UCD Library Strategic Plan 2021-2025

UCD LIBRARY STRATEGIC PLAN

2021-2025

THE LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE

CONTENTS 5 Introduction 8 Mission, Vision and Values 10 Strategic Pillars • Pillar 1: Leading, Engaging and Partnering with Communities • Pillar 2: Enhancing the Learning Experience and Empowering Students • Pillar 3: Creating an inclusive Library for All • Pillar 4: Fostering Critical Digital Literacies • Pillar 5: Advancing Open Research & Global Digital Scholarship 22 How We Got Here/Strategic Planning Process

UCD LIBRARY STRATEGIC PLAN 2021-25

UCD LIBRARY STRATEGIC PLAN 2021-25

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INTRODUCTION Since the launch of the UCD Strategy 2020-24, Rising to the Future, changes that were underway in the global higher education and research landscape have accelerated dramatically. The global pandemic saw a shift to online and blended learning take effect overnight and the opening up of scientific research became not just a target for research funders but an imperative in the fight against the spread of COVID-19. These developments have assumed the availability of appropriate digital infrastructure, access to information online and supporting digital competencies and literacies. While there is an expectation for a return to more normal campus activities once the pandemic subsides, evidence from universities in other parts of the world suggests a move towards a more blended learning environment. This shift will require an alignment of library services and activities with wider university priorities such as transforming through digital technology.

We have learned through this pandemic that we cannot be complacent when it comes to ensuring sustainable access to information and the infrastructure used to preserve and provide access to it. We must work conscientiously and collaboratively towards a shared global scholarly communications infrastructure that is sustainable, open and equitable.

Nor can we sit back and allow disinformation to go unchecked; our students must not only be equipped with the competencies to embrace digital transformation and navigate a blended learning environment, they must be supported to develop the critical digital literacies necessary to become responsible citizens in a flourishing global society.

Emerging into a post-pandemic environment our experience has emphasised the growing importance of libraries in higher education, research, and wider society. The lockdowns experienced all over the world have also reminded us of the continued importance of the Library as place; a critical resource for learners, a community space that acts as a constant in times of flux and a space for individuals to be inspired.

Throughout this strategic plan various manifestations of the library emerge:

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INTRODUCTION Cont’d 1. The Library as a global hub for research and digital scholarship 2. The Library as learning commons 3. The Library as a community resource and hub 4. The Library as an inclusive space 5. The Library as a guardian of our heritage All of these manifestations are of equal import and value and require ongoing investment and development.

Looking to the future, the Library is at the heart of a university that is growing both in terms of its impact and the student and faculty cohort it supports. The Library needs to actively engage with this growth, not only rethinking and scaling the resources we provide in response but to become a driver for this growth, contributing to increasing the impact and quality of research and demonstrating the excellence required to attract new students and faculty in a competitive global marketplace.

Partnership is key to our approach in this strategic plan, whether this is in the design of our services or the way in which we share resources. Making the most of the resources available to us requires that our services be informed by the needs of the users, that we work collaboratively with other units to meet these needs and that we seek out opportunities to share resources e.g. through a collective approach to collection management.

Whilst often associated with preserving the past, libraries are in fact all about preparing for the future, whether in terms of meeting the near-term needs for access to current research, learning support, space and course material, to ensuring that our knowledge and heritage is preserved and accessible for future generations. Perhaps because of this we are often the first to adopt new technologies, often taking on the role of advocating for and equipping others to engage in the interrogation of these technologies from a critical and ethical standpoint. These roles are entirely aligned with the UCD vision of the future UCD graduate, imbued with a knowledge of the past, capable of critically interrogating the present and of imagining and realising the future. In that sense, for UCD Library, the future is now.

Figure 1: Manifestation of the Library at the heart of the UCD community.

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MISSION, VISION AND VALUES

The University Strategy “Rising to the future” embeds the University mission within wider societal goals through strategic themes, core objectives and underpinning enablers.

Our approach to educational excellence and student success, aligns our objectives to ensure UCD graduates will have the attributes, skills, and disciplinary knowledge necessary to succeed as global citizens.

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Mission To be a leader in enriching the student experience, to empower global engagement, and to act as an intellectual centre for the UCD community.

Trust: We provide our services in a reliable and trustworthy manner, endeavour to ensure the integrity and safety of the collections that we have been entrusted with and offer a trusted and supportive environment for our users and staff.

Vision The library of the future: • connected to and part of a global information infrastructure; • connecting communities by providing an inspiring and inclusive environment for learning, collaboration and knowledge creation; • engaged as partners in education and research; • engaging as leaders in library service development and the curation and preservation of our shared heritage.

Dignity & Respect: We foster an inclusive environment in which all voices are listened and responded to and treat everyone within that environment with dignity and respect.

