University of Maryland Libraries
Strategic Planning Task Force

REPORT and RECOMMENDATIONS

March 1999

Introduction
Executive Summary
Short History of Recent Library Planning
Assessment of Levels of Achievement of Current Plan
Environmental Assessment -- 1999
Mission, Values, Vision
Recommended Changes to Current Strategic Plan
Suggested Cycles of Planning and Evaluation

In September 1998 the Libraries gained two-short-term task forces. The first concerned work culture; the second, planning. The latter’s tasks were the following:

Evaluate the current library plan and its levels of accomplishment.

Review the university’s and the university system’s plans and recommend adaptations or updates to the Libraries’ plan as indicated.

Augment the present plan with statements of the Libraries’ vision and values.

Submit its products to the Dean of Libraries by January 31, 1999.

As of mid-February 1999 the task force has met twelve times, and smaller groups and individuals have done much work and reading between meetings. After our work is complete, we plan to evaluate how we worked as a group. We will report that evaluation as well, in the hope it will inform and help guide others’ work.

We are indebted to all the fine work that was our foundation, including the 1997 strategic plan, the March 1998 report of the Service Task Force, staff statements at the Vision, Values and Leadership sessions in August 1998, and the products of the 1998-99 Work Culture Task Force. We are also indebted to staff for the useful comments and suggestions on the drafts of this current report and recommendations. Many of those suggestions are incorporated in these present documents.

The planning task force obviously took longer than the appointed time to complete its work. However, we hope this document – the task force’s report and recommendations -- usefully fulfills the above-listed tasks.

One salutary effect of studying the Libraries’ strategic plan and its level of achievement is the realization that there is much more going right than wrong. There is the strong sense that the Libraries are on the right path. The strategic plan does not need to be re-done – only updated. That "rightness" is borne out in important segments of the external environment as well.

Certainly major challenges continue, with providing print and electronic materials; with making up enormous lost time, cuts and discontinuity in building and maintaining collections and staff; and with focusing on which academic programs the university will emphasize. Indeed, the challenges don’t just continue. Often they seem to grow and multiply, and the needs of the Libraries, in order to provide what their users need, can be overwhelming.

On the other hand, the state has big budget surpluses, the university has a new President, the Libraries have a still-new Dean, the Libraries have attempted a scary number of new initiatives in the past two years (and have succeeded already with some of them), have re-energized public services, and have created fund-raising capacities.

And, if misery does indeed love company, the UM Libraries are in good company – that of other major academic/research libraries struggling to meet the similar challenges and take advantage of opportunities found in every facet of their operations, from fund-raising to work re-design to the digital environment.

We offer this report and these recommendations to be considered as part of a strategic plan for the Libraries and as another step in what should become the ongoing process of renewing and updating the Libraries’ purposes and plans.

The Strategic Planning Task Force (SPTF) was formed in September 1998 to review and evaluate the current University Libraries Strategic Plan (April 1997) . The SPTF was charged with recommending updates or modifications to the Dean, the Library Executive Council, the University Library Council and the Staff. The Libraries Strategic Plan identifies goals related to each of the five initiatives addressed in University's Strategic Plan

The SPTF examined the current strategic plan to assess the Libraries level of performance toward achieving the goals. The task force also updated the environmental assessment from the Libraries 1994 Strategic Plan.

Our review of the 1997 Plan identified several major achievements over the past two years.

In accordance with the CQI Team's report on Undergraduate Education recommendation

• the research services of Hornbake and McKeldin Libraries have been consolidated and the staff has been reorganized.
• undergraduate reference services have been relocated to McKeldin from Hornbake
• the Service Plus concept has been incorporated in the University Libraries and the Service Plus/Information and Research Resource Center has been created at McKeldin Library

Significant progress has been made in the development of the Libraries Web page to provide our users with seamless access to networked digital and full-text resources.

• MdUSA, the University System of Maryland's implementation of the OCLC SiteSearch common interface became available January 1998
• The VICTOR online public access catalog (PAC) became available in a graphical user interface (GUI) version VICTORWeb in January 1999.

As part of the reorganization of the McKeldin Library, the Electronic Reading Room was physically converted into two networked instruction rooms.

In keeping with the University's commitment to fund a top notch research collection the Libraries acquired sufficient additional funding in the materials budget to maintain a constant rate of acquisition for monographs and serials. Serial subscriptions were not cut -sufficient funds were added to the base budget for FY1998 and FY1999.

A $410,000 grant received from NEH to begin the development of the Maryland Center for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) in partnership with the College of Arts and Humanities and Academic Information Technology Services. The center will be housed in McKeldin.

The establishment of a planning, research and development capability for the Libraries has resulted in the Planning and Administrative Services Division charged with assisting staff in planning, training, personnel services, grants, management information, and gifts.

In addition to our accomplishments, the task force also pinpointed goals in the 1997 plan that are in progress and/or still need to be addressed.

Promotion & Pay Plan for librarians while implemented in 1998 has not been adequately funded to allow the Libraries to increase salary competitiveness across classification lines.

Progress has been made toward the elimination of dependence on contract positions for permanent support. FY1998 saw five contract positions converted to permanent positions and seven converted in FY1999. Ten more positions need to be converted and funding has been requested in FY2000.

While additional funding was provided to maintain the current rate of acquisitions, funding must be increased to allow the Libraries to exceed the current rate and to meet the information needs of the University community.

