UNIVERSITY LIBRARY RESPONSE TO Oct. 31st, 2005 Draft Version of the CAMPUS STRATEGIC PLAN
November 21, 2005
We start
with the general comment that although there are many wonderful and exciting ideas in this
document, there is as yet no luster, or brilliance, that shines through a single statement that
differentiates what UIUC wants to be from the visions of our peers who are striving towards the
same goal. Illustrative examples: “We will touch and improve the lives of all UIUC students,
all Illinois citizens, and all scholars around the globe.” “UIUC’s research will improve the
quality of lives of the people of Illinois and beyond.”
Enclosed
with this document are the first drafts of the templates for the University Library. The
breakdown between research and education does not pertain very well to our activities; we may try
other approaches in future drafts if that will not be counterproductive to the campus’s
efforts.
Comments
and suggestions about specific items in the campus plan, arranged by page numbers (we have not
pointed out typos, which we assume will be caught easily):
Page 21: Competitive Benchmark Analysis:
- The table conflates measures of inputs; measures that indicate institutional distribution of
resources; and outcomes. It would be more powerful to gather each in a separate labeled
group.
Page 22: SWOT Analysis:
- Engagement/Service: Weakness: add “Lack of engagement culture”
Page 23, SWOT:
- Research/Scholarship weakness: add to the last bullet a statement about how outdated facilities
are inadequate to support modern programs in the humanities and social sciences; library building
shortcomings are only a part of this more widespread inadequacy.
- Add another bullet “organizational structures for interdisciplinary initiatives are cumbersome
and financially draining”
- Education opportunity: suggest adding “Information Literacy, mapped to the curriculum and
infused where it will benefit the largest number of students.”
Page 28, Engagement/Services:
- Positive: add the Library to the list in bullet point two (we provide access to our collections
and services to Illinois academic and public libraries and to individuals who come to campus,
including the local community)
Page 30, Research:
- Building on existing….bullet point 5: we think either all or none of these programs should be
listed
- Add another bullet: Create scholars’ commons environments – both physical and virtual – to
facilitate the use of content in traditional and cutting-edge ways
Page 33, Education (con’t):
- Change the second bullet to read “Develop and exploit innovative instructional delivery and
learning environment models, including integration of online components”
Page 34. Engagement/Service
- The third bullet under the first heading leaves unclear why/how increasing the percentage of
faculty with research presence in Chicago or the state will be anything more than just an
office. Perhaps you mean to say that we aspire to have more faculty who carry out research
that involves and/or engages the citizens in these areas and/or whose results will improve some
aspect of their lives.
Page 37. Resources Plan for Achieving Strategic Goals:
- Perhaps it would be useful to include here something about how the changes in our culture
(entrepreneurial; hopefully, engagement) will also require some reallocation of resources. It
could be inferred from the text, but making it more explicit would strengthen our resolve to make
it happen.
Page 39. Library Price Increase
- We do not want to appear to be ungrateful at the designation of funds to deal with one of our
major challenges, but the $1 million figure is quite insufficient to keep the library the “
distinguished” resource the plan labels it. With this level of investment, the gap between
the UIUC Library and its peers will widen. (In 1999, the committee that investigated the
Library estimated that this would require $5 million/year for at least 5 years. In the
ensuing 6 years, we have fallen further behind.) In addition, the Library lags
far behind its peers in digitization activities, again primarily because of lack of
resources. And, if the University expects this to continue to be a “Destination Library,”
additional resources are required to maintain and preserve the large print collection. (On
the positive side, our reallocation strategies are allowing us to become much more infused in the
University, one of our important goals.)
Page 39, Startup and Retention Costs
- We would very much like to have library collection costs required for new hires included in the
definition of startup and retention costs, just as these costs are recognized in endowments for new
named Chairs.
Pages 41-42, Physical/Capital
- We hope that the University will also consider the need to renovate existing library facilities
and perhaps build new ones. The University cannot achieve preeminence without Library
facilities that support research and education, something that is increasingly difficult if not
impossible to do in our current facilities.
Page 43:
- It would be helpful to use the same labels and the same colors on both charts.
