UMass Global Library Policies & Reports

UMass Global Library Annual Report 2022-23
*click for complete report

The UMass Global Library Annual Report 2022-23 offers a look back at the library's inaugural year, during which the staff was tasked with building a completely new online library – an opportunity that is unique, enviable, and practically unheard of in the modern academic landscape. Library staff worked to build and structure library resources and services to meet the needs of the university’s community in a fully online environment. 

A Message from the Head Librarian

“Can a library really be all virtual?”

This is a question that Jeremy Korr posed to me shortly after he assumed responsibility as Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, and it is a question I wrestled with myself when I accepted the position of Head Librarian in 2022.

Academic libraries everywhere are experiencing unprecedented changes and challenges. Technology moves at a pace that can be difficult to keep up with. Budgetary concerns may negatively impact staffing and services. Political ideology threatens the existence of higher education and academic freedom. Confidence in higher education has plummeted to historic lows. The sudden proliferation of artificial intelligence affects the quality and integrity of student work. On a micro level, people certainly have strong feelings about their books, not only in regard to what they want to read, but how they want to access it.

For these reasons, the UMass Global Library is hardly different from traditional brick and brick and mortar libraries. Most modern academic libraries long ago started the move toward collecting the majority of research material online, not only because it is cost-effective and easier to manage that way, but because it is the most equitable means to provide research material to the widest audience.

It is a rare moment when a well-established organization has the opportunity to completely re-imagine a service, be that by building a new physical structure, or, in our case, a completely new online library. If the Covid-19 pandemic taught libraries anything, it is that they are resilient and fully capable of leveraging technology to deliver resources and services on demand to their communities. At UMass Global, our model of personalized support extends through the library, offering students the research material and friendly assistance they need on their own schedules.

This has been a year of extraordinary change for the UMass Global Library, and while our services may be virtual, they are certainly not impersonal. After a busy but successful first year, the library staff looks forward to adapting to best meet the needs of our faculty and students and contributing to the continued growth of the university as an all-virtual library.

Christine Bombaro, MLS
Head Librarian
 

Introduction to the 2022-23 Annual Report
*click here for the complete UMG Library Annual Report 2022-23

In August 2022, the new staff members of the University of Massachusetts Global Library (UMGL) were tasked with building a completely new online library – an opportunity that is unique, enviable, and practically unheard of in the modern academic landscape. While the new website was under construction with all technical design and support provided by Vice Chancellor Murphy and team members from the Center for Instructional Innovation (CII), the UMGL was about to complete its separation from Chapman University’s library, and library staff worked to rebuild and restructure library resources and services to meet the needs of the university’s community in a fully online environment. This initial work focused on maintaining the continuity of existing resources, confirming or restoring the accessibility of paid content, ensuring that the library’s budget was allocated appropriately, and providing reliable assistance for staff and students.

Not quite one full year into this unprecedented transition, the UMGL 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. This report offers a look back at the UMGL’s first year. Though it is lengthy, representing an active inaugural year, it will serve as a baseline for future reporting, assessment, planning, and study. In sum, during this year, library staff and partners:

• Built the new UMGL from the ground up.
• Increased the findability of resources carried over from Chapman University.
• Added new resources to benefit the curriculum despite a challenging budget scenario.
• Built the foundations of a library instruction program.
• Reached more than 1000 students through reference and instructional interactions.
• Created a strategic plan to guide goal setting for the upcoming three to five years.