The Libraries must continue to explore with the University, innovative options for meeting the continued needs for physical facilities which provide optimum research capabilities in both print and electronic formats and in space allocation

The SPTF felt that it was important to remain consistent with the five Initiatives that comprise the University Strategic Plan. As we reviewed the Libraries plan we concluded that Initiatives I and II are both related to the Libraries mission and goals to support and serve the needs of the students, both graduate and undergraduate, and the faculty and staff. In order to support the provision of this continuum of services, a comprehensive research collection both print and electronic, a competent staff, and up to date, well maintained facilities must be made available. Both Initiatives concentrate on providing these necessities. We have recommended that Initiatives I and II be merged, but not renumbered, for the Libraries planning purposes.

During the review of the plan it became evident that in addition to the recommendations for updates and additions to the Initiatives and their related goals there should be a mechanism established to assure on-going planning and evaluation. The SPTF recommends that the Libraries develop an annual cycle of planning and evaluation in order to institutionalize both and assure that they remain a major effort. The suggested cycle included in this report addresses not only planning, but also reviewing, reporting and assessing the previous year's activities.

Our discussions led to the need to provide definitions for terms used within the Strategic Plan.

Libraries all levels of staff organizational units throughout the UM campus -divisions, branches.

Staff personnel at all levels of the Libraries

Users students, faculty and staff of the University and members of the, larger scholarly community.

In addition to our review of the Strategic Plan, two meetings were held with staff to obtain their reactions and input. To provide structure to the discussions, staff was asked to consider three questions: 1) What did you see in the plan you did not expect to see; 2) What is not in the plan that you want to see; 3) What do you disagree with in the plan. Several suggestions for additions and revisions to the plan from staff have been incorporated in this report. Draft copies of our work were provided to LEC for their input. A joint meeting with LEC and the STPF was held to discuss the work of the group and the rationale used to develop our proposed report.

In developing Mission, Values and Vision statements we relied heavily on the work of the Work Culture Task Force and on the work of the Service Task Force, both of which we fully endorse. We cannot emphasize enough how we have tried to assure that each staff member is able to in some way ''buy into" the mission, values, and vision of the libraries and participate fully in them.

This report of the Strategic Planning Task Force is recommendations for changes, additions and deletions to the Libraries Strategic plan, mission, values and vision, and an annual cycle of planning and evaluation. It is presented for review to the Dean of Libraries, the LEC, the Staff and the University Library Council.

The Strategic Planning Task Force focused on the Libraries’ 1997 plan, with some attention to the 1994 plan as well. Obviously staff members are most familiar with these two latest efforts. However, the Libraries did not invent planning just in the 1990s. For example, the UMCP Libraries, as they were then called, were included in the sequence of University of Maryland Libraries five-year plans and updates starting in October 1981. The Council of Library Directors for the university system issued and updated those plans in the 1980s.

Below are excerpts from major planning or assessment efforts and products in this decade. The May 1993 plan is especially interesting because its statements of mission, values and vision directly pertain to the current efforts of the Work Culture Task Force and the Strategic Planning Task Force.

May 1993

UMCP LIBRARIES STRATEGIC PLAN

The document’s Introduction states in part: "The first phase of the Libraries strategic plan, discussed in this report, describes a new vision, identifies major goals to guide our efforts to accomplish that vision within this decade, and establishes our commitment to undertake immediate objectives during the next fiscal year." This plan’s statements of mission, values and vision are instructive:

to establish ongoing mechanisms for measuring faculty and student needs and expectations to be met by the Libraries

to provide effective and timely access to information for the Libraries’ clientele

to ensure collection development priorities that appropriately reflect academic priorities for research and instruction

to preserve, in particular, unique special collection holdings, and complete the Libraries’ plan for preserving the general collections

to improve information literacy skills and build commitment to life-long learning, focusing on UMCP undergraduate

to ensure that the Libraries are strategically equipped and organizationally prepared for a decade of potentially fundamental change

to make the Libraries and integral part of campus-wide decision-making groups where priorities are set and resources are allocated.

 

December 1994

STRATEGIC PLAN, University of Maryland at College Park

This plan resulted from extended and intense work of a task force and a steering committee in 1993 and 1994. The executive summary said in part,

The plan itemized nine goals:

Provide strong leadership in managing the transition from a print to an electronic environment.

Build, provide access to and preserve general collections to support the campus’ academic priorities.

Provide education and assistance to the academic community in the use of library collections and services.

Enhance and provide access to special collections of nationally and internationally important primary research materials.

Improve and expand the Libraries’ physical facilities.

Ensure that the Libraries have the human resources essential to carrying out the responsibilities of a research library of the first rank,

Participate actively in campus, University System, State, regional, and national programs.

Build greater awareness of the challenges facing research libraries generally and elevate the visibility of the UMCP Libraries, their effectiveness, achievements and needs.

Improve funding for the Libraries, including the development of alternative sources of support.

On February 3, 1995, the University Library Council chair sent a memorandum, "The place of the Library in the Strategic Plan of the University," to the provost, offering these major points of advice:

The Council recommends that the University Administration affirm and support the important, central role of the Library in all of the major academic functions of the University.

This is a critical, revolutionary time for libraries; failure to address the support for the Library will cripple the University for decades.

In the new competitive marketplace in education, the Library is a critical indicator of the University’s quality (and properly so!).

There is no possibility that our budget and staff, sufficient for a second-tier university, can be leveraged into providing library access, service, and current collections characteristic of our peer flagship universities.

 

April 1997

BUILDING THE COLLECTIONS & SERVICES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK LIBRARIES: GOALS, PLANS AND BUDGET REQUESTS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE UNIVERSITY STRATEGIC PLAN.

Excerpts of the introduction to this plan follow.

