Strategic Actions
Temple University Libraries & the University Press will foster learning, enhance intellectual life, amplify scholarly impact, and extend the reach of the imagination for their diverse local, national, and global communities through concerted action in these key areas:
1. Designing and building a dramatically new library environment to serve as a catalyst for academic enterprise at Temple.
At the heart of the Temple campus, this new central library will embody emerging modes of library mission while sustaining and transforming traditional library functions and commitments, with a quality and thoughtfulness of design that will be a model for other research universities nationally and internationally in the digital age.
2. Enriching the environment for learning and student success.
The libraries will be a rich ecosystem for learning, providing services, instruction, tools and materials in light of diverse and evolving student needs, interests and predilections, in dialog with faculty and administrators, with an emphasis on curricular integration of information literacy, personalization and personal contact.
3. Developing programs, services, and resources to enhance intellectual productivity, scholarly infrastructure, new modes of research, and clinical care services.
The libraries will support a diverse environment for the exploration of new modes of scholarship, engaging all fields of academic endeavor as a multi-disciplinary contact zone and intellectual workshop, connecting students, clinicians and scholars with collections, tools, librarians, and technical experts.
4. Exploring new opportunities in publishing and scholarly communication.
The libraries will engage in deep collaboration with Temple University Press, with Temple faculty, and with other organizations and academic institutions to identify and adopt new approaches for sharing scholarly products, for exploring sustainable economic models for university publishing, and for connecting local publishing initiatives with Temple’s faculty.
5. Seeking partners in innovation and experimentation to add value to library programs and to identify new avenues for economic support.
The libraries will connect with a broad set of partners and collaborators at Temple and beyond to amplify their capacity for innovation, invention, and the exploration of emerging opportunities, both in technological domains (gaming, data visualization, data management, digital scholarship, health informatics etc.) and in areas where new revenue opportunities may be involved (publishing, foundation support, corporate partnerships, donor support, joint training and certification programs, etc.).
6. Serving as a center of intellectual and cultural life.
The libraries will engage with schools and colleges, academic departments, interest groups, individuals, and community organizations to stimulate conversation, support the exchange of ideas, to provide a lively agenda of events, serving as a center of intellectual, cultural and civic life for Temple University and its neighboring urban community.
7. Serving as a repository of record for archival, rare, and unique materials and providing broad access to those collections.
Building on deep archives and special collections that reflect not only Temple’s institutional history, mission, and geographical centrality to the Philadelphia urban community, but also its commitment to intellectual engagement in the arts, book arts, and alternative movements, and recognizing the reputation of the Blockson Collection as an important resource for African American history and culture, the libraries will continue to expand their holdings, providing access to an ever growing set of their holdings in digital form.
8. Building a world-class staff for leadership in the research library enterprise.
Recognizing that leadership, innovation, creativity, and dynamism in any enterprise are the product of personal commitment and staff empowerment, the libraries will create a flexible and forward-looking work environment that embraces transparent management practices, clear communication channels, individual accountability, fiscal responsibility, efficiency, a culture of experiment and continuous learning, opportunities for growth, and work-life balance, with the goal of becoming a model organization for contemporary research libraries.
9. Sharing the vision, making connections, broadening support.
As Temple University Libraries realize the ambition to be leaders in defining 21st century academic librarianship, they must share their story and build on successes and lessons learned, identifying further opportunities for growth and innovation, and opening up new avenues for support and partnership via private, corporate and foundation philanthropy and through cooperative enterprise with other organizations and institutions nationally and globally.
(Revised & Re-affirmed, September 2017)