Libraries' Program Goals for Academic Year 2008-09

The Ball State University Libraries serve to support the vision and mission of Ball State University as a national model of excellence for learning-centered academic communities to advance knowledge, improve economic vitality, and enhance the quality of life.

The vision of the University Libraries is to be recognized by students, faculty, and other members of the University’s academic community as a destination for research, learning, and friends. This statement reflects our strategy for the libraries’ programs, services, and collections.

Our fundamental service objective is to support students’ pursuit for academic and scholastic success and faculty endeavors in the creation of new knowledge, classroom instruction, enhancement of academic outcomes, the use of information technologies, and greater personal awareness.

The main characteristics of the Libraries’ programs, services, collections and technologies are the following:
Librarians and other specialists to help students and faculty with research projects and papers
Access to rich digital and print content for scholarship and research
Physical and digital space for students and faculty to pursue learning and research projects
Computers, software, and information technologies for students to complete classroom assignments and for students, faculty, and scholars conducting research and creative projects
Individual and collaborative spaces for study and group learning
Great hours for library access and scholastic achievement

The University Libraries’ Strategic Goals, 2008-2009
Our strategic goals identify the focus and outcomes that our professional and paraprofessional personnel strive to achieve in providing a wide range of sophisticated library and information services to our students, faculty, and other members of our academic community. These goals include the following:

Provide uniformly gracious services in a user-friendly environment that supports learning, research, and classroom instruction
Increase access to information resources at the desktop for students and faculty
Expand the University Libraries’ digital initiatives and facilitate development of emerging media opportunities for learning, research, and classroom enhancement
Provide a broad range of computer-based learning resources, applications, and services to enhance student learning and that support an undergraduate research culture, and expand technical training opportunities for faculty and staff, and training opportunities for students
Increase diversity within the University Libraries’ workforce and expand programming in the academic community to promote awareness of diversity

The following 12 objectives are key elements of the Libraries’ Business Plan for fiscal year 2008-2009:
Creation and deployment of a Libraries’ Materials Request/Notification System to notify faculty, administrators, and others when an item they have recommended for purchase is available for check-out
Creation of Web-based mini tutorials for library instruction
Distance education outreach through Web page design and online chat with librarians
Expansion of the Libraries’ ability to provide library services in Second Life, a 3-D virtual space
Expansion of intensive computing tools to provide students and faculty with greater access to emerging media resources and for data analysis, gaming, video editing, and animation rendering
Exploration and acquisition of a federated search utility, and expansion of the Libraries’ link resolver technology for increased use of our academic databases and access to full-text resources
Increase in the number of Libraries’ sponsored conferences, workshops, and campus events
Libraries’ programming to include an Emerging Technologies Speaker Series
Outreach to students who are living in University housing
Licensing to allow BSU’s alumni to access some or all of the Libraries’ academic databases
Targeted immersive learning opportunities using the Archives and Special Collections, including data storage
Virtual Press and Cardinal Scholar digital repository expansion to include publications by faculty, students, alumni, and other academic organizations