February 1999

STRATEGIC PLANNING TASK FORCE REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Unlike the 1997 and earlier plans, the 1998-99 effort to update the Libraries’ strategic plan is internally driven – i.e., not at the behest of the university or other external requirement. Also, this task force’s work is not a new or updated strategic plan per se, but recommendations on revising the 1997 plan. The report and recommendations will be transmitted to the Dean and the Library Executive Council, with later review by the University Library Council. It will be up to these individuals and groups to determine how and what of the task force’s work is used.

(as updated December 1997 for FY 1999 budget request)

The 1997 plan’s initiatives and goals are in italic. Levels of achievement are in regular type.

The 1997 plan is repeated as adopted, so anachronisms are present – e.g., "UMS" rather than "USM," "Music Library" rather than "Performing Arts Library," etc. These phrases will be updated when the plan is officially updated.

The divisions’ annual reports, committee reports and minutes and other documents provide detail not included in this assessment.

 

Achievement: The research services of Hornbake and McKeldin have been consolidated and the staff has been reorganized. A new model of service, called "Service Plus," has been adopted and represents the Libraries’ commitment to responding to the CQI report. Work continues to re-engineer all basic educational and reference services.

Refurbishment to date has meant taking walls down around the information/research center on the first floor of McKeldin and some changed spaces for Public Services work/office space. Work on other areas is in process.

Achievement: Undergraduate reference, reserves and periodicals services have been relocated to McKeldin from Hornbake. The undergraduate collection remains at Hornbake and is being slowly assimilated into the collections of other campus libraries. Renovation of the Hornbake building has begun, with the HVAC work. The design phase has begun as well, for the first- and second-floor spaces for special collections, notably Marylandia and Rare Books, Archives and Manuscripts, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation Library. Design of the third floor to house the National Public Broadcasting Archives/Library of American Broadcasting will come later.

Blending Information Services with Instruction--requires implementing critical service recommendations of the CQI team, the Square One Project Planning Center, now known as Service Plus/Information and Research Services Center.]

The Service Plus model, integrating instruction and reference service, has been incorporated in all of the libraries and a Service Plus/Information & Research Center has been created at McKeldin Library. A coordinator for this Center has been hired and work has begun on evaluating and modifying staffing patterns and hours of service. Training activities are also underway.

Achievement: User Education Services designed and piloted a program of four classes to meet the needs of new library users. This program reached over 1100 students during the past academic year. Support also continued for the teaching assistants in the English 101 program, enrolling over 2500 students. In addition, librarians are collaborating with faculty and students in the Gemstone program. Further, space in McKeldin Library has been renovated for two state-of-the-art teaching labs.

Public service librarians are working to implement the goal of upgrading skills. In frequent short sessions, for example, librarians teach each other about new electronic services. Also, with the assistance of a consultant from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), work re-design has begun, so librarians can use their time and resources as effectively as possible.

Achievement: The merger of the Hornbake collection is in progress. The transfer and merger of the reference collection are complete. As Hornbake circulating books are returned, through call-number mapping they are sent to the appropriate branch. Weeding of the collection also is in progress.

The transfer and merger of non-circulating serials are about 50% complete. Similar work for other serials has not begun. Reserve materials have been transferred.

CAP is not the method being used for collection analysis. Call-number mapping is used to place the "new" materials in the correct location.

Achievement: The Libraries' infrastructure for information technology (IT) has evolved over the last decade to provide a rich array of digital resources--including bibliographic access, full text, numeric data and licensed network access to important scholarly information on the Internet. At the same time these resources have been added, a confusing number and variety of access points have developed that can easily defeat a user. The CQI report calls for a much needed reorganization of this infrastructure which will be achieved by several sub-goals.

The description of these sub-goals provides a top-level view of the plans for accomplishing this seamless access, without the technical details in Appendix IV of Section III of the Libraries’ 1997strategic plan.

Achievement: MdUSA, the University System of Maryland’s implementation of the OCLC SiteSearch common interface, first became available in January 1998. The current version provides access to almost 50% of the Web-accessible databases to which the Libraries subscribe. 73% of these databases may be searched using a common graphical interface. Direct, authenticated access is provided to the remaining 23% through the MdUSA gateway. Development of this interface continues.

The VICTOR online public access catalog became available in a GUI (graphical user interface) version as VICTORWeb in early January 1999.

Achievement: The Libraries’ home page is being transformed into a "client" for organizing information about the Libraries and access to scholarly information provided by the Libraries. Thus, the development of the Libraries’ Web site is becoming a critical part of our information technology development. In the future our ability to provide seamless and understandable access to an array of licensed and free information resources on the Internet will depend on this work. The work of the Libraries’ Web Board has been greatly strengthened by the recent recruitment of two new IT Division staff to support this effort.

Achievement: In the reorganization of McKeldin Library, the Electronic Reading Room was physically converted into two instruction labs. The networked electronic resources previously located in that room are integrated into the Service Plus Information and Research Center.

Achievement: Information technology planning now emphasizes the use of Web technology for this application. Strengthened staffing should allow for progress soon.

Achievement: The new training rooms using LINK in McKeldin are a start for this goal. The actual plan is that the new technology, which will be purchased for the Performing Arts Library for video and audio display, will be housed in the Nonprint Media Services and remote access will be provided to data stored for all libraries.

Achievement: Processing at 18 cents per one dollar for new acquisitions is still a valid formula. In FY 1998 $27,000 was received for PromptCat for purchasing routine cataloging with the new books. The Rapid Cataloging Unit and the Serial Adds Unit are current with all new receipts.

Elimination of backlogs in Chinese, Korean and some special collections queues,

Completion of cataloging of French plays and the slavery pamphlet collections,

Conversion to machine-readable form of approximately half (7,000 of 14,000) of the records of the previously cataloged books in the Prange Collection.

