Cline Library Strategic Planning

The library provides physical and virtual resources, tools, expertise and spaces for student success and lifelong learning and strives to provide affordable and equitable access to resources, spaces and services to a diverse community of users with a wide variety of needs.

1. Collaborate with university partners to increase affordability and accessibility of textbooks and other course content.

Example strategies

• In partnership with NAU’s E-Learning Center and the Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning Design and Assessment, lead a university task force on affordability and accessibility of textbooks and course content and determine and communicate plan and priorities.

2. In partnership with NAU Disability Resources, improve accessibility of public-facing tools, systems and content.

Example strategies

• With Disability Resources, participate in multi-institutional Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant project to create a national repository of accessible instructional content. Collaborate with Disability Resources to identify and audit tools.  Develop best practices that model a high national standard.
• In support of the Mellon grant project, consider joining HathiTrust, an organization whose members contribute content to a digital preservation repository and assist with its continuous development.
• Explore potential utilization of Blackboard Ally, a product that focuses on making digital course content more accessible, in content delivery processes.

3. Develop a library master plan that features spaces designed to meet students’ evolving learning and collaboration needs.

Example strategies

• Leverage strategic planning stakeholder feedback, assessment data from the library’s User Experience Spaces Team, and an internal review of current library services to inform future directions for library programs, including space requirements and their ideal location in the library building.
• Plan next-generation experiential learning environments with enhanced technology and programming that provide new opportunities in areas such as data visualization, virtual and augmented reality, and e-sports and complement other innovation-focused NAU initiatives, such as NAU’s boundaryless program and the NAU Virtual Reality Lab.
• Provide a road map for holistic building analysis, planning and renovation, with a goal of providing an environmentally sustainable infrastructure that supports uninterrupted study and research while ensuring sound stewardship of physical collections. Incorporate universal design principles that support accessibility.

4. Improve the user experience of library services for various student groups.

Example strategies

• Deliver resources and programming that support first-year and first-generation student success, such as online learning modules that instructors can embed into Canvas to introduce students to the library and library services and an online library orientation or tour. Collaborate with first-year and first-generation orientation programs to incorporate orientations to library; in orientations, include information on how library resources can offset book, equipment and other costs to students.
• With Center for International Education and other campus partners supporting international students (including student groups), assess international students’ library needs. Conduct a collections review project focused on foreign-language and international materials; prioritize recommendations.

5. Improve the user experience of library services for students in statewide, online and competency-based programs and on other campuses.
   Example strategies

• Conduct an audit of library services that support or impact students in statewide, online and competency-based programs, as well as students at the Phoenix Bioscience Core, NAU-Yuma and Coconino Community College. Identify top priorities and conduct User Experience (UX) testing.
• Based on findings, develop and implement evidence-based policies, guidelines, and improvements that support this population.
• Consider how the library advances NAU’s goals to prepare citizens for Arizona’s current and future workforce needs.

6. Update alignment of library resources with current academic needs and engage students with collections.

Example strategies

• Conduct an e-resources review project to gather feedback from faculty on their current library e-resource needs. Use findings to increase alignment of acquisitions spending with current student and faculty needs while adjusting allocations within the boundaries of the library’s acquisitions budget.
• Develop and implement a communication plan that engages users in an ongoing way to ensure currency and relevance of resources in all formats. The plan should also raise awareness of the financial investment in acquisitions and current trends.
• Increase promotion of newly acquired materials so students and faculty can take advantage of those resources, making the resources more cost effective.
• Develop a communication plan that raises awareness of opportunities to use primary-source materials in instruction and student research.

7. Enhance library student employment opportunities, which provide students with income as well as academic, skill and career development opportunities.

Example strategies

• Increase experiential learning and working opportunities for library student employees through active fundraising for the Cline Library Student Workforce Promise Fund.
• Leverage Student Workforce Promise funds to sustain employment opportunities and provide professional development for library student employees.

The library is an active participant in the scholarly conversation and provides resources, services and other support for individuals at all levels and throughout the research and creative activity life cycle, from creation to dissemination.

