Introduction
This document is a tool for the University Library to use in focusing our strategic efforts and in planning and prioritizing our work. It is meant to convey our values, goals, and areas of focus to internal and external audiences. As a tool, it is meant to empower all Library employees and provide common language for decision making. These values are driven by University values and goals found in Boldly Illinois, https://boldly.illinois.edu/ and the University Library’s last strategic plan https://www.library.illinois.edu/geninfo/libraryinit/strategic-framework-2019/
Our Mission[1]
The University Library is central to the intellectual life of the university. By providing and stewarding collections and content that comprise a record of human knowledge and by offering a wide array of services, it enhances the university’s activities in creating knowledge, preparing students for lives of impact, and addressing critical societal needs. The Library advances the university’s goals by striving to ensure unfettered access to information and by providing a network of expertise that ensures value, quality, and authenticity of information resources. The Library integrates and manages knowledge to enable learning and the creation of new knowledge.
University of Illinois Boldly Illinois Values for 2025-2030
The Library embraces these values for both patrons and Library employees.
- We value COLLABORATION to solve problems and promote understanding.
The University actively brings people together to define emerging issues, discover new knowledge, enhance quality of life, encourage understanding and create solutions.
- We value authentic INCLUSION to build community.
By being inclusive and compassionate, Illinois welcomes a diverse population that allows us to broaden our horizons, builds a sense of belonging and improves everyday experiences.
- We value EMPOWERMENT to enable individuals to be successful.
Illinois provides the tools for people to define their goals, find their purpose and realize their potential, so they can engage as citizens and contribute to societal improvement on campus and in the community.
Library Goals
These are informed by the University Goals but reflect Library practice and culture of Library employees and our patrons.
- Foster scholarship, discovery, and innovation
- Provide catalyst for transformative learner-centered experiences
- Make a significant and visible societal impact
- Steward resources effectively in alignment with current strategy
Areas of Focus for the University Library
The University Library aspires to embody the following principles, and they are therefore our areas of focus.
- An organizational culture that exemplifies the Boldy Illinois values of collaboration, authentic inclusion, empowerment, and building current and future information professionals
- Human-centered spaces (both physical and digital) that serve the existing and emerging needs of employees and patrons
- An ecosystem that provides sustainable and inclusive discovery of and access to physical and electronic collections
- Sustainable and scalable services that are responsive to changing patron needs
- A technology infrastructure that increases capacity for strategic initiatives
- A focus on engagement with outcomes that have local, state, national, and/or international impact
Strategic Reflection Prompts
The following questions are suggested for use in decision making when planning and prioritizing where the University Library should focus its efforts at a given time. Not all questions may be relevant or equally applicable in all situations.
- Values: How does [idea] promote values of the organization?
- Goals: How does [idea] meet goals of the organization?
- Areas of Focus: How does [idea] align with areas of focus?
- Patron-centered outcomes: How does [idea] lead to a patron-centered outcome?
- Evidence-based decision making: What evidence indicates that [idea] is necessary?
- Evidence of impact:
- Is the impact of [idea] broad and/or global?
- Is the impact of [idea] assessable?
- Is there an assessment plan?
- What is the impact of not undertaking [the idea]?
- Proposed timeline: Is there a concrete time factor related to [idea] (g., this must be done by X because the software will deprecate)
- Dependencies: Are there dependencies related to [idea]? (X must happen before Y)
- Plan for resource allocation:
- Are there resources and/or capacity to do [idea] at this time or do resources need to be redirected from other areas?
- What would the impact of this redirection be?
- Stewardship of resources: Will [idea] lead to better stewardship of funds/human resources/collections, and/or to the creation of other resources in that area?
[1] This is no longer posted on the University Library website, and we pulled it from the last Library Strategic plan. We recommend that the mission statement have a permanent home on the Library website.