The difference between cataloging and processing special collections needs to be made in all library reports or requests. Progress in those areas also needs to be quantified better.

II Goal 2. Strengthen the Libraries' Human Resources to Improve Support of Research and Graduate Education.

Achievement: The promotion/pay plan was implemented in 1998; the university also formally approved the plan in 1998. However, it has not reached the contract associate staff ranks, nor has it been adequately funded. For FY 1999, $457,000 was requested to recognize the relative placements of librarians in the new ranking system for promotion in place, to increase salary competitiveness and to improve retention; $66,000 was received.

A second round of applications for promotion to the librarian/curator ranks is in process at the end of the calendar year. Funds have again been requested – in the FY 2000 budget – for the Libraries to fully implement the plan for appointment, promotion and permanent status of the professional staff.

Achievement: An alternative staff structure was devised and is being implemented, with ongoing discussion and training in teams, work re-design and related matters. Detailed descriptions appear in the March 6, 1998, Service Task Force Report and Recommendations; Dean Lowry's 9/3/98 memo to Deans, Department Heads, and Directors; the Public Services Division’s FY 1998 annual report; and the Collection Management & Special Collections Division’s FY 1998 annual report.

The establishment of three discipline-related teams (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences & Allied Professions, and Science & Technology) was one of two major recommendations of the Service Task Force. (The other was to implement the Service Plus model.) The teams integrate functions of reference service, user education and collection management. Formation and development of the teams are enormous undertakings in the number of people involved and affected (including students and faculty), the re-ordering of fundamental library services and operations, the complexity of the proposition, and the resources and investment required.

The teams are being populated by several means: re-assignment of positions formerly assigned to Public Services Division or Collection Management & Special Collections Division, conversion of positions formerly assigned to work in Hornbake, conversion of contract positions to permanent (state lines), filling of positions held vacant to save on salaries, and new positions approved for the FY 1999 budget.

II Goal 2.3. Graduate Assistantship Program--strengthen the Libraries' human resources by expanding the prototype program currently limited to technical services.

Achievement: This program has expanded to all divisions, but primarily through conversion of funds allotted for student assistants generally, rather than by new funds. These conversions have resulted in approximately 30 graduate assistant positions in FY 1999 in the Libraries. The goal of securing 20 additional positions through university support was not successful in FY98 and only minimal additional funds were forthcoming for FY 1999. However, expansion of the graduate assistant program has been requested again in the Libraries’ FY 2000 budget.

II Goal 3. Electronic Text & Image Center(s)--in concert with College of Arts and Humanities, develop a center for managing "full text" and images which supports faculty work in both the classroom and research.

Achievement: In December 1998 the National Endowment for the Humanities announced that the Maryland Center for Technology in the Humanities (MITH) had been approved for $410,000 over three years ($90,000 less than requested in the grant application). There is a 4-to-1 local-to-federal match. The first year’s federal funding, available in 1999, will enable the center to get underway. The third campus partner is Academic Information Technology Services (aITs). The new center will be housed in McKeldin.

Achievement: Notable activities pertaining to preservation happened in FY 1998, among them the following:

The Preservation Committee evaluated library-wide preservation projects and established priorities for them.

The Preservation Department drafted shelving guidelines to ensure that collections are shelved to promote maximum life span.

The first mass deacidification project, involving over 700 books, was completed, along with plans for the next phase.

The Libraries’ first professionally run conservation unit was established, to conserve collections to national standards and to train staff in appropriate treatment of materials.

The department inspected and evaluated 8,000 volumes and inspected over 2,000 reels of microfilm as part of its overall program to oversee and protect the Libraries’ holdings.

 

Achievement: A major effort is underway with other USM Libraries to procure a new library information management system (LIMS 3). Seven working groups have been formed to assist the Review and Evaluation Team in reviewing all aspects of the procurement, conducting site visits, evaluating proposals and choosing a vendor and system.

Also on a statewide basis, the UM Libraries are cooperating in the planning and formation of a Maryland Digital Library, for which a proposal on scope, access, etc., is currently being drafted. The MDL will include all academic libraries in the state.

CIRLA is the Chesapeake Information and Research Library Alliance, with member libraries Univ. of Delaware, Georgetown, George Washington, Howard, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, the Library of Congress, the National Agricultural Library and the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. Reciprocal borrowing privileges have been established for students and faculty of CIRLA’s member institutions. Hiring a program/administrative manager for CIRLA is expected soon. In early December member libraries held their first training event for staff: ARL’s three-day Library Management Skills Institute I. UM Libraries hosted and helped coordinate the event.

Joint subscriptions and digital library projects among the CIRLA members are being explored. Chief among them is the proposed Electronic Science Library, to increase effective access to science information in support of learning and research at the member institutions and to reduce the costs of acquiring and creating these resources. The Electronic Science Library will be a networked and virtual digital resource searchable over the Web by faculty, staff, students and researchers at the CIRLA institutions.

Achievement: An important part of service to the state (and to Delaware and the District of Columbia as well) is the UM Libraries’ status and responsibility as a regional depository for U.S. government publications. Renewal of that role in FY 1998 included the following activities:

organization and sponsorship of a GPO workshop on campus in October 1997,

organization and hosting of a meeting of representatives of selective depository libraries on campus in April 1998,

sponsorship of a GPO Access demonstration and training session on campus in July 1998.

increased availability of catalog records for government documents and the advent of automated circulation capability for government documents in January 1998.

