Launched in late 2022, the University of Arizona Libraries' strategic plan includes our guiding principles, strategic priorities, and the actions we are taking to implement the plan through our work over the next 3 years.
Guiding principles
Four guiding principles inform our strategic priorities.
These principles share our commitment to inclusivity and to the Libraries and our users. They also acknowledge the importance of our geographic location in southern Arizona and the US-Mexico borderlands.
Diversity, equity, inclusion, & antiracism
As an organization whose greatest strength lies in the diversity of its employees and users, we are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its forms, including antiracist and universal accessibility practices, to provide equal access and opportunities for all people on individual and systemic levels.
Hispanic serving
As an organization within a Hispanic-Serving Institution located in the US-Mexico borderlands, we are committed to the multi-faceted advancement of Hispanic students, faculty, staff, and community members.
Native American serving
As an organization within an American Indian and Alaska Native-Serving Institution located in a state in the US-Mexico borderlands with 22 federally recognized tribes, we are committed to the multi-faceted advancement of Native American students, faculty, staff, and community members.
Default to open
We seek to remove barriers to access and participation in research, scholarship, and learning worldwide. We are committed to "default to open," which means we provide open access to research, scholarship, and learning whenever possible.
Strategic priorities
The Libraries' strategic plan has five strategic priorities that guide the work of our organization and employees.
Student success
Support student success, particularly for historically underserved students, by delivering focused engagement programs with campus partners. Ensure the libraries are instrumental in all students' academic and career success.
Student learning
Engage with campus partners to integrate information, digital, and data literacies into the student learning experience. Provide curricular and co-curricular opportunities to develop literacy skills for all students.
Research lifecycle
Integrate library services throughout the research lifecycle. Integrate services and expertise into research workflows, from conceptualization to dissemination of results.
Information access
Improve the discoverability, accessibility, and stewardship of information resources and collections to meet the needs of current and future users.
Organizational excellence
Provide employees meaningful opportunities for professional success and development while creating an inclusive, equitable, and diverse workplace that encourages them to thrive.
Actions
Our actions demonstrate how the Libraries are making an impact through our strategic plan and day-to-day work. They are informed by our guiding principles and strategic priorities.
The guiding principles key provides a shortcut to see which actions are connected to which principles.
Guiding principles key
- D Diversity, equity, inclusion, & antiracism
- H Hispanic serving
- N Native American serving
- O Default to open
List of actions
| Guiding principle(s) | Action |
|---|---|
| D H N O | Integrate library services into Digital Borderlands projects, which support open access humanities scholarship about the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and are funded by the Mellon Foundation |
| D | Increase the availability of accessible and inclusive study rooms |
| D H N | Improve training and experiences for student employees through campus partnerships |
| D H N | Increase the technology lending program through campus partnerships to better meet student needs, particularly for underrepresented and first-generation students |
| Plan and improve Health Sciences Library spaces in response to student feedback | |
| O | Create pilot project to incentivize creating, adapting, and adopting open educational resources in nursing |
| D | Create and promote distinctive collections in the Health Sciences Library |
| Create a Fine Arts floor and sound-proof listening and performance room at Weaver Library and transfer collections from the Fine Arts Library | |
| O | Expand discovery and access to millions of ebooks and other materials for users worldwide in collaboration with the Internet Archive |
| H N | Improve how we store, manage, and maintain our physical collections and print materials |
| O H N | Collaborate with UA BookStores to implement the Pay One Price program campus wide by Fall 2023, where undergraduate students will have full access to all course materials for one low price |
| Collaborate with campus IT to better safeguard personal identifiable information that is passed to organizations we do business with, particularly for emerging technology that provides access to and authenticates library content | |
| D | Improve discoverability of primary sources emphasizing underrepresented voices through digital collections, exhibits, and improved collection description |
| D | Revise our collection development policy to present a more balanced research repository, foregrounding cultural stewardship of diverse heritages in alignment with institutional and professional best practices |
| D | Lead collaborative primary source literacy initiatives to incorporate culturally relevant teaching approaches into UArizona curricula |
| D H | In partnership with the UArizona Confluencenter, collaborate with Ford Foundation grantees to archive and activate results of the Reclaiming the Border Project, a digital archive project about the U.S.-Mexico border funded by the Ford Foundation |
| Assess library-based research services provided by 36 peer institutions | |
| Provide geospatial support to campus through improved infrastructure | |
| O | Broadly implement and sustain open educational resources program |
| Coordinate campus-wide research services through collaboration with the Office for Research, Innovation and Impact and campus IT | |
| Implement the library's Website Refresh project | |
| Implement an intranet on SharePoint where library employees can organize, discover, and access information | |
| D N | Provide hands-on IT experiences to current and prospective students and participate in programs like the Native American Science and Engineering Program (NASEP) to support historically underserved students |
| Establish processes for stakeholders to prioritize and support library projects and products that advance our mission and create business value | |
| D H N | Create a paid publishing internship to teach job skills and promote diversity in the publishing industry |
| Partner with the General Education Office to implement library programming, instructional tools, and learning models into the revised GenEd curriculum | |
| D H N | Build instruction and outreach programming for first year, first-generation, international, and underrepresented students though our Peer Information Counselor (PIC) model |
| D | Support campus recruitment and retention programs as well as selected GenEd courses through an instructional support model delivered by library staff |
| Centralize the planning, promotion, and outreach for library extracurricular workshops, drop-in sessions, and selected events through a cross-departmental coordination team | |
| Open an in-house digitization lab in academic year 2022-2023 | |
| Participate in the Academic Preservation Trust by adding copies of important digital objects to preserve in long-term storage |