To enhance students' ability to understand, pursue and satisfy their own research needs, by stimulating their critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities, both for their academic careers and for life-long learning.
To advance the University's academic programs and scholarly processes through instruction and collaboration.
To provide the physical and virtual resources and learning spaces that support the academic research needs of students, faculty & staff.
This mission was revised by the Library's Administrative Team (the librarians as a group, chaired by the Library Director) on January 12, 2000; and reaffirmed in 2005.
STALEY LIBRARY GOALS FOR THE 2007-2008 ACADEMIC YEAR
Online electronic services:
Implement federated search engine (database searching across multiple databases at once). This 2006/07 goal was delayed by the software vendor, but will be in place for the 2007/08 academic year (September 2007).
Link to Google Scholar resources.
Continue to maintain and grow a library web site that is uniquely (among peer and aspiration institution libraries) forward-thinking and reflective of Millikin's and Staley Library's vision and goals.
Conduct a user survey about the usefulness and usability of the library's web site (Fall 2007 semester). This will be the companion survey to the one conducted prior to the library web site re-design in the Summer of 2006.
Continue creation of library web pages with subject-based clustering of all library resources and services, for more intuitive "one stop shopping." Completed guides as of September 3, 2007: Theatre, Education, Nursing, Music, Arts/Photography, Biology, Chemistry, Sports & Exercise Science. Next to be completed: Math & Computer Science, Physics & Astronomy, Gender Studies.
Implement new features in the online catalog and databases in order to improve access and enhance linkages.
Evaluate existing scanners in library (interlibrary loans and Archives) for potential upgrading the provision of more efficient service to the library's public. Also consider adding scanner for direct public use (an often-requested service).
For more effective intra- and interlibrary communication about service delivery, implement social networking technologies such as PBWiki.
Library research instruction program:
Significantly revised online tutorials for IN150 (for Fall 2007 semester) and IN151 (for Spring 2008 semester).
Continue the library research instruction assessment (pre-and-post testing) that was introduced during the 2005/06 academic year.
Offer sessions during Faculty Workshop Day (in August 2007) to familiarize faculty with the library's new and continuing services. (Repeat of successful 2006 sessions.)
Provide library introductory sessions to adjunct and PACE faculty.
Introduce transfer students to the library's services (in lieu of the CWRR sequence). This goal at present lacks a university-wide venue or logical context. However, the goal remains important for the library, and will be re-examinedduring the academic year 2007/08.
Library reference services:
Further expand current Instant Messaging (IM) services to Meebo, which will allow client-free IM access. (By September 2007.)
Implement proxy server access to library resources for off-campus Millikin library users by September 2007.
Library resources:
New or enhanced electronic databases to be brought online for academic year 2007/08:
Chronicle of Higher Education (after trial subscription in Spring 2007)
Access World News (full text of over 700 newspapers and news wire services around the globe)
Cochrane Library (collection of evidence-based healthcare databases and reviews of treatment efficacies)
SciFinder Scholar 2007 program on library computers for access to scientific patent and organic/inorganic substance information
Naxos Music database (double the simultaneous users to 20)
Deep backfile (first issue through 1998) for the majority of Sage's peer-reviewed scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and scientific, technical, and medical fields
Working with the respective schools and departments, continue to expand and adjust the library's services and resources in response to new traditional, PACE, and graduate academic programs.w or enhanced electronic databases to be brought online for academic year 2007/08:
In conjunction with the School of Nursing's MSN program, initiate journal subscriptions to Evidence-Based Nursing, Health Care Management Review, Leader to Leader, Nursing Administration Quarterly, and Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing.
Shift active library collections for greater ease of availability of higher-interest resources: move pre-1945 print volumes of periodicals from the Gorin stacks and simultaneously move full run of Chemical Abstracts into the Gorin stacks. (This move has been coordinated with the Chemistry Department, which now has online access to Chemical Abstracts through SciFinder Scholar on library computers.)
Other:
Continue work on the development and implementation of a disaster management and recovery plan for library (work initiated in Spring 2007).
For the Spring semester 2008, again offer practicum experience for University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign School of Library & Information Science student, focused on instruction and other public services.
The proposal for this practicum was accepted the UIUC Graduate School of Library and Information Science in fall 2006, but no applications were received with the commute to Decatur being the main assumed barrier. Accordingly, the practicum will be promoted also through the Decatur-based Rolling Prairie library service consortium (RPLS) during fall 2007.
Pursue (with the Dean of Teaching and Learning) the potential transition of Education Technology as a faculty position (full time) in the library. (For academic year 2008/09)
Encourage and support university efforts to allocate resources for staff wages, to fairly compensate them for duties performed. A first step is the creation of up-to-date job descriptions in the specified Human Resources format. (Summer 2007)
