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Strategic Pillars

Pillar 1: Democratization of Knowledge

The Library is an advocate and a voice for making the knowledge of the university openly available in support of communities that value research and learning. We enable our students, faculty, staff and community to use that knowledge to advance a positive societal impact. The Library’s long-standing commitment to make information available and accessible is evident in the work of our service-centered employees and exemplified in the rich collections they curate.

Building on this strong foundation from past work, the goal of this pillar is to help UC San Diego realize an even greater impact from the scholarship generated by students, faculty and staff. The Library will achieve this through current and new investments in open access; through the development of shared collections; and through innovative approaches that support the curation and publication of research data.

UC San Diego Strategic Goals:

High-impact research Health care excellence Diversity and access Community Partnership

Pillar 1 Library Strategies

  1. Center “open” in our collection development and management work
  2. Develop and digitize primary resource and archival collections in order to be more accessible and usable in teaching and research environments
  3. Maximize UC open access and collection management strategies, consortial licensing and purchasing to increase the richness and accessibility of scholarship

Pillar 1 Initiatives

Pillar 2: Innovation and Inquiry

Information literacy, access to materials and library spaces, and feeling a sense of belonging and agency within the Library’s physical and virtual spaces are essential to enabling a more impactful library experience.

The overarching goal of this pillar is to help scholars develop and pursue new research questions, enhance their teaching and learning skills, and increase their sense of campus and civic engagement. To do this, the Library will inspire innovation and foster critical inquiry through inclusive instruction in information research and information literacy. We will affirm our commitment to provide academically-focused, student-centered places to learn, collaborate, and reflect. We will also build on our commitment as a learning organization to anticipate and meet the emerging needs of our scholars.

UC San Diego Strategic Goals:

Student experience High-impact research Health care excellence Diversity and access

Pillar 2 Library Strategies

  1. Advance our users’ abilities to critically use, evaluate and synthesize information
  2. Make Library spaces places for experimentation, academic growth and student leadership
  3. Anticipate evolving needs of users in delivering services and materials

Pillar 2 Initiatives

Pillar 3: Social Justice

For the Library, a commitment to advancing social justice means working to enable the full participation of our campus community and Library employees. To achieve this, we must strive to equitably allocate resources, foster a sense of belonging, and treat all members of our Library and campus community with respect and care.

Aligning our efforts with UC San Diego’s Strategic Plan and the Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence, the Library approaches our work in equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), social justice, and accessibility through the lens of our mission—to steward knowledge and empower users to analyze and interpret information.

The goal of this pillar is to strengthen and deepen our commitment through techniques that engage our community in planning and decision-making; through investments in collections, library spaces, services and programming; grounded in our Principles of Community, service and collaboration; and through efforts that address academic opportunity gaps for our students and faculty.

UC San Diego Strategic Goals:

Student experience Diversity and access People and purpose

Pillar 3 Library Strategies

  1. Place the voice of our community at the center of our work
  2. Address opportunity gaps for students and faculty through areas of library investment.
  3. Contribute to the development of social justice awareness across campus.

Pillar 3 Initiatives

Pillar 4: Responsible Stewardship

As an organization whose work focuses on the current needs of our community as well as the future needs of researchers, the Library must always enable innovation and change by responsibly adjusting our existing work.

This pillar serves as the foundation on which we approach fulfilling the aspirations of this Strategic Plan. To achieve our mission and deliver high quality services and access to our users, the Library must conduct a meticulous review of our resource allocations and processes. This includes, employing a person-centered approach to leadership and management; reflecting on our users’ needs and re-designing our infrastructure for ongoing efficiency; evaluating and determining if our work can be adjusted, concluded, renewed or increased; and leveraging existing resources and identifying new areas of support. We must also seek to streamline workflows and our approach to delivering user-focused services so that we can align our staff’s time and expertise to pursue and extend our vision.

UC San Diego Strategic Goals:

People and purpose Sustainable infrastructure

Pillar 4 Library Strategies

  1. Extend and leverage a people-first approach to Library leadership and management
  2. Maximize investments that directly benefit Library users
  3. Implement continuous improvement methods to reduce the burden of work, and deliver measurable positive impacts on service performance

Pillar 4 Initiatives