Library News for the Faculty

From University Librarian Gary E. Strong

Along with schools, departments, and programs across the campus, the Library is in the midst of a strategic planning process intended to guide our activities for the next several years. As I enter my third year at UCLA, I find this a particularly exciting process for several reasons.

One, with the UC system emerging from the financial difficulties it has faced over the past several years, now is an ideal time to assess our position and plan for the future. And two, the constant, rapid pace of change in the online environment demands that the Library create an equally flexible structure to anticipate and accommodate new models of information and service delivery.

Our planning centers on four priorities that define the Library's place at the university's academic heart and that support all aspects of UCLA's mission of teaching, research, and service.

One priority is building and enhancing research collections to ensure that they continue to meet the teaching and research needs of UCLA faculty and students. The Library has just added its eight millionth volume, but our future planning must acknowledge budgetary and space imperatives along with changes in the format and distribution of scholarly output.

A second priority is to enhance services. This involves working closely with our users to understand how they use the Library and what their needs are, and it also requires transforming our institutional organization to be able to respond rapidly to these changing needs and usage patterns.

A third priority focuses on our information literacy efforts. Working collaboratively with faculty to strengthen undergraduate students' basic information research skills, we have created adjunct courses; interactive, online tutorials; and library instruction integrated into a major. But we want to expand our efforts to assist even more faculty and departments.

And the fourth priority targets the Library as a physical place. We may be rapidly expanding our online resources and services, but our turnstile counts show no sign of decreasing usage of our facilities. And changing patterns in pedagogy require innovative spaces for learning and group study along with space for collections, research, and individual study.

The Library's strategic plan will be completed in mid-November, and I look forward to sharing details about it with you in the winter issue of Library News for the Faculty. In the meantime, if you have thoughts or questions that we should consider as part of this process, please contact me by telephone at extension 51201 or by email.