Last week we tried something new with the Libraries Town Hall. We shifted our focus north to Rutgers University–Newark and spent some time looking at the relationship between the mission of the University and the planning and activities within the libraries.
We were fortunate to have Sherri-Ann Butterfield, who will assume the position of executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer in July, provide us with an overview of the Rutgers–Newark initiatives where Dana Library plays a central role: the Honors Living-Learning Community (HLLC), Express Newark, and the P3 Collaboratory (Pedagogy, Professional Development, and Publicly-Engaged Scholarship). Dr. Butterfield gave us a whirlwind tour through these initiatives, highlighting the role of the library from teaching one of the foundation courses in the HLLC, to being one of the founding pillars of the P3 Collaboratory, to the amazing “Records at Play: The Institute of Jazz Studies @50” exhibit currently on display at Express Newark.
Rutgers–Newark has made remarkable progress under the leadership of chancellor Nancy Cantor. In her short tenure, the university has achieved a distinct identity as an anchor institution in the community. Its focus on excellence in student inclusion and success and community-engaged scholarship is setting Rutgers–Newark as a national model. She has a robust and active strategic planning process as demonstrated by regular updates of the strategic plan, with the newest released in Spring 2017.
Following Dr. Butterfield’s presentation, Consuella Askew and Adriana Cuervo gave us an overview of Dana Library’s year-long planning process and the resulting document, “Framework for Change: Vision and Goals for the John Cotton Dana Library.” The framework describes an evidence-based approach to the development of services, collections, and spaces that contribute to the success of the university’s students and faculty and to the perception of Dana Library as a valuable and active campus partner.
As part of the annual RCM process, we have received new funding for a full-time archivist and the renovations necessary to develop an archive in Dana Library. In 2016 we also received $100,000 for renovations and new furniture in Dana Library and will receive another $100,000 in 2017. The chancellor has also acknowledged the work of librarians with seed grants to Adriana Cuervo for the Citizen Historian Project (2015), Bonnie Fong for Boot Camps for Graduate Students (2016) and Krista White for Digital Storytelling as 21st-Century Pedagogy (2017). Under Consuella’s leadership, Dana Library will house and be full partners in the P3 Collaboratory.
The energy surrounding the Rutgers–Newark transition is contagious and the university is gaining national recognition for its innovation. What is best, however, is that the library is at the center of these important campus initiatives. Kudos to the efforts of our colleagues in Dana Library and the Institute of Jazz Studies.
What does this mean for RUL? In the March Agenda, I talked about Rutgers University Libraries’ planning process. I would like to take some time now and talk about how the process that Consuella has undertaken in Newark fits within the library-wide planning environment. The risk of being first under the spotlight is that you become an example. However, if they are not in development now, each of our locations—Rutgers–Camden, Rutgers–New Brunswick, and RBHS—will all have plans or frameworks that describe how the libraries fit into the broader University environment. These efforts will directly tie us to the distinct missions of our campuses and provide the foundation for our planning.
The challenge is that even at the very highest levels, our four university environments are different. For example, the Overarching Goals for Dana Library are to:
- Innovate to support 21st-century library use.
- Increase community engagement.
- Increase operational excellence, efficiency, and fiscal sustainability.
Short-term objectives include developing the Dana Archives and selective weeding of the collection to make space for study and collaboration. Longer-term objectives include enhanced educational technology, rethinking strategies related to Government Documents, and improved digital services (e.g., digital humanities). These goals and objectives are tailored to meet the needs of the Rutgers–Newark environment and mission, and we cannot simply transplant them to RBHS or Rutgers–New Brunswick. Simply put: unique university goals require unique library goals. In the February Agenda, I discussed the challenges that we face as we support the multiple unique missions of the University.
As we go into Phase 2 of our planning, we will have to determine how to balance the finite central infrastructure to meet the needs of Rutgers–Newark, while continuing to advance the wider university. Ultimately, we will be most successful when we can find broad-based initiatives or areas of focus that support more than one campus. Those of us not in Dana know that there are needs in each of the campuses, including data management, research information management, digital humanities, improved instructional objects, improved collections, and Open Access initiatives. Internally, we know, for example, that we need improved support technology support for Special Collections, improved discovery, an improved website, improved ability to track internal policies and procedures, and improved collection assessment capacity. In our current environment, it is highly unlikely that we will receive increased funds for central services. Instead, we will need to create scalable, reusable infrastructure to extend our existing capacity.
With three senior level interim positions, FY2018 will likely be another year of building infrastructure. It will also be a great time to step back and connect with our campuses to determine where our libraries fit and how we can become further integrated into campus needs and missions. Thanks to Consuella and Adriana’s presentation at Town Hall, we know this works. In Rutgers–Newark, we see that this is a great time for libraries. Through careful planning and collaboration with administrators, the expertise of the library is central to almost every aspect of research and education. We need to learn from this experience and find ways to replicate this success across four very different campus environments, while also maintaining the balance and economies of scale that our infrastructure units provide.
