| | Goal
| | | | Goal 1: Instruction and Information Literacy
Improve information literacy instruction as well as support for upper-division courses. Explore instructional activities beyond in-class sessions, making better use of resources that are available on demand (LibGuides, online tutorials, etc.).
|  | Measure: 1A. Improve library instruction in accordance with the 2014–15, 2015–16, and 2016–17 Information Literacy Assessment Reports.
| |  | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Ensure that the composition faculty are familiar with the College’s information literacy Learning Outcomes. Ensure that the necessary material is covered, either during library instruction sessions or through other class sessions/materials. Arrange for two sessions of library instruction in each class, if possible.
— Provide greater support, in-class or otherwise, for the Learning Outcomes that have been identified in our Assessment Reports as areas of deficiency. Document that our coverage of those Outcomes has improved.
— Provide regular, systematic opportunities (e.g., workshops) for discussion of library instruction strategies by librarians and others (faculty, tutors, instructional designers, ITS instructional staff, etc.). Discuss instructional challenges and responses.
— Ensure that student evaluations and peer observations are conducted according to schedule.
— Increase support for upper-division courses that require higher level library research skills. Evaluate the strategies used to encourage participation and conduct instruction.Expected Results: Meetings with faculty. Informal evidence demonstrating that they understand the Learning Outcomes and the need to support them. Possible increase in the number of library instruction sessions. Documentation of support for previously neglected Learning Outcomes. Instructional workshops with participation of non-library personnel. Student evaluations and peer observations. Short report on outreach to upper-division courses.
Details/Description: The 2016–17 Information Literacy Assessment Report may not be completed until early 2017–18. 2017–18 is not an assessment year, however. |
| | | Measure: 1B. Expand and improve the Library’s instructional materials—resources for students and resources for librarians.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Develop model documents that can be tailored for use as information literacy outlines, handouts, PowerPoints, etc.
— Consider ways to increase our use of non-print technologies (e.g., video) in library instruction. Develop materials, if appropriate, and evaluate them.
— Establish guidelines for the production of the Library's research guides (LibGuides). Make sure the goals, standards, and procedures are understood by librarians and departmental faculty. Develop procedures to ensure that all instruction librarians are contributing to LibGuides effectively and equitably.
— Require that librarians keep and maintain their teaching materials on Library Drive.Expected Results: Model documents. Actual documents (including non-print materials) used in instruction. Guidelines and procedures for LibGuides. Discipline-specific LibGuides (not necessarily course-specific) for at least 50% of the majors offered by the College. Removal of LibGuides that do not meet our standards. Files in Library Drive.
Details/Description: Some of these materials may be developed during the instructional workshops described under Measure A. |
| | | Measure: 1C. Establish a library liaison program.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Develop expectations for the scope of the program, including guidelines on librarians’ duties (in-class instruction, LibGuides and other instructional materials, outreach, book selection, etc.), training needs, expected interactions with faculty and students, and standards for evaluation of liaisons’ performance.
— Assign liaison duties. Provide training, as necessary. Monitor performance.
— Market the liaison program to Schools and departments, highlighting the ways in which it will allow them to teach more effectively.Expected Results: Documentation of expectations and guidelines. Assignment of duties. Brief reports on performance. Outreach activities. Evaluation of objective accomplishments and of the faculty’s responses to the liaison program.
Details/Description: This measure will promote more systematic coverage of subject areas as well as effective interaction between librarians and departmental faculty. It will also contribute to collection development; see Goal 3. |
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| | | | Goal 2: Reference and Research Services
Improve reference and information services, especially with regard to the use of technology, alternative delivery mechanisms, and the integration of the Library’s services with those of other campus agencies and academic departments.
| | Measure: 2A. Consider additional or alternative means of service provision (new locations, technologies, staffing, etc.).
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Implement a new Ask Us service that incorporates chat, e-mail, and text messaging.
— Clarify policies and procedures for phone reference; update the Reference Manual accordingly.
