Strategic Plan Update Presented to CADD

A 12-month update of the University Libraries Strategic Plan (2007-2012) will be presented to the Council of Academic Deans and Directors (CADD) on October 17, 2007. We know that there has been more rapid change in information dissemination, new knowledge, and technologies in the past decade as compared to the past 100 years. We are seeing major shifts in information-seeking behaviors and expectations of our users. Immediate, anytime, anywhere access to information is only one piece of the puzzle. The other piece is remaking the libraries as campus destinations. Here we are talking about increased hours of access, wireless, additional professional services in terms of being able to ask faculty librarians questions via email and chat as well as via phone and in-person, new student academic service spaces — Writing Center, Testing Center — within the library, and ammenities, such as a cafe, that support study and research.

Over the past 12 months, we  have come to realize, more-and-more, that University Libraries retain their vital role as multi-purpose environments for study, collaboration, and research.  Additionally, the University Libraries continue to seek new partnerships such as expanding the Saint Louis University Manuscripta Conference, and creating a wide variety of intellectually stimulating exhibits such as Facsimiles of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, and the Ravenna Mosaic Exhibit. 

Expanding and improving information resources and library services is a result of continuous assessment, multi-platform communication (i.e., blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds, etc.), and clarifying real needs for these resources and services as new courses and curricula are proposed.

Achieving these much needed successes over the past year places the University Libraries on solid footing to move into the next phase of improvements.  Moving forward, we will be addressing the need to house 500,000 volumes  from three SLU libraries (Pius XII Memorial  Library, the Medical Center Library, and the Omer Poos Law Library) in a climate controlled secure facility designed to maintain these important legacy collections. Once this project is completed, several options to refresh the interior of Pius Library will become available. Along these lines are plans to create a learning commons environment in collaboration with the Center for Teaching Excellence so that faculty can test new teaching and learning pedagogies in a cutting-edge educational environment. We are looking to upgrade the facilities so that we may support showcase collections such as our Vatican Film Library.  And we are looking to refresh all the furniture and single and group study rooms within Pius Library.

All of this work is in reaching the University Libraries’ goal of providing excellent facilities, enhancing our outstanding collections and resources, and providing exceptional services to the SLU community.

Being Strategic: Delivering Information in New Ways

With the continued rising subscription and ownership costs of electronic content (i.e., databases, journals, newspapers, e-books, etc.) all libraries are innovating new ways to connect the user with the information they seek. This is somewhat of a daunting task as prices for this information are moving targets (much like purchasing a new or used car). The University Libraries at SLU have taken on this challenge by creatively developing a multi-spectrumed access-on-demand information service.

What does this mean for students, faculty, and staff? It means access to quality information faster and much more convenient. For example, the University Libraries have begun a pilot project at the Medical Center Library to create an all online journal collection for medical literature. Known as the DIGITAL RESOURCES INITIATIVE, students and faculty will be able to access information in one of four ways.

1.) Self-Service Electronic Gateways through which users can access online journal via the library e-journal portal, publisher web sites, SLU’s online catalog, and full-text links within citation and indexing databases.

2.) D3: Digital Document Delivery where rapid, same day scanning and export of high-resolution PDF copies of journal articles are emailed to the users desktop from print library collections.

3.) On-Demand Access where the library purchases (at no charge to the user) and supplies (within one business day) original PDF articles from publishers, and

4.) Interlibrary Loan Resource Sharing where the library continues acquisition and electronic delivery of articles from interlibrary loan partners.

The brainchild of Medical Center Library Director Patrick McCarthy, the Digital Resources Initiative is on schedule to be rolled-out over two-years. On Demand access to select high cost journals began in January 2007. The D3: Digital Document Delivery pilot project began on Aug. 15, 2007 while the interlibrary loan service continues.

The goal within the next year is to have D3 fully implemented for all users as well as online only journal subscriptions for medical literature. In the field of information, the trend, specifically in medicine, is to obtain current, quality information in electronic form. As with all of our other information resources and library services, we will continue to evaluate and assess this program to see if it meets our users needs and, if it does, to expand the project where it makes sense to do so.