Values We work in accordance with the values of the University. In addition, the Library embodies the following values:

Working Together: We seek out intentional partnerships with the goal of increasing access to knowledge and work collaboratively across teams making sure that the contribution of every team member is valued and celebrated.

Adaptability & Resilience: We embrace continuous change and opportunities to learn, improve, experiment and anticipate changing needs.

Openness: We are open and transparent in our communications, open to new ideas and aim to make our services, spaces and collections as open as possible.

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STRATEGIC PILLARS

THE LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE

The following pillars for the Library have been developed in line with the strategic themes in the UCD Strategy 2020-24: Rising to the Future. Under each of these pillars a number of initiatives have been identified.

We believe that by focusing Library efforts and seeking to collaborate with other stakeholders on these initiatives we can help to bring about positive change and work towards the impact described under each of the pillars. Five key initiatives have been prioritised from across the pillars. These initiatives will be our priority over the coming years with the other initiatives playing a supporting role.

PRIORITY INITIATIVE

LIBRARY PILLAR

UCD THEMES

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pillar 01 Leading, Engaging and Partnering with Communities UCD Library is one of the largest libraries in Ireland in terms of space, the growing cohort we serve and the distinctive collections we curate but we have yet to leverage the value of the Library in terms of attracting students and faculty. As a future oriented library, we aim to be at the leading edge of the delivery of world class library services and to increase the visibility of our rich and diverse collections, which have significance for communities in Ireland and beyond. We will proactively engage with our community, building on our strengths, in particular the position of the Library as a democratic space at the heart of the campus.

Positioning the Library as a leader not only benefits the reputation of the University in terms of its positive influence on Irish culture, society and the economy, it is also about ensuring that the University community is aware of and can avail of the specialist knowledge and expertise offered by the Library.

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As a library leader it is also our responsibility to advocate and be proactive on issues related to access to information and freedom of expression. The pandemic shed further light on inequalities in the global information market as students and researchers struggled to gain online access to the textbooks and research material they needed. Addressing this gap requires coordination and partnership at a local, national and international level. This not only benefits the immediate UCD community but also supports the realisation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

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pillar 02 Enhancing the Learning Experience and Empowering Students High quality library spaces and services are critical to the student experience. Libraries play a unique role on campus, facilitating social, academic and community engagement.

They provide students with the opportunity to engage with learning outside of the lecture halls and labs, connect with resources and collaborate with other learners. The impact of digital transformation alongside the increasingly complex and multi-faceted nature of students’ lives has transformed how they engage with learning spaces, creating the need for more

THE LIBRARY OF THE FUTURE

responsive, integrated and flexible university supports. Alongside this, the global pandemic has demonstrated the vital role the library plays in the lives of many students, highlighting the need for us to provide welcoming, accessible and safe online and physical learning spaces. It is therefore critical that we continue to reimagine and develop our spaces and services.

The Library aspires to lead in the delivery of a high-quality student experience that defines international best practice, places students at the centre of service development and evolves to meet the needs of a growing campus population. UCD currently offers a range of learning supports, services and resources through a variety of channels. Some of these are delivered by the Library or are mediated through the Library as a space open to all.

Using the unique position of the Library on campus, there is an opportunity to explore how we can provide a more connected, meaningful and accessible range of learning and support services across the university.

Ensuring that we are reimagining and developing Library spaces and services in a way that will enable us to deliver a world-leading learning experience will require deep and meaningful engagement with both the student community and other partners across campus. This will allow us to identify how we can best support the diverse range of student needs and activities and ensure that students are empowered to shape their own learning experience.

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pillar 03 Creating an inclusive Library for All UCD aims to be a fully inclusive, diverse university through a whole institution approach to inclusion. UCD Library aspires to be an inclusive space for all at UCD, built on principles of equity and diversity and will engage actively in realising a ‘University for All’. Using our role at the centre of university life, there is an opportunity for the Library to set the standard in how we create spaces, enable access, support our staff and engage with our users.

Thinking explicitly about creating an inclusive library service provides an opportunity to go beyond current practices, fostering an institutional culture that promotes inclusiveness, excellent quality and constant improvement.

This enables us to examine areas that can be enhanced in a way that not only improves the lives of library users but can support the ‘University for All’ and advance research, scholarship and staff practices. For example,

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through our collections we can play a key role in amplifying the voices of researchers, scholars and experts from under-represented communities and by committing to putting policy into practice we can actively and continuously engage with both the UCD community and experts within and outside of UCD. This will enable us to use inclusivity as the starting point for the development of all our spaces and services and empower our staff, providing them with opportunities to develop knowledge and practices that place equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do.

Embedding an inclusive approach is critical to the Library realising our ambitions laid out in this strategic plan. Successfully advancing global scholarship, developing through technology, and providing world-leading spaces and services are all dependent on ensuring that all members of our community can successfully use and engage with all aspects of the Library service.