These efforts and others were recognized in a much-improved inspection report of the Libraries’ federal depository library status, from the Government Printing Office. Another critical achievement was filling the position heading the depository library in the fall of 1998. In another federal collection, the Libraries continued to build the U.S. Patent and Trademark materials and improve access to them with an additional workstation.

Web browser access to the Libraries’ public access catalog and to other non-proprietary databases by any resident of Maryland is a reality.

Achievement: In 1998 the Performing Arts Library (formerly the Music Library), of which the International Piano Archives at Maryland is a part, played key roles in the International Rachmaninoff Festival and Conference and in the Kapell International Piano Competition and Festival. More events are planned for 1999, and the year 2000 will be key for IPAM and its parent library when they move to new quarters in the Maryland Center for Performing Arts, now under construction.

building its collections by continuing to acquire historic and current piano recordings, collections of pianists' papers, and other related materials;

ensuring the protection of these rare and unique resources, actively working in the vanguard of research in special methods of preservation;

making these materials accessible and to provide a variety of reference services and professional assistance;

pursuing an active publications program based on materials in the collection, including recordings, books, catalogs, and a newsletter.

IPAM is in the forefront of digital efforts as well, with the IBM/SUR project described elsewhere. Additional hardware and applications are in the design stages, to become reality as the Performing Arts Library moves into new quarters.

Funding of $150,000 from NEH for Katherine Anne Porter microfilming project is being applied to an ongoing project.

Funding from the Library of American Broadcasting (LAB) Board for processing and staff support for LAB is being applied to an ongoing project.

Funding of $25,000 from Mr. Jerry Lee for the creation of a digital database of 25,000 photographs in the LAB).

Funding from the Eaton Foundation that supports activity in the area of developing an audio materials database (LAB).

Funding from the Carpenter’s Union is being applied to an ongoing project (LAB).

Funding from the Maryland Library Assoc. for updating the finding aid to its archives is being applied to an ongoing project.

Annual funding from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archive Conference (MARAC) for processing of their archives is being applied to an ongoing project.

 

Achievement: The IBM/SUR project was not active in 1998 because the key professor left the College of Library and Information Services (CLIS). However, other faculty and staff have similar digital library interests and expertise, so this project could begin again if the Libraries, CLIS and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies are successful in their application for a Digital Library Initiative II (DLI 2) grant from the National Science Foundation.

The letter of intent for the DLI 2 grant said in part,

Advances in the speed, coverage and accuracy of large vocabulary continuous speech recognition systems will soon make it practical to build large-scale automated systems to index and efficiently search audio and video materials which contain recorded speech. We propose to develop effective search strategies that exploit the capabilities of this new technology, to develop fully functional prototype systems to provide intellectual access to substantial collections, and to evaluate the usability and retrieval effectiveness of those prototypes. . .

The letter identified some collections from the broadcasting archives and proposed to digitize, index and provide access to 8,000 hours of the estimated 125,000 hours of available material in those and other collections.

Achievement: This goal is ongoing and some of the major avenues by which it will continue to be achieved are very new. Nevertheless, there is already significant accomplishment. For example, the new Grants Manager began work in April 1998 and by the end of December 1998 had coordinated applications for $3.9 million in grants.

The full-time major gifts officer and the annual giving officer/Friends coordinator (both funded by the Office of University Advancement but working in and for the Libraries) were hired in December 1997 and January 1998 respectively. The Friends coordinator carried out the Libraries’ second annual Friends’ gala and has goals to increase membership and giving. The Friends gave the Libraries $60,000 for de-acidification.

The major gifts officer is the Libraries’ main contact for the university’s "Bold Vision—Bright Future" campaign. He also coordinated a trip to Japan for the Dean of Libraries to solicit support for the Prange Collection. The Dean met with numerous corporate, foundation and educational leaders. Corporate and foundation leaders indicated strong interest in supporting the preservation and access efforts of the Prange collection. Five in particular requested that the Dean’s visit be followed by full proposal submissions. The proposals were subsequently developed and submitted.

In December 1998 the Libraries’ Director of Special Collections and the acting head of the Prange Collection traveled to Japan for an exhibit of selected Prange materials at Waseda University in Tokyo. Meanwhile, the Libraries await word of a July 1998 application to the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant of $450,000 to complete microfilming of newspapers in the Prange Collection.

The part-time writer/editor continues his work, producing LIBRARY ISSUES for Friends and THE LIBRARY BULLETIN for university faculty and staff, plus the Libraries’ first annual report in 25 years. The new director of university relations and the new media specialist who is the Libraries’ liaison have been briefed on the Libraries. Plans are underway for regular communication with the liaison.

Achievement: The Engineering and Physical Sciences Library (EPSL) experimented with an Oct.-Dec. 1997 fee-based service to a local industrial consulting firm. The EPSL director and Library dean subsequently requested entrepreneurial program funding. No special funds were allotted, but preliminary steps were identified and the report on the 1^st of three phases (legal study, marketing study, pilot project/evaluation) toward formulating such a program was received Oct. 8, 1998.

for corporations $100 Basic access for one person in the corporation

$500 Basic access for two in the form of one transferable and one non-transferable card.

$1,500 Basic access for two, as described above, in addition to full ILL services

 

Achievement: Little progress has been made toward this objective. The Libraries requested $219,000 additional for FY 1999, but the funds were not received. A similar request is going forward in the Libraries’ FY 2000 budget request.

Achievement: In late October 1997, the Libraries’ first Manager of Staff Training and Development was hired to provide or coordinate training that promotes staff versatility and long-range development, job performance, and greater organizational effectiveness. Two major core training activities were initiated: the "Meeting Management and Communication Skills" workshops for all staff and the "Train the Trainer" workshop.