— Conduct focus groups and/or interviews with students and others to determine whether in-person reference is best offered at the reference desk or in librarians’ fifth-floor offices. Modify reference practices, staffing, and hours, if appropriate.Expected Results: Revised policies and procedures. New off-site reference services. Focus groups and/or interviews.
Details/Description: N.A. |
| | | Measure: 2B. Work more closely with other campus agencies to ensure that our goals are aligned.... (See details/description.)
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Consider methods of working more closely with the Writing Center, the Center for Academic Success, and Academic Advising. How can we help them achieve their goals, and vice versa? Should we provide writing advice, course selection advice, etc., at the reference desk? At a minimum, have representatives of the Writing Center, etc., come in to discuss their work.
— Assess the College’s needs for support of the digital humanities and social sciences. Develop the resources (technologies, data resources, etc.) needed to support that work, with special emphasis on (1) geographic information systems and services and (2) video production.Expected Results: Meetings with the Writing Center staff and others. New services and policies.
Details/Description: Work more closely with other campus agencies to ensure that our goals are aligned, to provide greater support for the digital humanities, and perhaps to ensure continuity of service during hours when the other agencies are not available to students. |
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| | | | Goal 3: Collection Development and Scholarly Communication
Improve journal and book collections by completing and expanding upon the projects begun in 2016–17.
| | Measure: 3A. Complete the online resources review that began in 2016–17.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Compile ranked journal lists for academic departments and programs based on the rankings and comments provided by faculty in 2016–17.
— Identify the online resources that will enable us to acquire a high proportion of needed/wanted journals in a cost-effective way.
— With faculty input, add and remove subscriptions in accordance with our online resource decisions.
— Ensure that faculty are aware of all the changes that have been made. Assess the impact of those changes. Plan for the eventual acquisition of the resources we were unable to acquire in 2017–18.Expected Results: Ranked journal lists. Documentation of the selection procedure for journals and databases. Implementation of changes. Outreach activities.
Details/Description: N.A. |
| | | Measure: 3B. Allocate book selection responsibilities among the liaison librarians.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Establish methods for dissemination of selection tools (e.g., Gobi book notifications).
— Develop and implement training program for liaison librarians. Provide follow-up instruction and individual performance assessment throughout the year.
— Assess the effectiveness of revised book selection program. Determine whether changes should be made.Expected Results: Documentation of methods. Training program. Documentation of performance assessments (individual and library-wide).
Details/Description: N.A. |
| | | Measure: 3C. Work with the Education faculty to develop strategies for the maintenance and improvement of the Curriculum Collection.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Work with Education faculty to clarify needs and goals (i.e., Is it a juvenile literature collection, a collection of curriculum materials, or both?).
— Work with Gobi and other vendors to manage selection tools/notifications and to establish procedures for the selection, acquisition, and evaluation of Curriculum Collection resources.Expected Results: Meetings with faculty. Approval or notification plan for children’s books. Procedures for ongoing selection. New acquisitions. Assessments of sustainability and budgetary impact.
Details/Description: N.A. |
| | | Measure: 3D. Begin to evaluate and withdraw selected Dewey books.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Establish criteria for withdrawal, such as date of publication, physical condition, factual accuracy, value for current teaching (withdraw calculus textbooks from the 1950s), value as historical artifact (keep some sociology textbooks from the 1960s), place within the current curriculum, discoverability, coherence by subject, coherence by function.
— Get faculty approval of criteria. With faculty, establish procedures for deselection, oversight, and disposition (withdraw and recycle, withdraw and donate, withdraw and sell, recatalog and move to LC stacks, etc.).
— Make title-by-title selection decisions. Implement. Report on activities and outcomes.Expected Results: Criteria. Procedures. Spreadsheets with decisions. Expected outcome: Withdraw 30–40% of all Dewey volumes. Withdrawal and disposition of books. Expected increase in per-title and overall circulation within five years.
Details/Description: The withdrawn books will be a subset of those that were acquired at least X years ago but have not circulated during the past Y years. This project will begin in 2017–18 but is unlikely to be completed until the following year, at the earliest. |
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| | | | Goal 4: Technical Services and Technology
Improve efficiency and expand the Library’s capabilities through the rationalization of workflow/staffing and the use of technology.
| | Measure: 4A. Redesign the library web site using SpringShare (rather than Drupal) software. Rationalize the presentation of information.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Discuss the goals of the site, the criteria that should be used to determine what to include, the problems with the current web site, and the increased capabilities that will result from our use of SpringShare.
