Mission Statement
In keeping with the University’s mission of teaching, research, and service, the mission of the University of California, Merced Library is to achieve excellence by meeting the diverse research, teaching, and public service needs of UC Merced researchers (students, faculty, and staff) with targeted, quality collections and relevant services which effectively and efficiently support the research lifecycle of finding, using, creating, and managing information.
Definition: A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives. Projects stand in contrast to operations, which are the permanent, repetitive efforts of a business or organization.
Goal A Projects - leverage physical resources
2012-2013
Goal B Projects - user communication & instruction
2012-2013
Goal C Projects - collaborations to increase usability & accessibility of resources
2012-2013
Goal D Projects - sustain information resources
Goal E Projects - positive work environment
2012-2013
Goal F Projects - digital curation and data management
2012-2013
Definition: Operations are the permanent, repetitive efforts of a business or organization. Operations stand in contrast to projects, which is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives.
Goal A Operations - leverage physical resources
Goal B Operations - user communication & instruction
Goal C Operations - collaborations to increase usability & accessibility of resources
Goal D Operations - sustain information resources
Goal E Operations - positive work environment
Goal F Operations - digital curation and data management
The library will leverage its physical resources (space, furniture, fixtures, equipment, and IT infrastructure) to provide for the common good of the UC Merced Library user community, with a non-exclusive bias towards meeting the needs of undergraduate students.
Outcome A1
Provide accessible, functional, comfortable, and productive spaces that support a variety of academic needs, including quiet study, group study, social interaction, exhibits, and campus meetings and events.
Outcome A2
Reduce physical barriers to information by providing easily navigated spaces, logically organized and maintained book stacks, robust networking, and clear self-service options for library services.
Outcome A3
Make all decisions about library spaces based on both user assessment and the professional judgment of library staff.
Measure A1
The UC Merced Library will annually compare its opening hours with those of other UC Libraries with the goal of being at or above the UC Systemwide median for total hours open.
Responsibility: Eric Scott
Measure A2
The UC Merced Library will measure building occupancy rates, tying measured occupancies to day of the week, time of day, and library locations. The Library Access Services Department will conduct daily occupancy counts on nights and weekends; it will conduct weekday counts from 2 to 4 times per semester. The library will analyze this data and consider it in planning the scheduling of operating hours, staffing levels, and furniture acquisition.
Responsibility: Eric Scott
Measure A3
Seventy-five percent of students in focus groups will respond that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the library’s physical resources Findings inconsistent with this goal will be examined for space planning implications?
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
The library will sustain—in the face of a growing community of students and faculty—current levels and quality of user communication and instruction services by optimizing our resources, collaborating with partners, leveraging technology, and diversifying our instruction models.
Outcome B1
Increase undergraduate student research skills in a sustainable manner through consistent and effective information literacy instruction.
Outcome B2
Use the iPod Touch tour to provide effective and independent library instruction to incoming freshmen students.
Outcome B3
Provide library student assistants with the knowledge and skills to provide excellent customer service, including the ability to answer and refer questions.
Outcome B4
Increase faculty and graduate student awareness of the benefits of the open- access movement and the unsustainable nature of the current scholarly publishing model for academic institutions.
Measure B1
Provide information-literacy instruction to over 50% of WRI 10 sections in fall 2011 and spring 2012.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B2
Fulfill 100% of requests for instruction.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B3
At least 70% of incoming freshman students will have taken the iPod Touch tour between the start of fall semester 2011 and the middle of spring semester 2012.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B4
Eighty percent of students in WRI 10 who receive library instruction will indicate through their portfolios that library instruction helped them successfully find information for their research papers.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B5
Eighty percent of students who take the iPod Touch tour will indicate on the assessment that their knowledge of the library’s space, services, and resources is “good” or “excellent.”
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B6
Seventy-five percent of the students who complete the iPod Touch tour follow-up assignment will receive scores of “high” or “perfect.”
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B7
The library will provide information-literacy instruction for a group of undergraduates selected for a summer research program in the School of Natural Sciences. Students will show improvement between a pre- and post-test assessment.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B8
Students in focus groups who received instruction from the library or used library guides in their course work will report that these were helpful.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure B9
Eighty percent of students who respond to UCCUES question on library research skill will report that their current ability level is “good,” “very good,” or “excellent.”