As always, we appreciate your feedback on our new products and services.

Pius Library Re-envisions Library as Place

Like most buildings, physical library buildings age over time. Both the outside and inside of a facility shows wear and tear over time and requires refurbishment to meet the needs of today’s society, very similar to the wear and tear of your home resulting in the need for renovation. There has been a dramatic increase in renovating and expanding existing libraries as well as building new ones over the past decade. This is occuring with all types of libraries — school, public, college, and university.

Challenges regarding having enough space as well as usable space are prominent in the world of university libraries. Why is this? Many universities are decades if not hundreds of years old. Collections of books, manuscripts, media, etc. are added as new information is produced. University library collections differ from school or public library collections which are smaller and make popular reading material available. In comparison, faculty require access to what is refered to as “deep” collections, meaning that professors doing research, particularly those in the humanities and social sciences, study subject areas in depth. There is also a growing trend for faculty to engage in cross-disciplinary research where other subject areas are explored in combination with the researcher’s primary area of study. Doing original research is the way for society to create new knowledge and to create new knowledge we need access to what has happened before us. As such, libraries in academic institutions select items that go into their collections very carefully and rarely weed or de-accession titles. The result? Expanding collections that may have started more than 100 years ago and have simply run out of the space. To meet the pressing issue of what we refer to as “stack migration” (i.e., adding more book stacks in the library to the point where it reaches maximum capacity), libraries create active storage facilities to be able to continue to house important works needed for research and scholarship. At this point in time, 189 years after the founding of SLU, Pius has reached the milestone of being over capacity in regards to collections.  Pius Library was built in 1959 to hold 1 million books. This year (2007) we reached 1.4 million books, or 400,000 books over the original design of the building. The University is in process of locating a library storage facility so that we can make better use of the space we have.

As we are working on storage, the library faculty and staff continue to collaborate with other entities on campus in order to develop a “one-stop-shop” for students and faculty to search for, locate, and analyze information, as well as obtain assistance in producing new knowledge. We are excited that over the past 12 months we have been able to renovate some areas of Pius Library to accommodate the academic needs of our students and research and scholarship needs of our faculty.  An underutilized browsing area on the main floor was transformed into a cafe in November 2006. Cafe Libros has bec0me the “hot spot” for everyone on campus to meet, chat, grab a coffee or sandwich and continue with their day, whether it be on another part of campus or doing research in the Library. The University’s new Testing Center and Undergraduate Writing Center Satellite location will open for the Fall 2007 semester. A collaborative project between the University Libraries, the University Writing Center, and the Affirmative Action & Diversity Office, both centers meet the increase demands of students seeking assistance. The Undergraduate Writing Center Satellite is in the perfect location. Undergrads can work with Writing Center staff to improve their writing skills within arms length of books, electronic resources, and library faculty. (Pius Library began hosting the Graduate Writing Center in 2006). The University-wide Testing Center is the location for students to take exams if they require special accommodations and/or if they missed an exam in class. Pius Library is able to host both centers in areas that were not appropriate to house collections, but were appropriate for collaborations that were a match with the type of resources and services that we offer.

Re-vitalizing the space of Pius Library will continue to occur as we work through implementing the University Libraries Strategic Plan. We appreciate and welcome your thoughts and suggestions.

University Libraries Engaging Others

iPhones, iPods, cell phones…portable technologies are changing the way we communicate with each other. We can almost reach anyone anytime and anywhere! These new technologies are not only significantly impacting the way we store and access information, but how information is created. Only a few short years ago, analog information such as text published in journal articles and books, was converted from static print form into digital form. Today, information can be “born digital”, meaning that the text is written in digital format first and that there may or may not be a print counterpart. Moreover, born digital publications almost always now include video, still images, and audio. And, these publications are interactive  in that you can converse directly with the author as well as with others who have similar interests as yourself.