— Outline the pages and their content.
— Design and test a sandbox version of the new site. Determine how the new site will be evaluated.
— Make the new site public. Modify it, as necessary. Solicit feedback and conduct evaluations to use as input into further rounds of revision.Expected Results: Discussion notes. Outline of pages and content. Test version of the site. Public version of the site. Feedback. Modification of the site.
Details/Description: Our Drupal contract ends June 30 but can be extended, if necessary. This projects draws on the earlier work of the Library Web Site Committee. |
| | | Measure: 4B. Investigate how new technologies can be used to improve acquisitions, cataloging, and serials management.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Establish procedures that will allow us to use Gobi more effectively for ordering, receipt, payment, and cataloging. Train librarians and staff. Evaluate whether we should be outsourcing more cataloging and physical processing functions. In particular, should we be batch-loading catalog records from OCLC via Gobi?
— Determine whether we should continue or discontinue our Ebrary DDA (demand-driven acquisition) program. If we continue DDA, rationalize our procedures through a new Ebrary program. Evaluate our current procedures for e-book cataloging. (This last item is closely related to the next action.)
— Determine whether we ought to use a discovery service such as EBSCO Discovery Service. A discovery service might be appreciated by patrons (“Search everything here”) and might eliminate the need to catalog individual e-books. More generally, a discovery service would influence web site design, e-book acquisitions and access, journal management (new knowledgebase and link resolver), and the need for MARC records. (This action may be contingent on the availability of funding once the serials review has been completed. For that reason, it may not be completed until 2017–18.)
— Determine whether we should be using the acquisitions and serials modules/functions of Koha, and whether we should be cataloging print journals in Koha. Consider whether we should migrate to a different integrated library system or whether Koha is likely to meet our future needs. (This action is assigned a lower priority than the other three.)Expected Results: Modified procedures. Training. Documentation of evaluation processes. Acquisition and implementation of new technologies, if appropriate. Follow-up with reference and instruction if a discovery service is chosen.
Details/Description: N.A. |
| | | Measure: 4C. Continue to refine and evaluate our new ILL procedures. Establish a stronger campus presence for the Technical Services unit.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Consider using OCLC’s new Prime software to streamline ILL operations.
— Train staff to handle a greater range of ILL operations so that the ILL manager/systems specialist can devote more of his time to technology, planning, and management.
— Market ILL more effectively. Ensure that faculty and students know about the recent improvements. Compile performance statistics and present them on the web site.
— Redesign the ILL web interface as part of the library web site redesign (Measure A).
— Develop a systematic way of using ILL requests to inform collection development decisions.
— Investigate ways to highlight newly acquired materials and to keep patrons informed of what’s being added (of interest to them). Some possibilities for outreach: new-books list on the library web site, or e-mails to the faculty in particular departments; larger and more regularly updated new-books shelf; notifications for individual faculty when we receive books that match their teaching or research interests (not just the books they’ve requested).Expected Results: Marketing materials. Web site modification. New-books list and/or notifications. New-books shelf. Documentation of new procedures.
Details/Description: This follows on the substantial upgrade of interlibrary loan services that occurred in 2016–17. |
| | | Measure: 4D. Continue to evaluate and modify current workflow, with special attention to tasks that are unnecessary.... (See details/description.)
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Interview staff about their job responsibilities, duties, capabilities, and preferences.
— Identify areas in which responsibilities or workflow can be improved. Identify unnecessary or duplicative tasks. Realign duties among staff, as appropriate. Update all job descriptions. Arrange training activities.
— Ensure that all aspects of job performance are included in staff evaluations.Expected Results: Interview notes. Documentation of current and planned workflow. Realignment of duties. Updated job descriptions. Training activities. Staff evaluations.