1. Develop and promote Cline Library as a campus hub for scholarly, research and creative activities.
   Example strategies

• Conduct a needs assessment to understand what a library that is an exemplary source for research support looks like for undergraduates, graduate students, PhD candidates, faculty (tenure track and non-tenure track), professional researchers and research programs. Identify, prioritize and develop targeted library activities that support work in initial areas of focus.
• Develop a communication plan focused on increasing the promotion of existing resources, services and programming relevant to the research and creative activity life cycle.
• Promote student and faculty research and creative activities in the library building. Increase faculty participation in the NAU Authors Room.
• Collaborate with the Faculty Professional Development Program, Office of Graduate and Professional Studies, Office of the Vice President for Research, and others to present research workshops for very specific audiences.

2. Expand library’s role as a partner in building a robust infrastructure for the continued growth of NAU’s research and creative activity portfolio and the success of its innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives.

Example strategies

• Collaborate with Vice President for Research; Vice Provost for Teaching, Learning Design and Assessment; Information Technology Services; Institutional Review Board and others to form steering committee focused on research infrastructure. Identify overlaps, gaps and potential actions.
• Develop a strategy for securing targeted acquisitions that support NAU’s evolving research directions. Include a communication channel that informs the Vice President for Research, Provost and others about availability of library resources or additional funding needed to support new or proposed high-profile research programs or hires.
• Collaborate with Vice President for Research and Office of Sponsored Projects to develop and implement a strategy that provides funding for library resources from indirect costs.
• Extend Cline Library’s research support services to NAU users at the Phoenix Bioscience Core. Provide research support to College of Health and Human Services users and programs at the Phoenix Bioscience Core through assistance with systematic reviews and e-resources designed to meet their needs.
• Consider membership application to the Association of Research Libraries, an organization of research libraries at comprehensive research institutions in the United States and Canada whose members cooperatively advance research, learning, and scholarly communication.

3. Increase capacity to provide digital access to and use of Colorado Plateau primary source materials.

Example strategies

• Enhance the library’s digital preservation and access program in order to increase the use of primary source materials in course content, student and faculty research, and community engagement.
• Promote primary source materials to engage faculty in digital scholarship and digital humanities research. Include information about Colorado Plateau and other primary source materials in New Faculty Orientation information and Faculty Professional Development programs.
• Develop tools that support digital preservation, access and discovery.
• Identify space and other resources needed to expand the program.

4. Develop a library-level research and creative activity agenda that contributes to local and national conversations in areas of relevance and focus to Cline Library and NAU.

Example strategies

• Form a cross-department group to evaluate existing activities and develop a vision and plan for library research and creative activity agenda that benefits the library and contributes to library and university goals. Connect efforts to the larger institutional research steering committee noted above.
• Create opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student projects or internships that contribute to library research.
• Provide resources, training and mentoring that build research, creative activity and publication skills for all interested library staff. Connect individual professional/research agendas with program/library goals and assessment.
• Standardize an approach for soliciting and sharing staff and library research contributions and accomplishments.

5. Raise visibility of NAU undergraduate, graduate and faculty research and creative works.

Example strategies

• Provide opportunities for the community to engage with student and faculty research and creative works through exhibits, presentations, digital and physical displays, and other formats.
• Optimize connectivity of analytical tools that leverage publication, citation and related data in order to ensure NAU’s research and creative activity output is accurately and fully represented.

The library advances NAU’s efforts to become the nation’s leading university serving Native Americans.

1. Increase library resources, services and programming that support Indigenous student success, retention, and recruitment.

Example strategies

• Review other academic and tribal college libraries’ efforts to support Indigenous student success, retention and recruitment. Collaborate with the NAU Office of Indigenous Student Success and other partners to explore existing data.  Conduct an environmental scan to identify potential improvements aimed at increasing Indigenous student success.
• Use findings to identify and prioritize services, collections, and/or programming that support Indigenous students’ academic and research needs. Design, pilot and assess initial efforts. As feasible, align with work of local organizations such as Coconino Community College, the Flagstaff City-Coconino County Public Library and the Museum of Northern Arizona.
• Continue to collaborate with Navajo Nation and Hopi Tribe K-12 schools to develop and deliver educational outreach. Provide opportunities that engage students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activities such as 3D design and printing.
• Promote Cline Library resources, programs and content to regional Indigenous communities and their educational enterprises. Explore collaborative licensing of selected electronic resources.
• Consider a study of the library’s role in Indigenous students’ success, possibly in partnership with institutions such as Coconino Community College or a tribal college.

