Mardigian Library
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MISSION & STRATEGIC DIRECTION

Mission

The Mardigian Library is a campus hub for student success, creativity, knowledge creation, and interdisciplinary collaboration; a gathering place for learners; and a catalyst for integrated learning, innovation, and community engagement.

We accomplish this mission by:

  • providing diverse information resources, technologies, and study spaces;
  • collaborating to provide research, writing, and academic support services;
  • pursuing innovative trends when creating services to advance the mission of the university;
  • partnering with instructional faculty in teaching, research, and scholarly publication; and
  • furthering the Metropolitan Vision of the university through professional and community service, and by hosting exhibitions and events.

Vision

The Mardigian Library is recognized as a campus leader and active partner in developing innovative and accessible collections, services, programs, and spaces essential to support a dynamic, inclusive, student-centered, community-engaged university with a reputation for excellence.

Guiding Principles

  • Student success is our top priority.
  • We are committed to the free exchange of ideas and provide resources that reflect a wide range of views and schools of thought.
  • We provide materials to support student learning and the curriculum, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
  • We collaborate with other libraries to expand access to information beyond our collections.
  • We partner with instructional faculty in course development, teaching efforts and the assessment of student learning outcomes.
  • We actively support faculty scholarship and research within our means.
  • Our success depends on integrity, teamwork, collaboration, continuous impromvement, flexibility, and risk taking.
  • We all take responsibility for being approachable and providing the highest quality customer service to all library users.
  • We actively encourage and support campus and community engagement and professional development for all library staff.

Strategic Emphases 2018-2023

    A. Deepening Academic Excellence - partner, embed, share

    1. Collaborate with instructional faculty to help students develop effective and responsible information research skills and meet identified learning outcomes.
    2. Champion redesign of courses and course assignments to better scaffold research skill development throughout the curriculum.
    3. Continue to support the expansion of online instruction throughout the curriculum by providing instructional design advice, creating research aids, delivering general and subject-focused learning support.
    4. Support and incorporate high impact education practices to enhance student success.
    5. Continue and expand support for graduate programs and student success.
    6. Support research and scholarly publishing of students and faculty.
    7. Provide varied means for students to get research assistance.
    8. Promote and facilitate campus adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER).
    9. Enhance the university curriculum, student experience, and community outreach through the utilization of the permanent art collection and the gallery renovation.

    B. Align resources/content decisions with university strategic priorities

    1. Align job responsibilities, workflows, and financial resources with the curriculum and goals of the university.
    2. Provide access to intellectual content that students and faculty members need for teaching, learning, and research.
    3. Champion accessibility to all digital and physical information resources and building spaces.

    C. Enhance student and campus engagement - learn, anticipate, participate, serve, listen/communicate

    1. Create and sustain active, dynamic relationships among students, faculty, and staff to enhance the quality of services that the library offers.
    2. Raise visibility of collections/services and engagement within the academic units and campus.
    3. Proactively and effectively communicate with the campus community.
    4. Support development of collaborative cohorts of students.
    5. Seek opportunities to feature campus scholarly and creative output through collections, events, and exhibitions.

    D. Optimize technology - implement, develop, adapt, and maintain

    1. Develop and maintain a strong and effective digital presence that is aligned and compatible with campus technology standards.
    2. Support and leverage new and existing technologies to enhance access and accessibility to current and future research tools and instructional resources.
    3. Encourage new ways to utilize library resources to support the curriculum and reduce costs to students.
    4. Develop and provide technology rich creative maker environment to enable student centered academic innovation.
    5. Utilize new and existing technologies to efficiently and effectively support library services and the information access needs of all library users.
    6. Pursue collaborations for shared licensing and shared systems.

    E. Enable Staff Development - empower, educate, support

    1. Empower individuals to acquire, maintain, and strengthen skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to be successful, both in achieving the library's mission and professional development.
    2. Create and sustain an environment that supports continuous growth and learning by providing training and development opportunities for all library staff members, including publishing and presenting.

    F. Engage and leverage the campus and community - learn, anticipate, participate, serve, listen/communicate

    1. Sponsor and support projects and efforts related to the Metropolitan Vision.
    2. Provide a welcoming and safe environment to all library users.
    3. Collaborate with community groups on educational and cultural projects or events that benefit the community.
    4. Expand relationships with alumni and emeritus faculty/staff to enhance their continued connectedness to campus.
    5. Build and maintain relationships with individuals and organizations to enhance external fund raising.

    G. Assess our effectiveness - continuous program improvement

    1. Identify, test, and implement assessment strategies to support data informed decisions.
    2. Implement sustainable ongoing assessment strategies.
    3. Actively seek input from users including students, faculty, staff, administrators, and the community.
    4. Support university required reporting for accreditation, professional guidelines, federal requirements, etc.
    5. Provide regular updates to campus and community on progress toward goals and new opportunities.


    Approved by Library A-Team November 9, 2017

Did you know?

  • Newspaper Subscriptions
  • Currently enrolled students and currently employed faculty and staff are eligible for a free digital subscription to the New York Times (NYT) (some limitations apply) and Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

  • Access requires creation of accounts for each site. Full details and setup instructions are available on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal setup pages.