Universitywide Planning & Action
Strategic Directions

The University of California libraries' strategic plan, Systemwide Strategic Directions for Libraries and Scholarly Information [PDF] was released in June, 2004.

In 2005 the libraries drafted a Progress Report [PDF], which describes the work done to date on the original strategic directions, reflects on lessons learned in implementing the strategies, and recommends an expansion of the five directions.

To help convey the information in the 2004 strategic plan to various audiences, the UC libraries prepared brief cover documents that highlight relevant areas of the report:

• Perspectives on budgeting issues [PDF]
• Perspectives on state financing issues [PDF]
• Faculty perspectives [PDF]
• Perspectives for CIOs [PDF]

Read comments from the Librarians Association of the University of California (LAUC) [PDF] and the Academic Senate [PDF] on Systemwide Strategic Directions for Libraries and Scholarly Information.

Overviews of the five core strategies adopted by the University Librarians, as well as links to supplementary material, including action programs that implement these strategies, are provided below.

1. Collection Management and Coordination
2. Shared Services and Infrastructure
3. Shared Facilities
4. Scholarly Communication
5. Persistent Access to Digital Information

Collection Management and Coordination

Maintaining the breadth and depth of UC's collections and services in the face of continuing increases in the volume and cost of scholarly publication is the single greatest challenge confronting the University's library program today. To meet this challenge, the UC libraries have collaborated closely and pooled their resources to ensure that all UC faculty, students and staff, irrespective of their location, have access to library collections befitting an eminent research university.

Recently, campus collections have been enhanced by the development of shared digital collections that are held in common and are equally available and accessible to all members of the University community. The proposed development of a shared print collection will further optimize the management of and access to information resources for students and faculty by reducing unnecessary duplication, leveraging shared assets, and expanding the breadth and depth of information resources available systemwide.

See more on:

• Campus collections
• Shared collections
• Resource sharing

Key documents related to collection management and coordination:

• Collection management and coordination: A strategy for the UC libraries. May 2003 [PDF]
• Developing a shared collection for UC. May, 2003 [PDF]

Shared Services and Infrastructure

The library services infrastructure includes campus and Universitywide operations that support the creation, management, manipulation, and presentation of bibliographic information. The infrastructure also includes the support necessary for acquisitions and management of scholarly materials, and services for patrons to use those materials.

Looking ahead, new practices will be needed to adequately deal with library services that are collaborative and multi-institutional, and that provide access to a host of materials in a variety of physical and electronic formats, much of which is not acquired or owned by any library.

The advances in technology that have rapidly expanded the world of information available to library users have also made it possible to design new ways to manage and provide access to those resources. "Layered" service designs offer the potential for each UC library to develop innovative and customized services without sacrificing the economies that are traditionally associated with centralized and commercial services. In a layered model, a library can develop services that use standard methods to access repositories of information or utility services that are located locally or remotely.

In the coming year, the UC libraries will develop a framework and plan of action to leverage their collective resources, including staff expertise and shared infrastructure, to:

• More effectively manage and deliver essential ongoing services (e.g., systems and services for bibliographic control, management, discovery and access, for collection acquisition, processing and management in all formats and including shared and campus-based collections where relevant)
• Collaboratively develop, deploy and support advanced user services.

Pilot projects will be developed to refine planning and clarify resource needs and sources.

Read more about shared services.

Key documents related to shared services and infrastructure:

• New models of library service: Deep resource sharing and collaboration at UC. April 2003 [PDF]

Shared Facilities

UC maintains two regional library facilities, the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF) in Richmond and the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF) at UCLA. The two facilities currently house approximately 10 million volumes.

As the UC libraries begin to move aggressively into a new phase of collaborative resource sharing and service development, the regional library facilities can play a pivotal role in advancing cost-effective and innovative services that further leverage available resources.

The ability to continue to house infrequently-used research materials in shared, low cost, high quality storage allows the UC libraries to affordably sustain their role in support of the University's research and teaching programs, and to continue to make the benefits of UC's premier information assets available to the people of California. The success of future collaborative strategy relies, in part, on the pivotal support roles provided by the RLFs. Current RLF functions must be sustained, and new responsibilities that build on existing strengths and complement campus initiatives, must be undertaken.

Key documents related to shared facilities:

• Persistent Deposits in UC Regional Library Facilities February 20, 2006 [PDF]
• Regional Library Facilities Planning Task Force: Final report to the University Librarians February 13, 2004 [PDF]

Scholarly Communication

Scholarly communication, which includes the range of published and unpublished literature, datasets, bibliographies, working papers, and pre-published drafts, is at a crossroads. The traditional model of scholarly communication has become expensive, restrictive, and increasingly limited in its ability to make information accessible. These issues affect faculty, students, and scholars who use the published information, and libraries that acquire and provide access to the materials.

The UC librarians are working collaboratively with faculty, management, the UC Press, information schools, and national associations and bodies to develop and implement a program to provide leadership to change the scholarly communication process so that it is economically sustainable and ensures the widest possible access to the scholarly record. The program includes strategies to inform the University about the dynamics and trends impacting scholarly communication, evolve the library materials selection process so that their cost and value continue to be well-aligned, help faculty manage their copyrights for the works they create, and provide innovative alternatives for scholars to disseminate their work.

Read more about scholarly communication.

Persistent Access to Digital Information

To achieve the UC libraries' goal of enhancing and enriching access to collections of scholarly information of world-class depth and breadth, essential information resources must remain available and accessible into the future. For the burgeoning array of scholarly information resources in digital form, the challenges of ensuring this availability are formidable.

The library community is only beginning to understand how best to ensure the longevity and accessibility of digital information. The issue is further complicated by the fact that in many cases, the libraries do not have custody of the information resources they seek to preserve. Content is often located on publisher web sites, personal or departmental computers and servers, or distributed across the World Wide Web.

In support of the goal of preserving digital information, the UC libraries are working in collaboration with national and international efforts to develop a digital preservation infrastructure that adheres to established standards and open-source practices. The infrastructure may also assist in the preservation or protection of deteriorating print materials and help meet the University's diverse needs for reliable archiving, management, and retrieval of essential digital information of all kinds.

Read about the CDL's Digital Preservation Program.

Key Documents related to UC's committment to persistent access to digital information:

• Digital Preservation Program: Aims, overview, and initial priorities Spring 2004 [PDF]