Five Year Program
Plan
2005-2010
A. Vision
and Goals:
Vision:
The
Goal 1: The
Evolving Collection: Blending Access, Ownership, and Preservation – The modern library collection is
a mix of traditional print and a growing body of electronic publications. Our challenge is providing the best blend of
these resources in a package that is easily understood and used.
Goal 2: The Teaching Library:
Building Partnerships – The complexity of modern information technology has
required librarians to expand our original role as custodians of books. We need to continue to actively seek
opportunities to interact with faculty and students and collaborate with them
at all stages of the learning process and with all sources and formats of
information.
Goal 3: The Strengthened
Heart of the University: Library Buildings – Even with increased electronic resources, the library as a place is
critical in higher education, as evidenced by the
Goal 4: The Empowered Staff:
Investing in the Staff and Faculty of the Libraries – Librarians, archivists, IT professionals, and other staff provide
services and programs that are as vital as the collection to the mission of the
University. We need to ensure that this
valuable group is trained, compensated, and given the resources they need.
External Factors:
·
Global
economic effects on the scholarly publishing industry are
reducing the role of small publishing companies and learned societies in favor
of large publishing conglomerates
that fuel escalating costs to libraries.
·
Faculty and researchers have been slow to accept attempts to make scholarly work available in a free and
timely manner, such as the Open Access Initiative.
·
Narrow interpretation of the “fair use” copyright principle by commercial publishers/vendors is restricting libraries in
the access and use they can provide their patrons from these commercially
provided research materials.
·
New information technology provides opportunities to connect the University community to the information it
needs regardless of time of day or physical location. Yet this same technology places strains on
library budgets and staff making it difficult to meet the demands of library users. Products from well funded
commercial search engines raise users’ expectations of library search engines.
·
Digital technology allows us to generate visibility and
prestige for the University by highlighting
faculty research and unique special collections via the Web.
·
Through a leadership role in the statewide GALILEO project and other partnerships, the Libraries benefit from consortia
pricing for some electronic resources and receive central funding for digital
conversion activities.
·
The rapidly evolving need for assessment and accountability requires libraries to become increasingly accountable for
their use of funding to support collections, programs and services.
·
The small pool of highly qualified librarians and staff creates intense competition both locally and nationwide,
creating pressure on salaries.
·
Actions and decisions of the state legislature and Board of
Regents affect the Libraries’ ability to develop
and sustain long range plans.
·
Worldwide inflation and devaluation of the dollar in
international markets lessens the buying
power of the Libraries.
B. Program
Priorities:
Goal 1: The
Evolving Collection: Blending Access, Ownership, and Preservation
Priority: Strike the
optimum blend of electronic and print resources to support the research,
teaching and service missions of the University, including the expansion of
locally created digital collections and the preservation of existing
collections and materials.
Resources needed:
·
Funding to acquire the electronic and print resources needed to support
instruction and research, including adequate annual inflationary increases. The flow of information is as vital to the
University as the flow of power and water and, as such, should be treated as a
utility. (Needed: $2M increased funding plus 5% for inflation
in subsequent years.)
·
Continued funding for efforts to digitize important scholarly
resources, supplemented by external grants.
·
Increased funding for preservation of critical and unique materials,
especially in our broadcasting and media collections.
Goal 2: The
Teaching Library: Building Partnerships
Priority: Expand our role as a teaching
library by actively instructing students and assisting faculty in the
utilization of information resources using face-to-face contact and advanced technology to improve computer
interfaces.
Resources needed:
·
University policies that support a teaching role for the
Libraries.
·
Partnerships with teaching faculty to promote increased
library instruction.
·
Additional librarians assigned to instruction.
·
Funding for software tools that make access to library
resources as simple and direct as possible.
Goal 3: The
Strengthened Heart of the University: Library Buildings
Priority: Construct or renovate facilities to support the Libraries’
programs, including:
·
Construct the
·
Enhance existing facilities to provide improved study space.
·
Explore private funding for a Fine Arts Library.
Resources needed:
·
State funding for the
·
·
Use private funds to develop
preliminary plans for a Fine Arts Library that can be used to explore the
potential for private funding.
