Library Mission & Goals - FY2015
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.
Vision Inspiring ideas for personal transformation and global impact.
Values In our daily work, we adhere to the principles of fairness and equality, and we believe that each user of the Library is unique and important. We aspire to provide the best possible patron experience while maintaining a comfortable, welcoming and secure place for study, research, work, reflection and interaction. We anticipate and contribute to scholarly inquiry and embrace our role as collectors and custodians of the intellectual record. - Dartmouth College Library Values, April 2011 (PDF)
Goals
Assessment: Continue to strengthen the culture of continuous improvement through ongoing assessment of Library activities and programs.
Infrastructure: Provide physical and digital infrastructures that advance research and education.
Staff: Recruit, develop and retain exceptional staff committed to our service culture and philosophy.
Information: Develop information resources and services that support research, education, and healthcare at Dartmouth
Publishing: Build collaborations to support faculty, graduate, and undergraduate student scholarly publishing.
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.
Institutional collaboration: Provide leadership and support for College initiatives and priorities.
Marketing: Market the Library’s information resources and services to all the Library’s communities.
Dartmouth College Library: Strategic Thinking 2015-2020 (2015)
FY15 Strategic Initiatives
Dartmouth Library Depository Preliminary Collection Management. Identify those information resources currently held in the Storage Library (SL) that should be moved to the Dartmouth Library Depository (DLD) or to a campus library, and identify which resources are no longer necessary to retain in physical media locally and may be deaccessioned. Major outcomes of the project are to manage future growth of the Library's stored collections by limiting the initial fill rate to as close to 50% of DLD's total capacity as possible in the initial collection relocation, and to develop an ongoing mechanism for making reasonable retention decisions that limit the speed at which DLD holdings reach capacity.
Closure of Dartmouth Storage Library. The goal of this project is to discard storage items identified for removal, decommission the existing Dartmouth Storage facility, and move remaining contents to the Dartmouth Library Depository. We will also relocate storage staff and begin to establish operations. At the conclusion of the project, the Head of Access Services will evaluate the remaining space and develop a transfer plan to accommodate the needs of the Dartmouth Libraries.
Institutional Infrastructure Planning for Electronic Records. A collaboration between the Library (Records Management and Archives), and the Enterprise Content Management team of Institutional Information Systems and Services (IISS) to create a basic infrastructure for the management of electronic records. This set of tools, policies, procedures, guidelines, and implementation processes will augment the current project-based work done by IISS, through their OnBase initiatives. The goal of this project will be to clearly define under what circumstances, and by what means, an office can transition to using these digital document management tools, without needing to submit a project proposal through the Records Management Policy Committee for approval.
Research Data Management Services: Education & Outreach. Following on the FY14 implementation of the Data Management Planning Tool (DMPTool), introduce it to faculty, grants managers and other researchers and invite their feedback; continue to customize this tool for Dartmouth. Collaborate with ITS to increase our understanding of researchers' data support needs and begin to articulate an integrated set of services around data management. Increase understanding among liaison librarians of research data characteristics within their areas of responsibility; provide educational opportunities for liaison librarians that address fundamental research data management concepts, in order to build understanding and awareness. Identify librarians in broad subject areas who will develop a deeper knowledge of data management concepts and act as a steering group for possible further initiatives.
Research Information Management Services (RIMS): Citations Services. In FY15, we will pilot Symplectic Elements for citation gathering and management, which will enable semi-automated reporting on research activity for individual faculty and Dartmouth College. Liaisons will work with their faculty to create accurate data on publication activity. Initial data feeds will include demographic information (name, title, etc.), as well as citation harvesting and population of an institutional repository. Other data feeds such as teaching activities and grants will be explored, as well. The FY15 goal will be to make XML feeds available to help populate faculty web profiles on department sites. Faculty reporting functionalities will be identified and prioritized by gathering unit specific requirements.
Research Information Management Services (RIMS): Repository Services. Work with Computing to plan and implement Fedora/Hydra and contribute to its early use as a long-term content repository for institutional and library needs. This year's work entails rapid learning of new infrastructures, and a design phase as we bring library needs and expertise to bear on Fedora's installation and early development. We believe it is important for the library to be active participants in this design/build phase.
Digital Humanities. In order to develop a robust and dynamic structure for sustaining and encouraging digital humanities at the Library, advance and articulate the Library's interest in digital humanities by exerting leadership, providing support, and becoming a focal point for the array of digital humanities endeavors across campus. Specifically, we will collaborate across campus and in the wider DH community to build a web presence, energize staff through a participatory symposium, and partner with Research Computing to develop support for Digital Humanities research, teaching, and scholarship.
Interactive Educational Technologies. Explore interactive educational technologies that library staff can use to enhance teaching, learning and research in light of emerging pedagogies. As pilot projects, develop, apply and promote interactive modules that can be available at point of need and embedded in courses or other learning environments. At least one of these pilot projects will support Dartmouth's first edX course. Make recommendations for library-wide implementation that include best practices, best uses, training needs, tools and technologies.
Jones Media Center Innovation Spaces. In order to meet the changing needs of the students, faculty, and staff who use the Jones Media Center (JMC), and to enable more innovative and experiential teaching and learning, the JMC will undergo a renovation to add more seating to the center, create more spaces for collaboration and specific project work, consolidate staff office, and build an "Innovation Studio," a multi-purpose space for teaching, presentation, and content creation.
Scholarly Communications. In FY15, collaborate with Education & Outreach, the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning (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 copyrights, by developing programs and curriculum materials.
Dartmouth Faculty Open Access Resolution: Implementation Plan. Collaborate with campus partners to create an implementation plan for a Dartmouth-wide open access policy, should the Dartmouth schools pass such a policy.