Responsibility: IPA/Sara Davidson
Measure B10
Seventy percent of students taking the graduating senior campus survey will “agree” or “strongly agree” with the statement “The UC Merced Library has supported my academic progress . . . .”
Responsibility: IPA/Sara Davidson
Measure B11
The library will sponsor at least one Open Access Week activity. Eighty percent of those attending an Open Access Week activity will report that their knowledge of open-access publishing alternatives and of the problems facing traditional scholarly publishing have increased.
Responsibility: Susan Mikkelsen
Measure B12
The library will ask questions about customer service and reference service on the UC Merced Graduating Student Survey. Eighty percent of students will indicate that they received good or excellent customer service. Eighty percent will indicate that their research questions were appropriately answered.
Responsibility: IPA/Sara Davidson
Measure B13
Develop a means to automatically gather and report data on use of the UC Libraries Systemwide Tutorial by UC Merced students.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
The library will actively pursue innovative solutions and worthwhile collaborations that increase the usability and accessibility of information resources.
Outcome C1
Place the highest value on improving the usability and accessibility of information resources, recognizing that achieving this involves both collaboration (with vendors, knowledge institutions, other UC libraries, etc.) as well as work that can be completed locally (e.g. improvements to our web site).
Outcome C2
Focus on changes to resource access that improve the search and retrieval experience for the largest percentage of our users while offering them extremely relevant and comprehensive results.
Outcome C3
Develop or acquire solutions that allow users to independently discover and access information resources as part of their course work, research, and service.
Outcome C4
Provide, when necessary, personal assistance via a triage system that relies heavily on well-trained student employees and, as necessary, career staff.
Measure C1
The per-capita use of 24/7 digital reference service by UC Merced students will be above the mean for all UC campuses.
Responsibility: Teal Smith
Measure C2
Eighty percent of UC Merced users who complete the 24/7 digital reference service feedback form will report that they will use the service again.
Responsibility: Teal Smith
Measure C3
The library will analyze verbatim transcripts of 24/7 sessions initiated by UC Merced students. The goal is to use this data for continuous improvement of the library web site and user interfaces based on actual questions from library users.
Responsibility: Teal Smith
Measure C4
The library will conduct usability testing of the library website with new library student assistants looking for any patterns that indicate either success or failure on the part of information seekers. The goal is to use this data for continuous improvement of the web site and user interfaces based on actual use.
Responsibility: Susan Mikkelsen
Measure C5
The library will analyze data gathered by the LibAnswers software to identify repeat questions or any pattern of problems that student encounter when searching for information or using the library. The goal is continuous improvement of the UC Merced Library web site, user interfaces, services, and instruction.
Responsibility: Susan Mikkelsen
Measure C6
The library will gather a random-sample of data concerning the number and complexity of questions asked at the Library’s Help Desk and Service Desk. The library will analyze this data to insure that staffing levels are appropriate based on day of week and time of day.
Responsibility: Mary Weppler-Selear
Measure C7
The library’s Roving Reference student employees collect data on the number of questions they are asked, the location where the questions are asked, the time and day on which the questions are asked, and the complexity of the questions they are asked. The library analyzes this data to ensure that levels of Roving Reference staff are adequate.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
The library will sustain the current quality of library information resources in an environment of rapidly increasing numbers of users and growth of programs.
Outcome D1
Provide information resources–both owned and leased–that directly support the current research and instructional needs of the students, staff, and faculty of the university.
Outcome D2
Acquire information resources in any format as appropriate, though with a preference for resources in electronic format.
Outcome D3
Maintain current collection funding priorities:
- Materials purchased or licensed at faculty request
- All-campus licenses for e-journals, e-books and databases (Tier 1)
- Selected less-than-all-campus licenses for e-journals, e-books and databases (Tier 2)
- Locally licensed e-books available through patron-driven acquisition plans
- Strategic investments in response to changes in research and publication practices (e.g. open-access publishing, digital preservation)
- Purchase of print monographs through an approval plan
- Coverage of areas of emerging interest that may be included in future research and instructional programs.
Outcome D4
Maintain commitment to, and investment in, non-ownership-based information-access strategies, such as:
- Interlibrary loan
- Supplemental course resources
- UC systemwide strategies (e.g. UC Shared Print in Place)
- Regional/national/international strategies (e.g. WEST, HathiTrust)
- Transformative strategies (e.g. open-access publication)
Measure D1
Seventy-five percent of students in focus groups will respond that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the library’s information resources.
