CUL Strategic Plan

Unbooked and Unbound: Central University Libraries for the Second Century

In 2000, Central University Libraries unveiled its five-year strategic plan, entitled For Future Reference. The plan marked a new era of systematic planning for and implementation of strategic objectives by outlining a course of action designed to help CUL become a more flexible and agile partner in the University’s academic and cultural transformation. In 2007, as the University positioned itself to launch a new capital campaign and to define a brave, bold and academically rigorous vision for SMU, it became clear that CUL needed to refresh its own roadmap and take some time to look within, refocus, and retool in order to strategically support these new directions. Accordingly, in the fall of 2007, CUL launched a strategic transformation process. Under the guidance of an outside consultant, a group of 35 people representing all areas of the SMU community spent a day ‘in retreat.’ This strategic plan, Unbooked and Unbound: Central University Libraries for the Second Century, is the result of that retreat plus a year of meetings, focus groups, environmental scanning, and plain hammering out of the issues. It represents the best thinking of a large and diverse number of people who have in common a passionate interest in SMU’s long-term, sustainable success, and the role that CUL plays therein. The document outlines the strategic objectives for the years 2008 through 2013.

One of the first activities of the group was to identify a set of assumptions about the future state of CUL and the University. Doing so enabled participants to examine those changes in the academic environment, the library profession, the evolving use of technology, and the needs and behaviors of library users that would play a role in the future of CUL. These assumptions are as follows:

• Demand will continue to increase for all CUL services and resources, including in-person services and resources at CUL facilities and access to Web-based services and resources.
  
• CUL will grapple with how to best meet new and evolving user needs and expectations, while continuing to provide more traditional and still-valued library services and resources.
  
• Institutional focus on research activities at SMU will increase, with a corresponding demand for access to new and different types of information resources to support faculty and student scholarly pursuits.
  
• The George W. Bush Presidential Library will be on the SMU campus, bringing with it the need to increase library support for external researchers as well as building and network security.
  
• Adequate space for collections, services and resources, scholarly activities, and personnel workspaces will continue to be at a premium within CUL facilities.
  
• Students will have greater technical sophistication and higher expectations for online services and resources, while continuing to value high quality physical facilities and in-person services and resources.
  
• Librarians will play a larger role in supporting academic activities through structured subject liaison activities, including integration of library materials into classroom instruction.
  
• CUL staff will become increasingly sophisticated users of technology as advances in technology continue to exert influence on the way services and resources are acquired, organized, and delivered.
  
• Funding needs across CUL will grow as costs for personnel, resources, and space increase.