Strategic Commitments and Actions

The shared commitments represent the library’s key focus areas we collectively identified for the next 3-5 years. Grounded in both our strengths and the opportunities we have identified for growth, these five commitments guide how we will shape our services, culture, and impact.

Welcoming spaces

Through accessible and inclusive physical and virtual spaces, we create welcoming environments that support learning and collaboration, adapt to evolving user needs, and center the experiences and well-being of employees and users.

Employee workspace: Develop and implement an equitable employee space usage policy that aligns workspace assignments with hybrid, remote, and on-site work roles and promotes accessible and fair distribution of private and shared/open spaces.
Inclusive public spaces: Co-create and implement a holistic, user-informed strategy for designing, activating, and maintaining physical public-facing spaces that fosters accessibility, enjoyment, and adaptability.
Virtual spaces and digital accessibility: Develop roadmap to make all online platforms, digital collections, virtual services, and virtual gathering spaces accessible, intuitive, and welcoming to all.
Customer service and safety practices: Co-develop and implement training, policies, and procedures to improve employee general knowledge of customer service best practices and safety protocols.

Partners in scholarship

Through interdisciplinary partnerships grounded in deep expertise, dynamic collections, and judicious services, we advance research, creative practice, teaching, and learning in pursuit of knowledge that is openly and equitably shared, contributing to the flourishing of people and society.

Staffing and services alignment: Conduct purposeful and systemic assessment of library services to prioritize meeting current and future research and scholarly needs while balancing staffing and budget realities.
Faculty and student success: Partner with faculty and students to identify and respond to evolving research needs, publishing practices, collections, and services to amplify scholarship.
Visibility of library expertise and services: Leverage campus and external relationships to increase awareness and understanding of library services.

Stewardship of collections

Through responsive and long-term stewardship, we collect, publish, preserve, and provide access to diverse materials that support research, teaching, creation, and clinical care, ensuring collections remain relevant and sustainably managed for current and future generations.

Collections strategy: Co-develop an overarching collections strategy that aligns acquisition, deaccessioning, and long-term stewardship with mission-driven values, data, and user needs.
Employee capacity: Align staffing roles and classifications, and organizational structure to meet evolving stewardship needs.
Planning for a future repository: Prepare for a physical repository space that supports preservation, access, and employee needs.
Partnerships: Expand and formalize partnerships with consortia, peer institutions, and regional networks to maximize collective stewardship.

Ethical adoption of emerging technology

Through responsible assessment and informed adoption of emerging technologies, we prioritize opportunities with beneficial community impact, building employee capacity to navigate change, and positioning the library as a leader in ethical, equity-centered innovation on campus and beyond.

New technology adoption: Establish a vision and guiding principles for evaluating opportunities and ethically adopting new technologies.
GenAI integration in teaching, learning, and research: Co-develop shared guidelines and tools that support thoughtful, transparent, and equitable use and training of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies in teaching, learning, research, and publishing.
Innovation in library practices: Co-develop roadmap for using emerging technologies to innovate library day-to-day work.

Culture of care

Through a culture of care, transparency, and shared responsibility, we build a supportive and thriving library community grounded in trust, professional empathy, a unified direction, and a demonstrated commitment to accessibility, inclusion, diversity, and equity— leading to the well-being of employees, users, and the broader community.

Transparent communication and shared decision-making: Co-create clear and consistent ways for employees to know how and why decisions are made, how to give input, and how feedback, recommendations, and ideas are acted on.
Connection and care spaces: Cultivate a culture where employees and leadership actively co-define and co-create opportunities and practices to connect and support each other in their daily work.
Leadership and professional practice: Support leaders and employees at all levels in building capacity and skills to model practices of care in daily actions, with clear systems for accountability, shared responsibility, and growth.

Last updated: December 10, 2025