Library Task Force 2007

Task Force Report

Report of the Library Task Force PDF
October 2007(15 pages)

Job Posting

Director of Library Services Job Posting

Task Force Members

Executive Summary

In the spring of 2007, the current director of the Gordon Library announced that she would be retiring at the end of October 2007. This announcement provided an opportunity for WPI to assess the future of the Library before we initiate the search to find a replacement. To that end, a Task Force was formed and charged with taking a visionary look at the future of the Gordon Library in support of the WPI mission regarding teaching, learning and scholarship.

The following goals were identified:

inform the Administration and Faculty regarding possible future directions for the Library that build upon the operational excellence, patron service orientation, and strong technology base that currently exist, and
use this context to develop a job description for the next leader of the Gordon Library.

The Task Force was asked to take special note of how the Library might meet the challenges and needs of the rapidly evolving undergraduate and graduate academic programs including the new Humanities & Arts Requirement, local/global projects, the new first-year experience, new majors, faculty-student-staff collaboration, the evolving role of reference and instructional librarians, and increased student enrollment. We were also asked to consider the questions of whether the next leader should have academic credentials beyond a Master of Library Science degree and occupy a faculty position.

The Task Force met over the summer and into A term gathering information and learning more about the trends and challenges that Gordon Library, as well as academic libraries in general face today. We solicited input from members of the WPI community focusing on the following areas:

Ways in which the current operations of the Library support, or fail to support, individuals and/or their departments’ activities in research, teaching and learning.
Future changes that they foresee at WPI, and how the Library operations and structure should adapt to support those changes.
Library-based services that are not available at WPI, but which they feel the Library should provide.
Recommendations for the qualities, skills, and background WPI should seek in our next Library Director.

Our work led us to identify several key strengths of the Gordon Library which include improvements that have been made recently in the online availability of research tools, the development of information literacy, enhancements to the Library’s facilities and services, and the leadership demonstrated in the integration of new technologies. The Task Force also identified many challenges that Gordon Library faces. These include issues related to staffing, the physical plant, resource allocation, the concept of the library as learning center and information commons, maintaining special collections and archives, and supporting and managing WPI’s intellectual capital.

As part of our charge, we examined the role of the future director of Gordon Library. We found that there was no compelling reason that the next director should be required to have a degree beyond the Master of Library Science which is considered a terminal degree in this field. We also did not feel that awarding faculty status to this position is necessary given the culture and history of the position at WPI. The Task Force revised the job description for this position. It is our opinion that the next director should:

Attend to the need for a new or renovated library facility.
Pursue the learning center/information commons concept and bring it to a new level under his/her leadership.
Lead efforts to make the WPI Special Collections and Archives more accessible.
Support protection and dissemination of WPI’s intellectual property by taking advantage of new opportunities for publishing.

Recommendations

As a result of our work, the Task Force developed the following recommendations that we feel are critical to ensure the on-going success of the Gordon Library:

The Task Force strongly recommends that the University give high priority to providing the appropriate budgetary support to the Library so that the following key areas can be addressed by the next director:
- Bringing staffing levels up to par with peer institutions in order to better provide services that support the demands of our project based curriculum.
- Attending to the repair and maintenance needs of the building.
- Increasing electronic resources to meet the needs of our growing academic programs and scholarship.
The Task Force strongly recommends increasing coordination among the Library, academic departments, and interdepartmental major programs to take full advantage of potential synergies. Particular attention should be focused on those areas where the opportunity exists to share physical space and delivery of services to leverage the most value out of available resources.
That an assessment of the impact on library staffing, information resources and collections should be included in the review of the required resources when motions are made to CAO and CGSR for new majors and programs.
The Task Force strongly recommends that the Library be a top priority in the upcoming Capital Campaign. This echoes the sentiments expressed by many faculty and administrative.

The Task Force looks forward to feedback from the administration and members of the WPI community regarding these recommendations.

For more information, read the full report of the Library Task Force PDF (15 pages) and the Director of Library Services job posting.

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Last modified: Nov 29, 2007, 11:51 EST