Dean’s Note: Building our foundation

The 2023/2024 academic year was a busy one as we worked to connect students, faculty and researchers to dynamic data, information and resources while simultaneously planning for the future of UC Libraries. To set us up for the future, much of our efforts recently have focused on building a stronger foundation as we prepare to launch our Strategic Plan in the fall. That foundation comprises three elements: people, leadership and values.

People

An investment in our people is key to advancing the Libraries. This begins with filling job vacancies and hiring new librarians and staff that will bring new skills and expertise to our organization. This spring we completed a hiring plan for fiscal year 2025 that includes the recruitment of over 10 new positions. Some of these are directly tied to the work ahead:

• collections strategist,
• assessment and evaluation coordinator,
• digital initiatives leader.

Leadership

In addition to the aforementioned positions, searches are underway for an associate dean of collections and an association dean of operations and user services. These two individuals will collaborate with the dean, librarians and staff to identify UC Libraries’ needs, establish priorities and develop goals, objectives, actions and measures of success. In preparation of the new associate deans, we are evaluating our governance structure through a review of leadership councils and committees, and taking stock of and updating policies and procedures so as to provide transparency, consistency and efficiencies.

Values

The Strategic Plan will outline our priorities and action steps for the next three years. How we work together will insure success of the plan. Through lively and thought-provoking discussions, this spring we embarked on an exercise to begin to determine and articulate our values. We asked ourselves what are our organization’s core beliefs that will motivate our work and guide our efforts. Acting with integrity is doing what we say we are going to do – how do we live our values as an organization?

In the midst of this important, foundation-building work, it is still summer – a time for rest, relaxation and rejuvenation as we prepare for another academic year. Enjoy your summer. I hope to see you back in the fall as we announce and launch our new Strategic Plan.