The office also inventoried campus resources in training and development, identified cooperative activities, and is linking via Web pages to those opportunities. Staff training and development needs have been assessed, first by gathering anecdotal evidence, then with a June 1998 survey to all 290 staff members. Analysis of results, development and implementation of recommendations and plans based on the results are now underway.

The new staff training room in the McKeldin Library allows for various activities, including workshops on stress reduction and on preventing sexual harassment.

Achievement: By definition, this goal will never be finished. On the other hand, there are many avenues for staff to get trained and to improve. A few examples are summarized below.

Associate staff members receive $1,000 each in travel funds to attend conferences and other events to develop themselves professionally. The Libraries provide other opportunities too, like the December 1998 library management skills institute in which 13 staffers participated, at no cost to them. A consultant has aided in work re-design and team-building.

The Libraries’ in-house training includes the workshops in meeting management and others cited above. Moreover, various staffers actively engage in teaching colleagues. Examples are the ongoing training in electronic services, including subject databases. A systems training librarian in the Cataloging Department of Technical Services helps that department’s staff keep current. Collection Management has training sessions on acquisitions, selecting, serials, preservation and gifts scheduled for early 1999.

Staff members take courses in the university’s Administrative Computing Center, the Academic Information Technology Services, the Personnel Services Department., the Office for Continuous Quality Improvement, the University Health Center, and other units on campus. Further, staff take advantage of regular academic coursework and tuition remission.

The office existed as a separate entity for two months – late February through late April -- before being merged with the Administrative Services Division. The operational programs of Personnel, Budget and Facilities and Services thus were combined with the new office’s conceptual framework, into one division.

Achievement: Major efforts and accomplishments related to re-thinking and re-organizing staffing, collections and services to support undergraduate and graduate education are summarized under Initiatives I and II above. The three teams, established in the summer of 1998, have begun examining and re-designing work processes, in accordance with the Libraries’ service philosophy and the goals of Service Plus. These examinations and re-design efforts will continue and will be expanded to other areas of the Libraries as resources permit.

Measuring the needs of internal and external customers is not presently being done on the Servqual approach. Instead, the Management Information Systems (MIS) Manager and key staff are examining various approaches, including benchmarking, and will test and implement different measures in 1998/99. They will include surveys and output measures. Input measures will also be evaluated for ongoing validity. The Libraries did help plan and carry out a short user survey in conjunction with a fall 1998 class in the College of Library and Information Services.

Library staff needs were measured in several important efforts in 1998:

Needs assessment survey for training and development

August sessions on vision, values and leadership

Work Culture Task Force to synthesize and build on the August sessions.

absence of clear academic priorities;

growing student and faculty demand for an increasing array of information resources, services and technologies;

declining revenues in the face of rising costs;

standards set by major U.S. research libraries.

Five years later, the academic priorities are still not clear enough; the demand and the opportunity for varied resources and services outstrip the resources to offer them; revenues are increasing but not fast enough to make up for lost time; and UM Libraries continue to fall behind their peers – actual and aspirational – in the academic/research library community.

On the other hand, there are changes that put the Libraries in a very different context for success than they had late in 1994. Some of the major factors and changes are summarized below.

External Political Factors:

National

The federal government continues to be a much steadier supporter of library-related academic/research community efforts than would seem likely, judging from years of predictions and threats to the contrary. For example, the National Endowment for the Humanities still provides important support for preservation and other efforts. The National Science Foundation, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and others spearhead development of new mechanisms for the National Information Infrastructure – among them the Global Information Infrastructure, Internet II and the Next Generation Internet. The Library of Congress leads innovative digitization efforts. The Government Printing Office makes more and more publications available online.

As to a major source of direct grant funds for libraries, in 1996 the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) replaced the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) and also incorporated the Higher Education Act’s library support. Moreover, the parent agency changed from the U.S. Department of Education to the Institute for Museum and Library Services. These changes can be risk and/or opportunity for academic/research libraries, which are no longer specifically supported through HEA, but neither are they as narrowly supported as before.

State

The Task Force to Study the Governance, Coordination and Funding of the University System of Maryland issued a report to the Governor in January 1999. As task force member and new UM president, C.D. Mote, Jr., wrote in December 1998 his own recommendations to the task force that the College Park campus be

established as a public corporation, a public educational authority or state-affiliated agency,

reaffirmed in its flagship status,

ensured that the campus achieve national stature comparable with the best in the nation.

The task force did recommend extra funding and freedom, while also recommending that the university system remain intact. A late December newspaper account stated that the task force would recommend $22 million extra to the College Park campus over the next two years. (When the USM was created in 1988, lawmakers called for $20 million from 1990-95 to the College Park campus to put it on par with top public universities in California, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina. Those funds never materialized and many say the UM flagship has thus not been able to live up to its promise or challenge.)

Internal Political Factors:

Campus

Dr. Mote began as UM President in September 1998. In an October speech to the campus Senate he outlined three objectives necessary to achieve the goal of the 1988 legislation that reorganized higher education in Maryland – that is, to elevate the University of Maryland to national stature:

university-specific benchmarks for funding and performance for all USM institutions,

effective communication of the needs, achievements and aspirations of the College park campus to the governor, legislature and general public,

increased flexibility to conduct academic and business operations.

In addition to early work with the gubernatorial task force, President Mote has begun to make or incorporate changes in his administration. He is a noted, active and interested participant in many campus functions, including those of the Libraries.

The University Library Council has renewed itself this academic year and is expected to be a vital advisor and guide in the Libraries’ further development, along with the valued and ongoing consultation and oversight by the provost, to whom the library dean directly reports.