2. Create publicly available resources that provide culturally responsive information about Native American history and culture in the Southwest.

Example strategies

• Pursue the development of a Southwest Indigenous Peoples’ portal, a culturally responsive online portal for Native American history and culture. Submit funding proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for a planning grant to determine interest and support from regional Native American communities. If findings show interest and support, pursue additional funding from the Mellon Foundation to develop the portal.
• Pending identification of partners and funding, create a culturally responsive lexicon. The lexicon, which will be developed collaboratively with regional Native American communities, will be used to describe content pertaining to or documenting Native American communities, peoples, history and culture.

3. Improve the library’s ability to secure addenda to NAU Memoranda of Understanding with tribal entities related to library or archival resources in order to promote greater collaboration.
   Example strategies

• Collaborate with Vice President for Native American Initiatives to develop a replicable approach for considering, negotiating and securing addenda to NAU Memoranda of Understanding with tribal entities related to library or archival resources. Reach out to three potential partners and, if mutually beneficial, complete an addendum with each.
• Use experience to inform potential changes to plan and approach. Consider regional or national dissemination around plan and approach.

4. Engage Arizona’s Native American communities in a dialogue around culturally sensitive practices and collections for Native American/Indigenous research.

Example strategies

• Collaborate with Vice President for Native American Initiatives to invite the 22 Native American communities in Arizona to participate in a dialogue around culturally sensitive practices and collections for Native American/Indigenous research. With the group, identify culturally responsive and respectful practices for the management of tribal history and cultural heritage.  Build on successful statewide dialogue around the Protocol for Native American Archival Materials at the 2019 Arizona Archives Summit.

5. Increase, support, and retain staff from Native and Indigenous communities.
   Example strategies

• Create a plan that positions the library to more actively and intentionally recruit library and student employees from Native and Indigenous communities. Leverage partnerships with tribes, tribal colleges, educators for whom we conduct outreach on reservations, and others.  Increase outreach to library science programs that serve Native and Indigenous students, such as the University of Arizona’s Knowledge River Program.
• Consider partnership developing an internship or fellowship that would be of interest to individuals from Native and Indigenous communities.

The library is a place of synergy where people and ideas can connect to spark learning, knowledge, innovation and creativity that benefit the community and foster understanding.

1. Expand efforts to engage a variety of communities and enhance the sense of community and place.

Example strategies

• Form a cross-unit committee to coordinate, manage, improve, assess and expand library programming and outreach. Expand summer programming to engage the Flagstaff community. Coordinate library efforts with programming and outreach efforts across the institution.
• Engage the local community in the preservation and archiving of NAU and Flagstaff history. Increase outreach about collections preservation and archiving.  Engage community members in the creation of metadata (information about data, such as description and context) for primary- source materials. Partner with faculty and students to conduct oral history interviews in the region.
• Continue outreach efforts to underrepresented peoples and subjects on campus and the Colorado Plateau to ensure diversity and inclusiveness in the voices, collections and stories represented in Special Collections and Archives.
• Consider establishing a designated fund for specific programming (ex: co-curricular programming that supports underrepresented communities).

2. Transform library spaces to provide new opportunities for users to engage with art, books, culture and community.
   Example strategies

• Develop a plan for soliciting, promoting and managing art, book and other exhibits. Within the existing building, designate and promote spaces for changing displays. Assess user engagement with these spaces.  As part of master planning, research and design dedicated exhibit spaces.
• Create a popular reading section featuring titles for leisure reading.
• Review and update space use policies to ensure that they are inclusive and accessible and acknowledge diverse populations.

