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Brian Mathews, the Associate Dean for Learning & Outreach at Virginia Tech, criticizes libraries and their approach to strategic planning in a white paper entitled Think Like a Startup:

“Many library strategic plans read more like to-do lists rather than entrepreneurial visions. With all the effort that goes into these documents I’m not sure that we’re getting a good return. You can easily pick out who wrote which parts: there is a section for public services, a section for technical services, something about information literacy, something about open access, something about providing service excellence. These are highly predictable documents.

They don’t say: we’re going to develop three big ideas that will shift the way we operate. They don’t say: we’re going delight our patrons by anticipating their needs. They don’t say: we’re going to transform how scholarship happens. They don’t attempt to dent the universe.”

But for many companies,  a vision and a strategic plan are two different documents . A vision statement tells the audience what the organization ideally wants to be. For instance, it’s probably not too far from the truth to say that Google’s vision is to provide the “perfect search engine” (something co-founder Larry Page has defined).  But that tells you nothing about how it’s getting there (which is what the strategic plan is).

Nitpicking aside, I know he’s saying that a lofty vision is what libraries need to work toward more than that other thing. He uses a less glamorous metaphor: Are you trying to build the best vacuum cleaner or have the cleanest floors?

Fortunately, I’m part of a forward-thinking organization (with both a strategic plan and the vision to guide it), but it works on a granular level too. Every day, I ask myself what the ultimate goal is for the course activities I design (or other tasks I engage with), and the hard thinking that sometimes follows really makes a difference–even if it is pride-swallowing.

Last week, the LA Times columnist wrote about the value of libraries in a news article entitled Librarian’s Words are Binding. Puns aside, it set off a flurry of comments, some of which contended the value of libraries. This is nothing new in LIS. As we struggle to assert our value in the community or campus, there are always those who see libraries as increasingly obsolete and wasteful. One comment questioned why K-12 schools should fund libraries over larger math classes or other core subjects. Another viewed libraries as a luxury akin to a game room. Information services groomed through the libraries (both public and academic) are continually undervalued (and publicly; watch this disparaging comment by Bill Mayer) despite years of advocacy and promotion.

I would argue that the value perceived by the public is in part a result of the experience users have in college. Typically, the library is realized as a useful place for study and academic research, but what in the academic library inspires students to lifelong use beyond its walls?

As someone who helps support work done with these grants, this is probably not the most unbiased blog post you’ll find. However, I feel strongly about the potential these grants have for staff, librarians, teaching faculty, and students alike, and I’d like to offer ideas to those who find themselves wondering how they can best incorporate librarians into their class and curriculum. The evaluation criteria states:

• The introduction of library materials and services will enhance the success of the course.
• New or innovative use of library materials, a variety of formats, or information literacy instruction is included.
• Potential for broad impact on students is possible. This might be indicated by high enrollment, pre-requisite status, frequent offering, multiple sections, discussion of how course material will be shared with colleagues, etc.
• The proposal shows evidence of collaboration with a librarian.
• Applicant is familiar with or willing to learn how to use appropriate technologies identified in the proposal.

What does this mean aside from offering an instructional session on resources or promoting ILL services? Here’s a short list of possibilities:

1. For any assignments that require research, offer to be a peer reviewer to make sure that those resources are still available and that what is being asked of students is clear in the language of an assignment.
2. Create a collaborative resource centered on students’ work (e.g. wiki for written papers, private YouTube channel for videos, etc.—technology is not limited to proprietary software)
3. Help develop an assignment that requires students to engage with a primary or secondary resource (Anne Fields has a fantastic list of sample assignments)
4. Assist faculty in visually-enhancing or updating their teaching materials
5. Partner with learning-technology specialists to add additional layers of engagement to the classroom

These are just a few ideas, and I would love to help you think of additional ones. But what unique ways have you engaged with faculty?