Economic Factors

In contrast to the early 1990s, the 1998 economic news from Annapolis has been almost all positive, spurred by a strong economy and a forecast for more of the same in 1999. (The state provides about 30% of the campus’ operating budget.) Indeed, in late 1998 the governor announced for the fiscal year 2000 the largest increase in budget requests since 1992. Much of the governor’s requested increase would go to one-time projects such as buildings for public education and the university system. The state is also expected to end FY 1999 with a surplus exceeding $200 million.

The campus can experience a quick adversarial reaction from the state too, as happened in the fall of 1998 when the governor threatened to block future construction requests because of cost over-runs in building the Maryland Center for Performing Arts, on the UM campus. The chances for funding various operations and initiatives is vastly improved from earlier in the decade, everything considered.

Academic Factors

As noted above, the campus and the university system have in recent months emphasized university governance, not programs. However, 1996 and 1997 were filled with planning and activity evaluating academic programs. In 1996 the University adopted its long-range plan, "Charting a Path to Excellence," which remains in effect.

The plan identified excellence in graduate education and research as one of the University’s five strategic goals and called for a comprehensive review of the quality and potential of current master’s and doctoral programs. That review was published in August 1997 as the Report of the Graduate Program Review Committee.

The report’s recommendations covered recruitment and retention of faculty, fellowship funds and so forth, in addition to targeting "investment to build excellence among the most highly rated programs, insisting that these programs further solidify and improve their standing by focused use of internal resources." It recommended "invoking the procedures for consideration to discontinue" ten Ph.D. and five master’s programs, together offered by twelve departments.

Further administrative review netted the recommendation to consider discontinuation of only one program. One result of this graduate program review is that the Libraries have a still-current assessment of the graduate programs to help guide allocation of resources. Another result is that there is still less focus or hierarchy of academic programs than what the Libraries would ideally have to closely target budget and resource allotments.

The new president has stated and re-stated his goal that UM will achieve national eminence. Meanwhile, as also noted above, the UM Libraries fall behind their aspirational peers – Berkeley, Illinois, Michigan and North Carolina – in total expenditures, staffing, collections and so forth. See statistical data following this assessment.

Scholarly Information Environment

Scholarly communication is a complex system of interdependent elements – the interests and work of individual scholars, the disciplines, research libraries, publishers, and public and private funders. Change in one element affects all others, and rapid change as seen in the last ten years seems to keep everything volatile.

Almost all predictions are that the pace and extent of change will increase, including change for the library element. One such prediction states, "Over the next decade, the traditions, historical strengths, and values of the academic library will increasingly compete for attention and priority with new opportunities, needs, and expectations on campus. It will be a period of perceived chaos. . ."

The rise in prices of books and journals, the competition and opportunity provided by digital "libraries" and other technological breakthroughs, changing methods in teaching and research, the trend to disintermediation, ownership vs. access, and many other factors in scholarly communication, are well documented. How research libraries will act, react, and perform in relation to these factors and related factors will determine how useful they will be to future students, teachers and researchers.

Digital Libraries

Developing electronic systems, collections and services is so important that it must have a separate (even if somewhat redundant) section in this short environmental assessment. While the current state of development for UM Libraries may be more advanced than at other libraries, the challenge for new ventures and for leading efforts on campus is no less for the University of Maryland than elsewhere.

Digital libraries are organizations that provide the resources, including the specialized staff, to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of, and ensure the persistence over time of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities.

A second challenge is the relative priorities of conversion of print to digital and of materials born in digital form. (Don Waters, President of the Digital Library Federation, thinks libraries should give higher priority to the latter.) The UM Libraries are active on both fronts. Moreover, the Libraries have the special and unique collections that make conversion from print (or other medium) to digital a high priority for the scholarly community.

Key questions in digitizing materials include the following:

Publication rights

Choosing material: critical mass, diversity of type of material, uniqueness, reputation

Money and technical questions, including preservation (concerns such as archiving and migration to new technology), audience and potential use, available support/revenue opportunity, ease/difficulty/expense

Access

Experimentation/research.

In any case, the UM Libraries are expanding a strategic policy framework for acquiring and/or creating and preserving digital collections, and for adding the other resources required (as in above definition) that will actually result in useful, sustained and leading digital libraries.

Intellectual Property and Copyright

Many agree with the contention that "No issue will challenge the ability of the academic library to advance electronic collection and service programs more than copyright." The copyright challenge is well documented too. As important as this challenge is to every library in developing and exploiting digital resources, by and large it cannot be resolved by individual libraries. On the other hand, it can be attacked collectively, as with coalitions that are constructing or demanding new licensing arrangements for digital resources, while others are publishing lower-cost alternatives to high-cost, commercially produced journals.

Legislative efforts in the copyright arena have been corporate as well, usually through alliances of library and educational associations and societies. An important and complex new law is the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act that updates parts of U.S. copyright law to address the digital environment.

It limits potential money damages that online service providers, including libraries and educational institutions, could face when they function like a common carrier, allowing online users access to copyrighted material placed there by someone else. The legislation also authorized the Copyright Office to study distance education and to provide its recommendations to Congress on how to promote distance education through digital technologies.

Suffice it to say, at least in the context of this short environmental assessment, that intellectual property and copyright will only grow more important as the UM Libraries seek to become leaders in digital library efforts.

Research Library Environment

Of all the influences on and needs of research libraries, perhaps the most commonly expressed is to regain fiscal strength. A CHRONICLE article of December 1997 examined what it means for libraries’ users when spending levels are not maintained.