What does this have to do with university libraries?  University libraries continuously assess the quality of the resources and services we provide to our communities — students, faculty, staff, researchers, and scholars. During the past several months, the library faculty and staff at Saint Louis University have been developing new ways to provide current information about our resources and services and to enable library users to communicate with library faculty and staff about the quality of our resources and services.

The initial steps down this path can be located at: http://www.slu.edu/libraries/pius/

Here you will locate blogs regarding strategic planning and the latest news on the University Libraries as well as our venture into RSS feeds and podcasting. At this time, we have a student-to-student podcast to assist incoming freshmen learn about the University Libraries.  In the Fall, we will be launching a podcast series called “Conversations” which will include interviews with SLU faculty about how they use library resources and services in their research.

University libraries continue to stay a-pace with information technologies that change the way we create information and how we communicate with each other. In this way, we ensure that we are engaging our constituents by providing them with avenues to learn about how libraries are changing services and resources to meet their information needs as well as ways to provide avenues for real-time feedback so that we may continuously improve access to quality information.

Responsive Planning to Changing Environments

Some refer to strategic plans as “static documents” that are created then left on-the-shelf to gather dust. SLU’s University Libraries Strategic Plan is anything but static! It is a document that provides us with a framework. The plan is a blueprint giving us parameters within which to work. However, it is also designed to be flexible so that we may respond to changes around us that impact our work — the information resources and library services that we provide.

The flexibility of our Plan has been put to the test as the Vatican Library in Rome, Italy has closed its doors for the next 3 years as their facility undergoes major renovation. Saint Louis University’s Vatican Film Library is the one location outside of Rome that is home to approximately 37,000 manuscripts or about one-half of the manuscripts held in the Vatican Library itself. The closing of the Library in Rome in mid-July 2007 resulted in an immediate influx of requests from scholars worldwide seeking information about the VFL and how they might revise their travel plans from Rome to Saint Louis, Missouri.

Goals within our Strategic Plan address the need for optimizing access to information and providing suitable facilities for scholarship and research to occur. The timeline for this activity was originally mapped out over two years. The unanticipated closing of the Library in Rome and the immediate rise in requests from scholars to use the VFL at SLU has required us to compress the timeline in order to meet users needs. We needed to kick into high gear — fast!

Putting our heads together, we identified actions that could be implemented immediately. A PR campaign was put into place to spread the word that SLU houses duplicates of almost half of the manuscripts in the Vatican Library and that scholars are welcome to visit the Vatican Film Library in St. Louis to conduct their research. Spreading the word began with obtaining permission from the Vatican Library to include information about the VFL on the Vatican Library’s web site. From there, media outlets were contacted while, simultaneously, others with interest in this topic shared the news on blogs, listservs, newsletters, etc.  We are grateful that international news outlets, such as The New York Times and AP newswire picked-up the story. Additionally, we are in the process of refreshing the VFL website to improve browsability as well as responding to scholars’ requests for what the collection holds and how to access the information most effectively.

 Long-term, our goal continues to be creating suitable conditions for the preservation, access, use, and promotion of the University Libraries’ rare and unique research collections including Rare Books, manuscripts, University Archives, and the Vatican Film Library. We are in the process of researching best standards for Special Collections storage environments and have obtained temperature/humidity data loggers for all current storage areas to determine present conditions. With the increased use of the VFL facility, we will be able to obtain information from users on their experience doing research in the VFL — what worked for them in terms of the facility and obtaining access to the collection? and what areas are in need of improvement?

This is just one example of how a blueprint for action can be modified quickly to meet a need created as a direct result of outside, non-planned-for circumstances.

Library as Place is Key to Student Success

One of the primary goals of the University Libraries Strategic Plan is to create and maintain user-centered research, teaching, and learning environments. To achieve this goal we will re-invent library spaces to include information hubs and gathering places by modernizing the Pius XII Memorial Library to meet student and faculty needs. The purpose is to create destinations where research and study can flourish.

Frequently the question is asked, “In the age of the Internet, why do we need to have physical libraries at all?” We know that the Internet does not provide us access to all the information that we need. Most information of any quality and substance is accessible only through the library with which you are affiliated. For example, students and faculty of SLU have 24/7 access to hundreds of databses, e-journals, and e-books through http://slulink.slu.edu  SLULink is your “virtual library” — an important component of the information searching that you do and complimentary to the physical library building itself.

