Excellence: Leading for Library Relevance

Jesús Lau jlau@uv.mx

www.jesuslau.com / Twiter: jesuslau / FB: jesuslauCollege Station, TX

November 9-10, 2011

Topics

1. Education first: University learning and

learning players

2. Research library opportunities

3. Strategies and services to advocate

Part ONE

Education First: University Learning and Learning Players

University ChallengesPresident Bowen Loftin

• Public trust

• Limited resources

• Cost of education

• Value of education

University Shift

• A place to hack knowledge

• A place to practice knowledge

• A place to accelerate the advancement of knowledge

Student Behavior

• Need meaningful and relevant learning • Social and web hyperactivity • Used to instant gratification • Need information competencies

Faculty Destinations

• Need support for knowledge facilitation• Require quality information for research tasks• Need reliable sources to meet high demand to

publish• Demand data for academic management• Need support to benefit from new technologies

Library Opportunities

Part TWO

Airport

Pilots

Librarians´ Opportunities

• Be where they teach and do research• Become the antennas of the library• Revisit options for balance between academic work and

operational activities• Team with faculty in their knowledge processes

management• Provide decision-making information to University

management

Librarians and staff: Choices to Be Relevant

• Lots of players in the Information Ecosystem: Librarians and staff are just two of them, but can play unique roles to:

– Be the erudite professional: Need to go back to medieval library role

– Be active in the intangible and virtual worlds, where users are– Be part of the classroom and the lab– Become digital information curators– Be iSkills facilitator – Information literacy

Collections/Services: Everything Everywhere

• Be cost efficient and effective in collection development/access

• Library used to be just what it had, now is what it can share and what it has access to

• Cooperation and collaboration; Join/strengthen consortia

Part THREE

Strategies and Services to Advocate

Advocate:1. Management Principles

• Pursue library TAMU strategic plan: An excellent flight plan, with following principles:

• A holistic user - centered shared library management• Be relevant to users / University• Cost efficient and effective• Flexible for new roles and for new times• Inclusive excellence• Operate information services with quality principles

Advocate:2. Digital Information Curation

• Creation and production of digital information

• Harvest and integrate information resources

• Digital assets preservation

• Build digital capacity to do these things

Advocate: 3. Embedded Librarian

• Team with University faculty in knowledge creation and transmission

• Be where the learning process takes place

• Have an integrated library staff, all sections / all parts of the library have to be mission touched

Advocate: 4. Information Fluency

• Understand and meet new information student seeking behavior

• Anticipate users´ information needs• Facilitate student information fluency• Support faculty in their information literacy classroom

tasks• Help university management to have information skills

and information resources for decision making tasks

Advocate: 5. Scholarly Communication

• Ensure broad and diverse digital access to institutional research

• Strengthen the institutional repository and state-wide collaboration (TDL)

• Actively support institutional scholarly publishing

• Promote and advocate barrier-free access to research and educational information resources (ARL)

Advocate: 6. State, National and International Collaboration

• Identify what is relevant to share by Texas A&M University

• Find niches to collaborate at state, national and international level: Collections, services, software

• Be active in library and information associations

• Take active part in information networks and consortia

Advocate:7. Creativity

• Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value (Sir Ken Robinson)

• Goal to create value to the user: – Promote cross-pollination of ideas across the library and beyond– Have a multidisciplinary team /Diversity of skills and

backgrounds– Embrace change: Instead of facing the current, swim with it

Advocate:8. Library Diversity

• Search for inclusive excellence, not only quotas or numbers

• Promote blend of human resources: Gender, religion, skills, race, age, language, and experience

• Value differences and similarities among the library team to have a diversity-rich climate

• Team respect for individuals as unique and valuable persons

Thanks!

The future of libraries isan open journey…

Let´s be pilots

Enjoyed the opportunity to interact with you!