UMass Global Library Policies & Reports

UMass Global Library
Strategic Plan 2024-2027

The UMass Global Library has been in the unique and enviable position of being able to build its resources practically from the ground up. In the latter half of 2022, after UMass Global completed its separation from Chapman University, staff at the newly formed UMass Global Library began the process of rebuilding and restructuring its resources and services to better meets the needs of the university’s community in a fully online environment. Work included developing a new, streamlined website that improved access to paid content, providing reliable reference assistance with on-demand guides and FAQs, creating on-demand workshops, training tutors to expand live assistance hours, creating a comprehensive tutorial on academic integrity and anti-plagiarism, and re-instating interlibrary loan services. Some of these activities were met with significant challenges; however, the library is now in a position where resources are reliably available, assistance is readily accessible, and holdings are accurately represented and cross-searchable in the library’s databases.

With a structure now established, the UMass Global Library must look toward a future that includes establishing a presence as a world-class online library while change is both continual and expected. With many members of the community new to using a modern academic library, the library must focus not simply on teaching research skills, but also on marketing library resources and services so that faculty, students, and staff understand that a library is more than an information warehouse, but rather a flexible, responsive partner in education, planning, strategy, accessibility, and fiscal responsibility. This five-year plan articulates the library’s role in expanding and strengthening the educational mission of UMass Global.

Page Contents:

• UMass Global Library Vision
• UMass Global Library Values
• Priorities

UMass Global Library Vision

The UMass Global Library develops and maintains an inclusive, responsive, technologically flexible, world class virtual library that supports the work of faculty and staff and collaborates with them to deliver an exceptional education to students during and beyond their UMass Global experience.

UMass Global Library Values

Priorities
The University of Massachusetts Global has identified three strategic areas of focus that align with the administrative priorities of the institution: Quality, Growth and Capabilities.

QUALITY
Enhance academic excellence and success by providing students with ample and equitable opportunities to enhance their learning and workforce-relevant skills.

Strategies:

• Partner with faculty to educate the student body about efficient and ethical use of information so that they may establish their own voices in scholarly and professional conversations.
• Create and/or provide course content that can be delivered without cost to students in order to reduce the burden of educational expenses.
• Support self-directed, on demand learning by developing or sharing open training tools so that students can get help at the point of need.

GROWTH
Make optimal use of the available funding and staffing in order to expand and improve access to the library’s resources and services.

Strategies: 

• Create a micro credential program for information literacy skill sets in order to help students boost their career potential.
• Partner with faculty to create customized information literacy plans for their respective departments and programs so that instruction is integrated rather than auxiliary.
• Facilitate and promote the UMass Global community’s participation in scholarly conversation by expanding the university’s institutional repository so that the work of faculty and students can be showcased and accessible to a worldwide audience of researchers.
• Create a library internship (pre- or post-graduate) to advise on student needs and help attract a new generation of individuals to the library profession.
• Hire new staff with West Coast presence and expertise in areas of library operations that require additional support.

CAPABILITIES
Develop capacities for the library to grow into a world-class library and retain the flexibility to adapt to changing curricula by aligning with university goals and strategic planning.

Strategies:

• Partner with Institutional Research to establish measures of the quality and impact of library services that allow library staff to make data driven decisions to improve the user experience and access.
• Right size the library’s budget based on demonstrated needs and requests for resources, particularly for master’s and doctoral programs.
• Develop and maintain transparent policies so that the UMass Global community understands how the library makes critical decisions.
• Increase community awareness of library resources and services through regular communication channels including news feeds, newsletters, and social media.
• Assess large library collections to seek the most cost-effective and relevant packages.
• Implement a new eResource management system (ERM) to manage contracts and agreements.

Last updated: March 20, 2023