Details/Description: Continue to evaluate and modify current workflow, with special attention to tasks that are unnecessary or duplicative, tasks that could be made more effective or more cost-effective, and areas of potential difficulty in the future (e.g., instances in which we are overly reliant on particular individuals, vendors, or technologies that may not be sustainable). These tasks are ongoing; we expect to make progress in 2017–18 but not necessarily to complete them during the year. |
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| | | | Goal 5: Access Services and Infrastructure
Enhance access to library collections and services through improvements in staffing, training, facilities, and infrastructure.
| | Measure: 5A. Work with Facilities, Physical Plant, and ITS to improve library facilities and infrastructure.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Convert O’Malley 105 to a group study room. Remove four or five rows of shelving. restore the carpet, add new furniture and whiteboards, and reconfigure the room.
— Convert the lobby/gallery area into an open computer kiosk station.
— Determine whether to remove or restore the entrance barriers (turnstiles and ropes) in the library lobby. Remove or restore them.
— Remove three of the short shelving units in the Reference area. Restore the carpet, add new furniture, and reconfigure that area as group study space. (This project may or may not be integrated into the next one. That is, we may want to proceed with it before we undertake the main renovation.)
— Install more security cameras in the Library to provide better coverage of the elevator, the computer labs, the Archives, and the entrances to the closed-stacks areas.
— Work with Facilities on the construction of offices and public areas for Instructional Design and the HGI Center on the fifth floor of the Library. Develop policies that ensure greater access to HGI collections, especially at times when the area is unstaffed.
— Evaluate the feasibility of recarpeting the fifth floor (and the other floors?) in 2018–19.
— Evaluate the feasibility of converting the third-floor Hayes stacks into an open study area in 2018–19.
— Re-evaluate our use of space on the first floor. Plan for the more effective use of that space.
— Evaluate the feasibility of adding projectors to the larger group study rooms, building power strips into the library tables, and setting up a computer with K–12 software in the Curriculum Room.Expected Results: Removal or restoration of entrance barriers. Conversion of lobby/gallery area. Installation of security cameras and development of policies for monitoring them. Fifth-floor renovation for Instructional Design and HGI. Evaluation of additional projects.
Details/Description: We assume that the conversion of O’Malley 107 to a group study room will be completed in 2016–17, so I haven’t included it here. |
| | | Measure: 5B. Evaluate workflow and staffing in Access Services. Provide training that will allow more staff to meet their potential.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Interview staff about their job responsibilities, duties, capabilities, and preferences.
— Identify areas in which responsibilities or workflow can be improved. Identify unnecessary or duplicative tasks. Realign duties among staff, as appropriate. Update job descriptions. Arrange training activities. Cross-train staff in processing of course reserves, issuing of guest borrower cards, and other Access Services procedures. Ensure that all aspects of job performance are assessed in annual evaluations.
— Continue to train selected student workers to work at the Circulation Desk (using Koha, locating Reserve materials, using JASPERcat, etc.). Formalize selection and training procedures.
— Evaluate whether shifting is necessary to accommodate the collection in subject classes E–H.
— Clean patron records in Koha. Establish procedures for uploading patron information that avoid the creation of duplicate records and allow records to overlay based on a unique identifier.
— Work with Technical Services to inventory the print collection.Expected Results: Interview notes. Documentation of current and planned workflow. Realignment of duties. Updated job descriptions. Training activities. Staff evaluations. Documentation of student-worker selection and training procedures.
Details/Description: N.A. |
| | | Measure: 5C. Investigate ways in which the Library's access services unit can establish a stronger presence on campus.
| | | | | Proposed actions to achieve goal:
— Increase on-campus marketing activities. Examples: advertise the “new” DVD collection; set up a "leave a book, take a book" display in the lobby.
— Make sure we’re taking full advantage of any access agreements with other NYC-area universities. Publicize these agreements. Arrange for additional agreements, if possible.
— Work with Marketing & Communications to plan for the revision of the large floor-plan signs and the paper floor-plan brochures. (This will be undertaken only after the fifth floor has been renovated.)Expected Results: Marketing materials. Access agreements with other universities.
Details/Description: N.A. |
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