Goal 4: The
Empowered Staff: Investing in the Staff and Faculty of the Libraries
Priority: Invest in the Libraries’ faculty and staff to ensure their retention and
provide opportunities for their professional growth. This investment includes providing
competitive salaries to attract and/or retain the best, providing a wide range
of training opportunities, enhancing the work environment, and ensuring that
people have the resources they need to perform to the best of their abilities.
Resources needed:
·
Increases for
salaries to ensure that we recruit and maintain the best available staff.
·
Adequate funding
of the training and travel budgets.
·
Funding for
equipment, supplies and software to support the best possible work practices.
C. Individually Selected Performance Measures:
Goal 1: The
Evolving Collection: Blending Access, Ownership, and Preservation
Objective: Ensure an adequate budget to support the evolving collection.
Measures: Base increases to budget and total expenditures; private
donations; ratio of GALILEO funded databases to UGA funded databases; serials/monographs/electronic
expenditures; compare additions to collections of UGA Libraries with other
Objective: Digitize and store book, image, manuscript, media, and
institutional collections.
Measures: Number of digital objects created on annual basis; number
and amount of grant money awarded; staff time spent on digitization;
participation in number of cooperative digital projects in which UGA is a
participant.
Objective: Provide information resources in formats that maximize their
accessibility, ease of use, and long-term availability.
Measures: LibQUAL, user
surveys; focus groups.
Objective: Integrate access to resources.
Measures: LibQUAL and focus groups to monitor on-line needs/desires of
faculty and students; number of staff devoted to in-house programming for
improved access; commercial software packages purchased to enhance access.
Goal 2: The
Teaching Library: Building Partnerships
Objective: Increase information literacy instruction classes.
Measures: Number of classes that are taught, subjects covered,
students attending and their classification, evaluations received at end of
class.
Objective: Develop teaching partnerships with faculty.
Measures: Librarian/Faculty contacts, joint projects initiated and or
completed successfully; number of faculty requesting BI instruction for their
classes.
Objective: Improve database interfaces to promote user self-sufficiency.
Measures: Offer federated searching; utilize LibQUAL and focus groups
to determine user needs.
Goal 3: The
Strengthened Heart of the University: Library Buildings
Objective: Design and construct the
Measures: Standing on new buildings list; amount of money raised
through private donations.
Objective: Renovate the first floors of the
Measures: Funding allocated for renovation; staff time spent devoted
to cost studies and plans for renovation.
Goal 4: The
Empowered Staff: Investing in the Staff and Faculty of the Libraries
Objective: Compensation – recruit and retain faculty and staff who are
collaborative, creative, and student centered.
Measures:
Objective: Staff development – provide a training and development
program that promotes organizational and individual objectives.
Measures: number of staff attending training or professional programs,
workshops, etc.; number of staff attending web
conferences; number of professional development programs offered to staff by
the Libraries.
D.
Institutional Level Performance Measures:
1. Demand for
Library Programs (external/internal):
·
Circulation and
entry statistics.
·
Interlibrary borrowing/lending
statistics.
·
Statistics tracking
use of electronic resources.
·
Growth in
Development activities and endowment funds, measured annually.
·
Reference
questions asked.
2. Quality of Library Program Outcomes:
·
·
LibQUAL assessment
of user satisfaction.
·
Use of
3. Productivity and Impact of Library Program:
·
Departmental
report statistics (circulation counts, reference questions, volumes added to
collection, etc.).
·
Bibliographic
Instruction sessions.
·
Library Web
statistics.
·
Grants received.
4. Justification and Overall Essentiality of the Library
Program.
The creation and advancement of knowledge is the essential
role of the University. This obviously
requires access to recorded knowledge, which is the essential mission of the
Libraries. The performance measures
enumerated above will demonstrate the Libraries impact on the University’s
missions and goals.
Building
the New Learning Environment -- Providing information, assistance, and
resources in both physical and virtual formats demonstrates new approach to
learning. The
Research
Investment -- Providing students and faculty with the best possible
resources enables faculty to become leaders in their fields of research and
students to develop confidence in the knowledge that is available to them.
Competing
in a Global Economy -- Our collections and resources provide for the diversity of
research in a global community.
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