Message from the Dean
Even a brief leaf through this year's Annual Report will give the impression of just how complex a research library is today. We expect the future to add new layers to this complexity. The role of the University Libraries is more than ever central to the classroom teaching and research of a "tier-one" research institution. Our honors programs have changed fundamentally the way we teach undergraduates. At an early time they are introduced to the research process and this creates new demands on the library. The forces of information technology continue to transform scholarly information and that requires a sophisticated response as we incorporate the use of electronic full text and networked Internet resources into the Libraries' repertoire.
The Libraries' staff must organize access to these new kinds of resources, teach students their use and at the same time maintain access to print and other media that today still represent the bulk of scholarly information. In collaboration with the faculty, we also must respond to a broad variety of different information needs of all disciplines -- sciences, professions, social sciences, fine arts and humanities -- and the variety of this response is also illustrated herein. All this requires that we work within the framework of continuous improvement -- to decide what work we most need to do and how to do it right. If we are to be successful we also must engage students and faculty to understand clearly their expectations and needs.
Although this may sound like a set of aphorisms about how we should conduct our part of the higher education enterprise, the Annual Report amply demonstrates how seriously we take these generalizations. Every member of an excellent staff is engaged in pushing forward the Libraries' work while it is being transformed. None of us expects that in the future we will be doing quite the same thing we are doing today. If we are, then we won't be doing what students and faculty need us to do.
Above all, I want to thank the staff of the University Libraries for the focus and dedication to our mission. This mission is expressed through the Strategic Plan ( http://www.lib.umd.edu/UMCP/PASD/cover.html) which just underwent a major update this year. It is a complete record of the goals we set for ourselves and the success we had in meeting them. A natural conclusion one should draw from the success of 1999 is that the University of Maryland Libraries are well positioned to contribute to the rapid advance of the University of Maryland. In a word excellence is our main goal.
Charles B. Lowry, Ph.D.
Dean of Libraries
© 2001 University of Maryland Libraries
Last Revised: 01/24/01