Between Kazakhstan and Kansas: Library Collaboration Across Steppe and Plains
At a moment when international collaboration is increasingly shaped by unequal infrastructures, shifting political conditions, and limited resources, how do academic libraries continue to build meaningful connections across borders? This talk explores that question through the lens of the author’s work with the Institute for Globally Engaged Librarianship at the University of Kansas and its collaborations with partners across Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
The talk examines how cross-border work takes shape through concrete practices: visiting scholar exchanges, workshops and conferences, collaborative digital projects, and institutional partnerships. It highlights how these efforts are shaped not only by shared goals, but also by disparities in funding, technologies, and institutional capacity, which affect who is able to participate and on what terms.
The talk argues that library-based international collaboration is less a set of tools or programs than an ongoing practice of relationship-building amid unequal conditions. Libraries, in this sense, are not only places that organize and provide access to knowledge, but also institutions that help sustain trust, continuity, and long-term connection.
Drawing on examples from work across different global regions, the talk reflects on what it means to sustain collaboration across distance today—and how the concept of the “steppe and plains” can help us think about shared landscapes of knowledge work that are distinct yet connected.