112 · Representative Documents: Strategies to Support Innovation and Research
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Penn Libraries Strategic Plan, 2011–2013 (excerpts)
https://project.library.upenn.edu/confluence/display/libstratplan/Penn+Libraries+Strategic+Plan+2011-2013
Penn Libraries Strategic Plan, 2011-2013
1
WE ARE PLEASED TO INTRODUCE THE PENN LIBRARIES’ STRATEGIC PLAN TO THE
University and research library community. A vision for transforming library services, the Plan sets
priorities for technology, library space, collections, and human resources it lays a foundation for
allocating dollars, launching new initiatives, assessing outcomes, and ultimately integrating the
Libraries fully into the academic life of faculty, students, and alumni.
CHANGE AND OPPORTUNITY
The users of academic libraries are navigating a rapidly evolving, sometimes volatile landscape,
where the quantity of information is immense and the technologies needed to find and manage it are
numerous and multiplying. With high-performance computing and powerful computational
methods at their command, researchers in all disciplines are generating vast amounts of new
knowledge—knowledge that must be stored, organized, described for discovery, secured, and
preserved for future generations. Amazon, Google search and cloud services, and social software
such as Twitter and Zotero top a growing list of preferred tools for locating, retrieving,
manipulating, and sharing information in academic settings. Information technologies are
transforming teaching and research practices, which in turn are redefining the way students learn
and scholars communicate. The transformation is occurring at an extraordinary pace, leaving little
time to evaluate the direction and sustainability of current technology choices or assess the
readiness of faculty and students to keep pace with such choices in the future.
Libraries operate in this same fluid information environment. Amid the technology-induced change
of recent times, demand has been rising for new forms of library support, alongside declining use of
certain traditional services. The call for data and digital object management, classroom delivery of
networked services and content, provision of technology training, and the building of information
skills exemplify the evolving nature of academic libraries. The extraordinary velocity of change is
an important aspect of this evolution. Together with escalating systems and information costs, it
affects the durability of library service and elicits greater innovation from librarians. Academic
libraries face a critical challenge: to meet their time-honored and continuing commitments to
collections and related services, while also supporting academic needs of a new order.
At Penn, the Libraries can point to strategic opportunities that are growing in direct proportion to
the challenges we face. The maturing of community-sourced technology presents options for
innovating at sustainable cost. The creative use of network technology improves our ability to link
people to data and content, and to build communities around such linkages. Services designed for
virtual space also create opportunities for the redesign of physical facilities and improved support of
teaching and learning. Networked information provides unprecedented opportunities for managing
collections, assisting research, preserving the record of knowledge, and creating open forums for
scholarly communication. Partnership with peer libraries allows for the enrichment of service with
reduced risk and expense. And local collaboration with Penn’s Schools and research centers can
increase the centrality of library services to scholarship, particularly in the dissemination of
knowledge created at Penn. By seizing these opportunities, we strengthen the Libraries’ alignment
with academic needs and add value to teaching, research, and professional practice.
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