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pillar 04 Fostering Critical Digital Literacies Identified in the ‘Rising to the Future 2020-2024’ strategic plan as essential to “Transforming through Digital Technology”, digital literacy is a recognized set of skills, competencies and attitudes that encompass communication, collaboration, creation, social awareness and ethical practices in the digital environment.

Moving beyond the ability to use individual digital tools, they are a fundamental cornerstone to enhancing the digital capacity of our staff and students and directly impact students’ ability to successfully navigate their academic, professional and personal lives. From the beginning of their academic and professional careers the ability to effectively manage digital identities, discover information and use critical thinking when evaluating information are critical

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to success. As students progress, they will be required to develop an understanding of scholarship and how information is constructed in the digital environment. As they continue to advance, students and researchers will need to understand more complex issues such as ethical practices in the creation, use and communication of information, copyright issues and the use of data in the digital environment.

The development of these skills among staff and students will facilitate the mainstreaming of digital teaching, learning and research by empowering learners to successfully engage with their digital lives, personally, academically and in the workplace.

While digital literacy skills are a recognised, fundamental element of successful academic and professional life, no one part of the University is responsible for supporting the development of these skills in our staff and students. As a set of skills inherently connected to the discovery, use and creation of information, library staff have professional expertise in digital literacies. Therefore, as a service that supports the whole university community, we are well placed to lead the development of services and resources that enable digital literacy skills. In doing this, we aim to empower students so that they have a strong sense of academic integrity and become graduates who are responsible digital citizens, contributing to the wider ‘knowledge society’ equipped with the knowledge, skills, experience and attitudes they need to flourish in present and future Irish and global societies.

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We will advance open research and PILLAR 01 global digital scholarship by:

pillar 05 Advancing Open Research & Global Digital Scholarship UCD’s research aims to make a real difference in areas of national and global need. As a library at the centre of a research performing institution and within a research-led teaching environment we have a role in expanding the impact of our research by broadening access to and the accessibility of research outputs, facilitating collaboration and demonstrating excellence as a centre for global digital scholarship. The move towards Open Science opens up the opportunity for the Library to establish itself as part of an emerging sustainable global data infrastructure where data produced by Irish and UCD researchers is globally accessible and reused within disciplines and in transdisciplinary research. In following this path we aim to increase both the quality and impact of UCD’s research in a manner that is sustainable and maximises the benefits for society.

Our own distinctive collections and archives are a unique and irreplaceable resource for researchers. The digitisation of these collections and the proliferation of digital tools to interrogate them opens up new frontiers in terms of the research questions that may be asked and exploration of our shared heritage. Through harnessing the potential of new technologies and becoming a locus for digital scholarship we can claim a space for the Library’s unique collections as a world renowned resource for research and citizen engagement with science and cultural heritage.

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Supporting UCD researchers to make their research outputs findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) through the provision of appropriate training, support and infrastructure

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Offering sustainable and suitable options for all UCD researchers to publish Open Access

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Encouraging a bottom-up approach to the adoption of open research practices by delivering open research skills training and advocating for the benefits of open research

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Acting as a global hub for scholarship by increasing the discoverability and availability of our collections online, leveraging new technologies for knowledge discovery, and becoming a locus for expertise in digital scholarship (Key Initiative 5)

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Curating our collections collaboratively and in a way that builds on our collections’ distinctiveness and strengths, reflects UCD’s research excellence, and our role in preserving and providing access to our national cultural heritage

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Developing and maintaining preservation and curation infrastructure to ensure the knowledge and data produced by Irish researchers can be accessed now and in the future

Desk at the Vet Library

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HOW WE GOT HERE / STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS This strategic plan has been developed by the Library Senior Management Team, which consists of the Librarian, Associate Librarians and Heads of Unit. The starting point for the planning process was a Library-wide SWOT analysis. One of our greatest opportunities is the University’s commitment to digital transformation.

For the Library this presents an opportunity both in terms of supporting the digital literacies and skills to realise this transformation and in terms of the possibility of embedding technology into our services to move us towards being “the library of the future”. External drivers in the research environment, such as the move towards Open Science, also present opportunities to reposition our services.

In order to position ourselves best in this regard we need to invest in building up digital skills and capacity, sharing knowledge and working collaboratively with other stakeholders to make the transformation happen.

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The Library faces a challenge in terms of ensuring that our space continues to meet the evolving needs of our users and is deserving of its place at the heart of a future oriented campus. In order to address this challenge we must create a strong vision for the Library of the future. We also need to ensure that our approach to managing our collections is sustainable, that our unique and distinctive collections are preserved and accessible for the future and that we explore new cost effective models for providing access to research and learning material.

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