Responsibility: Sara Davidson
Measure D2
In collaboration with the Academic Senate, the library will form a faculty advisory committee in order to get additional faculty input on information resources.
Responsibility: Donald Barclay
Measure D3
Participate in systemwide ILL Customer Satisfaction Survey to establish a baseline for future assessment.
Responsibility: Eric Scott
Measure D4
In 2009-2010, the library filled 96% direct requests from faculty to order books or DVDs. (The failures (n=6) were DVDs unavailable from any source.) For 2011-2012 the library will achieve a similar rate of success in filling direct requests from faculty.
Responsibility: Jim Dooley
Measure D5
In 2009-2010, the UC Merced Library’s information resources budget ($1,174,706) represented 39% of the library’s total budget ($2,970,364). For 2011-2012, the library’s information resources budget will equal or exceed 39% of its total budget. In addition, UC Merced Library will be at or above the median for percentage of total budget expended on information resources as compared the other UC Libraries.
Responsibility: Jim Dooley
Measure D6
In 2009-2010 the library’s technical services staff catalogued and processed 11,850 physical items and catalogued 50,000 electronic books and journals. For 2011-2012 technical services staff will sustain the same levels of throughput in cataloguing and processing as in 2009-2010.
Responsibility: Jim Dooley
Measure D7
During the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 semesters, the library’s Supplemental Course Resources (SCR) loaded 1274 documents to CROPS at the request of UCM faculty and instructors. For 2011-2012 SCR will load a similar number of documents to CROPS.
Responsibility:
Measure D8
Assess the amount of open-access publishing by UC Merced researchers in order to create a baseline against which to measure future growth or shrinkage of open-access publishing by UC Merced researchers.
Responsibility: Emily Lin and Susan Mikkelsen
The library will maintain a positive work environment for all employees at all levels, providing regular opportunities for both individual and organizational development.
Outcome E1
Recognize staff recruitment, training, and development as key elements in the success of the library.
Outcome E2
Continue supporting appropriate training and professional development opportunities and funding staff participation in these opportunities.
Outcome E3
Codify and further develop the student employment "work-life cycle" to include all aspects of the student employee experience from the initial interview to the exit interview and beyond.
Measure E1
A) UC Merced Library annual spending on staff training/professional development will be maintained at the same level as previous year
B) Annual total hours of participation in staff training/professional development activities will be maintained at least at the level of the previous fiscal year.
Responsibility: Donald Barclay
Measure E2
When surveyed about their satisfaction with the training and professional development opportunities they receive, at least 75% of library staff will report that they are “satisfied” or “highly satisfied.”
Responsibility: Donald Barclay
Measure E3
For 2011-2012, 100% of student employees will receive the following minimum amount of training which will be tracked.
And,
A 90% attendance and completion rate will be considered successful.
Responsibility: Eric Scott
Measure E4
For 2011-2012, the UC Merced Library will achieve a retention rates among student employees of 85% (excluding students who separate due to graduation, transfer, or by otherwise separating from the university).
Responsibility: Eric Scott
The library will investigate digital curation, assess the data management needs of researchers at UC Merced, establish collaborative networks, and build expertise in order to define and develop library services.
Outcome F1
Define policies for archiving, delivering access to, and disseminating locally produced research data that are determined to be university assets or of value for future use.
Outcome F2
Identify and evaluate service offerings available within the UC system (e.g. UC3) or external organizations that may address local needs.
Outcome F3
Communicate to campus stakeholders regarding identified data curation services such as EZID and pilot/assess usage.
Measure F1
The library will examine and compare collection policies and guidelines for research data from peer institutions in order to develop baselines for future assessment.
Responsibility: Emily Lin
Measure F2
Of the electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) submitted by the Graduate Division, 100% of those submitted with signed author agreements will be archived and made accessible according to rights agreement terms.
Responsibility: Emily Lin
Measure F3
Analyze data from 2011 survey of faculty data curation needs in order to develop a baseline for future assessment.
Responsibility: Emily Lin
Measure F4
Conduct follow-up with respondents from 2011 survey who requested more information on data curation services to evaluate current and propose initiatives.
Responsibility: Emily Lin
Copyright @ The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
