fact their outlook is always to make what they do contribute to a better experience for library users. When they do a storage project, they are aware of the need of signage and communication to users. When one member is asked about a confusing journal entry in Aleph/Barton, they try to clear it up so that users will be able to interpret the information. They know that supporting our collections, our collections work and other staff in the work they do, they directly contribute to the productivity of our users.

Lastly, the [group] is very involved in helping processing activities across the MIT Libraries continue to improve and develop. Members of the [group] are active on the Processing Committee and have served on PSMG. So they are trying to make things more efficient and productive across the Libraries system, not just in [department/library].

9. Was this contribution for a one-time/ad-hoc activity, or has this effort been continuous?

___ One-Time/Ad-hoc effort
_x_ Continuous/Ongoing effort

10. Notes/Other: The [group] is great! This group really shows that a team (with a capital
"T") can survive, and in fact thrive, in a more traditional organization.

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