3. Strengthen campus, community, cross-institutional and other partnerships.
   Example strategies

• Map current, expired and desired partnerships using a learning ecology framework. (In this learner-driven model, individuals and groups are provided with curated resources and tools that support their growth and learning and foster participation.)  Use the map to strategically collaborate with existing partners and reach out to new ones.
• Research successful community/campus partnership models and the goals and measures that can be used to gauge progress.
• Leverage the NAU community partner council to advise the library on community partnership, engagement, and impact.
• Strengthen the NAU/University of Arizona partnership at the Phoenix Bioscience Core. Pursue collaborations that engage NAU and University of Arizona health sciences librarians in areas such as library design, curriculum development, and programming at the shared Arizona Health Sciences Library – Phoenix.

4.  Build support for library initiatives with both the public and private sectors.

• Increase philanthropic support to the library and broaden the base of supporters through participation in the NAU Comprehensive Campaign and other efforts.
• Grow partnerships with institutions, business, industry, education, government, Native nations, and nonprofit organizations.
• Identify and increase ways for alumni to support and remain connected with the library.

The library works to continuously improve its organizational effectiveness and the library staff experience.

1. Increase adoption of standardized change management, project management and user experience best practices across library initiatives.
   Example strategies

• Provide training to develop competence for all library employees around change management, project management, and user experience best practices while acknowledging and addressing different roles and needs.
• Develop and share basic expectations for library-wide use of the three approaches. Implement basic expectations to expand the use of the three approaches across library practice to promote collaboration and transparency.
• Use the three approaches to identify efficiencies and programs or services that can be discontinued.

2. Develop and support career progression opportunities for all library employees, regardless of category or classification.
   Example strategies

• Identify additional ways to support career progression opportunities for all library employees, in alignment with NAU’s Organizational Growth and Effectiveness Initiative (OGEI). Use library-specific data to advocate for equitable, competitive salaries.
• Increase the library’s capacity to provide targeted career development opportunities and expectations for each employee. Deliver training or resources for supervisors and all library employees on developing job goals that align with personal career goals, support career progression and contribute to an organizational culture of life-long

3. Engage all library employees in understanding and increasing engagement and recognition for employees at all levels.
   Example strategies

• Collaborate with NAU Human Resources and/or NAU Employee Assistance and Wellness to, with all library staff, define employee engagement and recognition for our organization.
• Create a resource for supervisors and all employees that lists existing tools and approaches for employee engagement and recognition. Educate all library staff about formal and informal ways they can recognize colleagues.
• Use a library employee survey and/or other process to identify and prioritize key issues related to engagement and recognition; share findings with library staff. For issues beyond the library’s sphere of influence, partner with external stakeholders.

4. Develop policies, practices and programming that protect user privacy and educate users about their privacy rights.

Example strategies

• With relevant campus partners, form a group to develop and complete an audit of current library systems, vendors, and policies that pertain to data collection.
• Establish policies, processes and communication channels that inform users about the collection of data by the library and its system and vendors and how the library safeguards personally identifiable information.
• Develop and deliver programming that positions users to make informed decisions regarding their personal data and information.

5. Develop and implement a responsive, sustainable and fiscally sound acquisitions strategy.
   Example strategies

• Develop a strategy that continually directs acquisitions funding to the most relevant resources and facilitates transparency through ongoing communication with users around resources, priorities and strategies.
• Implement an ongoing program that evaluates library resources in relation to accessibility, usage, cost, academic program changes and other factors.

6. In partnership with NAU Facility Services and Risk Management, identify strategies and funding that protect irreplaceable collections and honor commitments to donors.
   Example strategies

• Identify a plan and funding for replacing the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system and the fire and life safety systems in Special Collections and Archives.
• Pursue matching funds that position the library to apply for a National Endowment for the Humanities implementation grant for cold storage of archival collections.

7. Recruit, support and retain a diverse, skilled staff.
   Example strategies

• Increase recruiting efforts that target applicants from historically underrepresented communities.
• Increase access to advancement, professional development, service and other opportunities for library employees at all levels.
• Increase internship and other employment opportunities in order to engage potential hires.  This would also bring new perspectives and ideas to the library organization, raise awareness of Cline Library as an employer, and contribute to the development of future library professionals.