Home >  About the Libraries
 

Library Mission and Goals - FY 2013

Vision:   Inspiring ideas for personal transformation and global impact.

Mission:   The Dartmouth College Library fosters intellectual growth and advances the mission of Dartmouth College and affiliated communities by supporting excellence and innovation in education and research, managing and delivering information, and partnering to develop and disseminate new scholarship.

Assessment: Continue to strengthen the culture of continuous improvement through ongoing assessment of Library activities and programs. 
Initiatives for FY13 integrated in objectives below.


Infrastructure: Provide physical and digital infrastructures that advance research and education.

Priority Initiatives

  • In FY13, participate in planning for a new facility that is intended to house the Biomedical Libraries and The Dartmouth Center, replacing Dana and Gilman.  
  • In FY13, build a long-term repository system that will integrate local digital collections into the Library's information environment. In FY14, evaluate the effectiveness of the resulting infrastructure against national best practices. 
  • Make a smooth and complete transition of the old Records Management System [RMS] to the new RMS; Identify and begin implementation of 4-6 pilot projects for digital records management.
  • Create/implement storage, preservation, content and metadata management, and project management infrastructures to support the build-out of the digital library program, and to streamline processes
  • Review the ‘2nd’ Next Generation Library Technologies Task Force Report, and develop RFP to respond to recommendations.
  • In FY13, investigation authentication methods [EZProxy, Shibboleth, etc] to verify best method for ensuring user access to information resources.

Staff: Recruit, develop and retain exceptional staff committed to our service culture and philosophy.

Priority Initiatives

  • In FY13, review efforts already underway in various Library departments to redirect current staff skills, roles, and responsibilities to address new and emerging Library needs.  Examine how these transitions have been planned and carried out as potential models for change across the Library.
  • In FY13 complete Staff Development Committee revision project; write, edit, and discuss the proposed changes with leadership; roll-out accepted proposal items to all staff; restructure the committee per the proposal and begin work; collaborate with HR’s Training and Development department to roll out needed programs.

Information: Develop information resources and services that support research and education at Dartmouth.

Priority Initiatives

  • In FY13, build a robust digital production process for local collections that implements selection, prioritization, and production policies, and creates a collaborative staffing structure. In FY14, evaluate the impact for users of the resulting digital collections.   
  • In FY13, support expanded collaborative collection development with BorrowDirect partners in a variety of subject areas. Review collection development policies to ensure that priority is given to resources that the Library is responsible for collecting. Give digitization priority to uniquely held materials, in order to share digital surrogates with the Borrow Direct community. 
  • In FY13, extend replacement of print with online versions of journals and selected book series beyond JStor, with a preference for secure online backfiles that will permit deaccessioning of low- or no-use items in the Storage Library. Identify and assess the use of specific sets or classes of legacy materials in campus facilities that may be candidates for transfer to storage or deaccessioning if replaced by online access, to better align the collection with evolving patron needs and expectations, library services, and physical space management. Identify potential partners for formal shared print archiving to secure long-term access to information. In FY14, create schedules for shared archiving and sign formal agreements.
  • Design and implement collections assessment projects, specifically a) assessments of targeted areas of storage in specific call number ranges and b) owned journal backfile packages that meet criteria for possible print deaccessioning, - followed by storage deaccessioning projects
  • By end of FY13, clarify the use of Hyland OnBase system in regard to other campus document management tools and articulate an implementation plan.  
  • In FY13 finish initial rollout of our mobile presence, market and assess, and look at what should be in the next phase. 
  • Plan and carry out an assessment of major aspects of the February 2012 website redesign, including the expanded news and Library blog sections; review suggestions and feedback, and make adjustments and improvements accordingly.  Integrate this assessment into next web development cycle.
  • Carry out a content review and revision of major top-level Library website sections, according to basic editorial recommendations to be developed by WSG, working with stakeholders for each content area.

Publishing: Build collaborations to support faculty, graduate, and undergraduate student scholarly publishing.

Priority Initiatives

  • In FY13, work with the Dartmouth Digital Information (D2I) committee and consultant to define requirements for an Institutional Repository to meet College needs for long-term storage and sharing of faculty scholarly output. 
  • In FY13-14, collaborate with E&O, DCAL and faculty to investigate ways to integrate scholarly communications information into student education programs regarding research, publishing, and scholarship.  Build these on the graduate and undergraduate level, with a focus on authorship and copy rights, by developing programs and curriculum materials.
  • In FY13, launch major new open-access science publishing platform, including working with local faculty editors, hiring full-time staff, and building an online publishing system based on open source code. Integrate local system with the other modules of a distributed publication system  (peer review system; XML conversion vendor; data repository; editorial process tracking system). Liaise throughout with project staff at a major publishing vendor.

Learning: Teach members of the Dartmouth community to be effective users and producers of information to meet their current academic needs and prepare them for a lifetime of learning and of responsible leadership.

Priority Initiatives 

  • In FY12-13, collaborate with faculty and programs to identify key points in students’ academic lifecycles and implement strategic interventions at two of those points.  
  • In FY13 assess the effectiveness of the Faculty Services support model and recommend areas for improvement.  

Institutional collaboration: Provide leadership and support for College initiatives and priorities.

Priority Initiatives 

  • In FY13 assess Lync’s utility for library service provision.
  • In FY13, investigate large-scale research reporting and assessment tools that may support institutional analysis done by the Provost’s Office. Advise the Office on the effectiveness of specific tools, including their ability to assist in the efficient operation of an institutional repository.
  • In FY13, with direction from the Council on Libraries, develop a plan for extending and deepening the campus-wide discussions of ways to broaden the impact of Dartmouth scholarship through open access.   

Marketing: Market the Library’s information resources and services to all the Library’s communities.

Priority Initiatives

  • Update the marketing plan and use it to prioritize activities to implement in FY13 and FY14.