Strategic plan overview
The Libraries initiated its strategic plan in 2020, built on a continuous improvement model and using the Appreciative Inquiry framework. In 2024, following a comprehensive library-wide assessment of surveys and departmental meetings, we:
- Refined the wording of our vision, mission, and goals for clarity and combined similar goals
- Added a goal: “Drive Organizational Excellence through Continuous Improvement”
- Removed operationalized priorities from the plan
- Updated our strategic priorities
The Strategic Planning Advisory Group, Library Leadership, and Library Administration made minor revisions to the Strategic Plan, Mission, and Vision in 2026.
All library employees support our goals through ongoing work integrated into daily operations, individual goals, or focused within specific units. The priorities outlined under each strategic goal in this plan serve a distinct purpose. They highlight areas where cross-unit collaboration is crucial, identifying key initiatives that require dedicated time and resources at the library-wide level. The Strategic Planning Advisory Group will form tactical task forces to advance these priorities, ensuring focused and efficient progress.
Vision and mission
Vision
Equitable access to and engagement with diverse knowledge sources that foster expansive learning, intellectual growth, and transformative discoveries.
Mission
We partner with people on their journey to academic success, lifelong learning, community engagement, and excellence in research, creative artistry, and scholarship. Together, we expand access to knowledge, navigate and evaluate information systems, highlight diverse lived experiences, explore possibilities, and work toward a more sustainable, equitable, and just society.
Strategic goals and priorities
Bolster student success and life-long information literacy skills
- Partner with stakeholders to integrate support for information and AI literacy in course curriculum and university learning outcomes.
- Collaborate on University initiatives to reduce student achievement gaps and support student success.
Boost equitable access to knowledge
- Streamline discovery of library resources to enhance user experience.
- Ensure accessibility and universal design in library-created materials and advocate for accessibility of licensed collections and interfaces in accordance with federal and state compliance requirements.
- Create responsive library spaces that accommodate user needs.
Empower interdisciplinary research, scholarship, and artistry
- Lead collaborative efforts with University partners to ensure compliance with federal requirements for publicly available information and resources, which include specific attention to research identifiers (ORCIDs) and permanent resource identifiers.
- Develop services and programs that advance university priorities to demonstrate the societal and disciplinary impact of research, scholarship, and creative works.
Champion employee growth and well-being
- Strengthen leadership practices that enable employees and teams, including student workers, to grow, adapt, and thrive in an evolving work environment.
- Cultivate a culture of ongoing development, including exploration of emerging technologies, curiosity, and dialogue across differences, to foster continuous learning, adaptability, collaboration, and a sense of belonging.
Drive organizational excellence through continuous improvement
- Advance data-informed decision-making to strengthen the impact, relevance, and sustainability of library services, collections, and programs.
- Regularly evaluate and optimize workflows and services, incorporating new processes, tools, and technologies aligned with library values to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and user experience.