Strategic Plan

The purpose of the early segment of our strategic planning effort was to identify those areas of most importance where the library could make a significant contribution to the new direction of Vanderbilt as articulated by the Chancellor and the Provost. We are in an environment of a more focused University that is fostering cross disciplinary research and teaching and creating new centers of learning that draw on faculty from multiple colleges. In this new era, we set about to refocus our efforts on service to our users and to refine our services to address those findings that came from our earlier Lib_Qual survey and the many focus groups that our Strategic Planning effort fostered.

The second stage of our planning effort looked at our organization and how we might restructure reporting relationships, committees, and needed new positions. These changes have now been made and we are well underway toward making the new organization fully engaged in accomplishing our stated goals.

Two key changes were: (1) the establishment of the position of Head of Public Services to focus our energies on working more fully in unison and to utilize the best practices of each public service unit; and (2) the creation of the Strategy and Planning Council whose role is to give overall direction to our efforts and coordinate and manage the work of our committees and project teams. These committees and project teams are established and most are well on their way to improving existing services or establishing new initiatives. Many staff are fully engaged in working toward our goals with new energy and focus, so that over time our goals should be met and the library should attain new levels of effectiveness.

There is no end to this process, since we must be on-going in our reexamination of our practices, services, and goals as the University and our environment changes around us at an ever increasing pace.

--Paul Gherman, University Librarian