Library Strategic Framework
UBC Library’s Strategic Framework will guide the future work and strategic direction for the library, in alignment with the UBC Strategic Plan.
This framework identifies the library’s strategic direction, its vision and values, and the core elements and commitments that will ensure our success. This is a blueprint of what we want to achieve and how we plan to achieve it. The framework aims to keep our users’ needs at the heart of our decision-making processes, ensuring that we are supporting students, researchers, faculty and community members in their work.
To build the framework, we engaged in fulsome consultation with employees across the library, gathering stakeholder feedback through many in-person sessions, an online survey, and consultation with faculty and students outside the library. At its core, the framework is a highly collaborative effort, created through a transparent process to develop our shared goals and values.
Core Areas
The success of the Library’s strategic framework depends on investing in these core areas.
People: Invest in the growth, development and diversity of library employees.
Technology: Provide technologies and expertise that enable research, teaching and learning.
Assessment: Evaluate and improve Library services and operations based on the best available evidence about outcomes and user needs
Commitments
The Library will transform its work by embedding the following commitments into the implementation of our Strategic Directions.
We pursue excellence in research, teaching, learning and engagement.
We acknowledge, encourage, and celebrate diverse experiences and perspectives, and we identify and address systemic barriers to inclusion.
We work with Indigenous communities and incorporate their perspectives through the inclusion of Indigenous peoples, worldviews, ways of knowing, and protocols.
Strategic Directions
The Library’s work will focus on the following Strategic Directions to move towards our vision, using our values and commitments to guide us.
The evolving information landscape challenges us to be leaders and experts in a growing range of services that advance all forms of scholarship.
- Deliver and support transformational teaching and learning
- Lead and collaborate to advance open scholarship
- Develop strong partnerships throughout the research process
- Provide expertise and tools in data management
- Invest in collections and technologies that enhance research and learning
The Library will actively foster opportunities for meaningful engagement and knowledge exchange with campus and community partners.
- Strive to make resources accessible for all
- Enrich the quality of life for local communities
- Encourage the pursuit of lifelong learning
- Develop and strengthen mutually beneficial partnerships
- Promote the Library’s stories, achievements, and value
- Collaborate with Musqueam and other Indigenous communities to co-develop knowledge and act on their wishes to steward materials in our care
The Library will strengthen and promote its print, digital, and special collections and provide powerful tools for research, synthesis and discovery.
- Develop and maintain multi-format and multi-lingual collections to meet diverse user needs
- Preserve the University’s institutional memory and the Library’s world class collections
- Make collections easier to discover, access and use
- Improve collections through ongoing assessment
- Work with Indigenous communities to identify, learn and address the legacies of colonialism in Library collections
We will continue to evolve physical and virtual spaces to meet the diverse needs of Library users, and ensure services contribute to both academic excellence and the literacies needed to navigate today’s world.
- Create and reimagine library spaces and services to meet users’ changing needs
- Provide technology-rich spaces that enable experimentation and encourage creative approaches to research, teaching and learning
- Enhance the online experience
- Assess and innovate to improve Library services and address user needs
We will plan and manage our resources effectively and position the organization for sustained change and growth.
- Align decisions and procedures with our vision, values and commitments
- Develop organizational agility to effectively respond to a changing environment
- Work with greater transparency, accountability and collegiality
- Be an organization with a culture of professional development, mentorship and continuous learning
- Advance sustainable practices in our work
- Manage, plan, and invest in people and technology to support research, teaching and learning
Vision
We are a globally influential research library, leading and partnering with the University and communities in the creation, stewardship, exploration and discovery of knowledge.
Values
Our values guide and support every aspect of our work and are expressed with integrity and authenticity.
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Openness
We remove barriers and expand access to resources for research, teaching, and learning.
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Belonging
We create and sustain an inclusive environment where everyone is respected and welcome.
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Connection
We build strong relationships and bring people together around shared goals.
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Curiosity
We ask and invite questions to cultivate a spirit of exploration, inventiveness, and growth.
Next Steps
Our next steps will be the rollout of an implementation plan and roadmap for the Library.
We are committed to measuring the success of the Strategic Framework.