The library as place is also an important piece of academic success. Through his research, Yale University Librarian Emeritus Scott Bennett has discovered that successful learning occurs when you spend time outside of the classroom working on course-related activities (e.g., projects, papers, labs., etc.) and discussing course-related subjects. Today’s physical library must be designed to encourage and support this learning which, in turn, frequently leads to improved academic achievement. 

What should a university library include within its walls? Many academic libraries have created library learning spaces based on the model of an “information commons” or “learning commons.” As Bennett states, the purpose of reinventing library space needs to rise from analyzing student learning behaviors. Although such spaces can take a variety of forms, some similarities of successful contemporary university libraries are: natural lighting, uncluttered views of nature, clean, comfortable, and safe spaces, easy access to technologies to locate information and create new knowledge, close location to faculty librarians for research consultations, near other academic support services, such as writing centers, a cafe to replenish and re-fuel for long hours of study, and flexible spaces for quiet/solo study and group study rooms. When you walk into a library that fully captures these elements, services that are available to you are transparent — meaning that they are easily accessible — and you have different types of research and study spaces to select from to do your work.

Both the Medical Center Library and the Pius XII Memorial Library are in the process of developing plans to re-invent our learning spaces. We encourage your feedback as we work to create the best of all learning environments for academic success.

Strategic Plan Born Out of a Record of Achievement

Good strategic plans are not created out of thin air.  Grounded in an organization’s rich history,  effective plans take past successes and use them to reach future accomplishments. This holds true for the Saint Louis University Libraries Strategic Plan.

The University Libraries have always been an integral part of Saint Louis University since its founding in 1818. As with other great colleges and universities, some say that the libraries are the heart of the institution. From its humble beginnings housed in a room 40 feet by 20 feet, the University Libraries have expanded and morphed many times over in response to meeting student and faculty needs.  From the hand-written ledger of book titles in 1836, to the microfilming of Vatican Film manuscripts in the 1950’s, to Pius XII Memorial Library opening on May 18, 1959, automating the card catalog in the 1980’s-1990’s, to today’s development of a new digital production center that will provide access to rare and unique materials, the Libraries are rapidly moving through the early part of this century directly on the path to meeting the information needs of students, faculty, and researchers.

The development of the Pius XII Memorial Library, Vatican Film Library, Medical Center Library, and the Omer Poos Law Library have been in-step with the University’s growth and development ovcr time.  For example, when SLU was established in 1818, the Library was known as the “rarest in the West” because of its significant collection of scholarly and research materials including 1 of only 500 sets of a 1662 Geography of the Earth published in Amsterdam and a 1490 theological dictionary. During the turn of the century through the 1950’s the University experienced a “second founding.” University President Paul C. Reinert introduced lay people to the Board of Trustees and James V. Jones was appointed the first lay University Librarian. The Vatican Film Library undertook the largest microfilming project in the humanities up until this time. President Eisenhower cited this record of achievement by saying that, “The establishment of the Pius XII Library will interest millions of Americans…..” (letter from Eisenhower to Reinert, 2 Dec. 1954).  From 1960 through the 1980’s, as the University focused on community expanding the Frost campus by 22 acres which served as a catalyst for urban renewal, the Medical Center Library moved into its current location in the Margaret Doisy Learning Resource Center, the Omer Poos Law Library moved into it’s present location within the Law School, and a new atrium addition and reading area was built onto the front of Pius Library.

As Saint Louis University moves towards becoming the finest Catholic Jesuit University in America, the physical renovation to the campus is striking. SLU has expanded by 40 acres and more than 30 buildings.  All 4 libraries have reached capacity in terms of collections.  Grounded in our rich history, our Strategic Plan centers energies on re-inventing library spaces as destinations for discovery and study, on establishing ideal conditions for preservation and access to our rare and unique research collections, and on enriching the academic community by partnering with affinity groups.