Administrators at research universities have responded in two ways to this crisis. The more farsighted, who have come to acknowledge that a strong library is critical to the intellectual health of the university, have reconsidered university priorities and have already embarked on programs to transform their collections, in anticipation of the ‘gateway’ or ‘virtual’ library of the future. The belated expenditures are considerable---and will continue to be needed for decades to come. The money is going toward building warehouses for rarely consulted books; developing consortia to share books and journals; investing in digital technologies; sponsoring conferences on library issues; continuing to acquire monographs and journals in both print and digital form; hiring more librarians; consulting with faculty users; and replacing quickly outmoded audio, visual, and computer equipment, as well as printers and microfilm machines.

Other opportunities that academic research libraries must meet, and problems they must solve, include the following:

renewing the service orientation of the library;

anticipating and being able to meet the needs of users, ideally in a context where the campus has decided and articulated its academic priorities and ideally in a mode of flexible delivery of information and services;

making explicit how the ownership vs. access issues and opportunities will be addressed and taken advantage of;

increasing collaboration and partnerships with other units on campus;

establishing/increasing value as a partner in course development and delivery;

committing to far-reaching, effective collaboration with other libraries, publishers and other enterprises;

being active producers and publishers of information;

hiring and compensating staff with more subject and technological expertise and with capability of working in fluid organizational environments;

being systematically engaged in fundraising activities.

 

Definitions

A mission statement sets forth what we do.

A statement of values sets forth who we are.

A vision statement addresses where we want to be.

The Libraries’ mission is defined in the context of its parent organization. The University of Maryland has a mission statement adopted in 1993, the beginning of which is "Institutional Identity":

The Strategic Planning Task Force proposes the following mission statement for the UM Libraries:

The Libraries have two statements already that summarize who we are: the service philosophy, emphasizing the outward look, and the work culture statement, focusing on the inner. They form two necessary components of a values statement. The March 1998 service philosophy is a product of the Service Task Force. The work culture statement synthesizes staff’s ideas and views from the August 1998 sessions.

The Strategic Planning Task Force endorses these statements as two of the three components of the Libraries’ statement of values.

Following are excerpts from the "Scholarly Information Service Philosophy."

Following is the statement from the Work Culture Task Force, drafted and revised December 1998 – February 1999:

The primary mission of the Libraries is building, organizing, accessing, maintaining, preserving, interpreting, and educating in the use of scholarly information resources which enable the teaching-learning process and research. In order to fulfill this mission, the Libraries must have a staff that is qualified, informed, well trained, dedicated, and appreciated. To that end, the libraries are committed to hiring, training, developing, and retaining a diverse staff in a creative and supportive work environment. Desirable work culture includes shared institutional values, priorities, rewards and other practices which foster inclusion, high performance, and commitment, while still allowing diversity in thought and action. The Libraries' work environment relies on flexible guidelines and a team-based system, rather than rigid policies, procedures, and organizational structure. This work culture rewards the initiative of individuals and self-starting teams that identify and solve complex problems on their own. The Libraries staff is responsible for participating in defining the Libraries mission, values and vision within the context of the Libraries role in supporting the mission of the University. The Libraries’ mission is accomplished as staff take personal responsibility for its realization in their individual job assignments and their group work and team work.

The third component of a values statement is the desirable work values, or "key values," derived by the Work Culture Task Force from the staff’s postings at the Vision, Values, and Leadership Sessions held August 19-20,1998, and as grouped and presented below.

If key values are actually to be valuable and useful, at least three principles must be applied:

Internalization/Adoption. Staff members must make each value meaningful for themselves.

Operationalization/Implementation. Values must be put into practice. They must be observed in action.

Reciprocity. What is good for the individual should be good for the organization and vice versa.

The University of Maryland Libraries will be an innovative leader and partner in the research library and scholarly information communities. We will be a model for client-centered service excellence, providing information resources that enhance learning and teaching in an environment – both physical and virtual – that is inviting and user-friendly. We will hold ourselves to high standards of expertise, performance and contribution to the larger effort, in an organization that will enable and reward achievement of these high standards.

RECOMMENED CHANGES TO CURRENT STRATEGIC PLAN

The 2000 fiscal year budget submission (dated November 24, 1998) was identified as the second in a cycle.

At least two points are obvious: strategic plans have been multi-year; budget requests are annual. Other pertinent activities are annual too. Examples are the performance review and development process for all employees, and preparation of divisional and library-wide annual reports.

The library-wide strategic plan should be reviewed and assessed every year; it should be revised as needed – not necessarily every year. The strategic plan’s goals need to be library-wide indeed and encompassing enough to be meaningful for more than one year, yet specific enough to have strategic and measurable value.

library-initiated, during every third year;

whenever the university’s strategic plan is re-done to the extent the Libraries’ plan no longer fits in the context of the university’s;

as required by changes in library or university leadership;

as required by major, unexpected changes in the environment.

[Note: The purpose and use of contingency planning are beyond the scope of this short outline. However, contingency planning should be explored and exploited more, especially at the divisional and/or departmental levels.]

In any case, the proposed cycle below could undergird a multi-year plan and make it easier to overhaul when such is required. Also, with the existence of a permanent planning and evaluation capability in the Libraries (Planning and Administrative Services Division), periodic revision OR a re-orientation to continuous planning should not be burdensome. It may also be that periodic revision of the library-wide plan and continuous planning are not mutually exclusive.

The Strategic Planning Task Force recommends that the Libraries adopt a regular cycle –so that

Planning and evaluation are institutionalized AND individualized – that is, that planning and evaluation are an ongoing part of the work culture for the organization as a whole AND for all employees.

Divisions’ plans are prepared in the context of the library-wide plan.

Individuals’