The Library's strategic planning is done in alignment with the strategic planning of the UW Libraries, Cascadia College and the University of Washington Bothell.
The Campus Library is part of the University of Washington Libraries, and serves the students, faculty and staff of the University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College. The Library is a learning space where students can read, explore, research, create and collaborate. Our Strategic Directions guide decision making, growth planning and resource allocation. They are rooted in our Mission and Values and also align with and support the UW Libraries 2018-23 Strategic Plan.
Our five Strategic Directions are:
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Collections and Access
Library as Place
Research and Scholarship
Teaching and Learning
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
A core value and priority of the UW Bothell / Cascadia College Campus Library is to create an environment that recognizes and promotes diversity. The Library advocates for equity, diversity, and inclusion in our library services and spaces, which requires commitment and sustained effort at the individual, collective, and institutional levels.
We believe that...
- The experiences and conditions of the most marginalized groups in our communities must be at the center of our institutional growth and improvement
- Representation and inclusion of diverse identities and experiences positively impacts our community of users, as well as the library and all aspects of our work
- Access to research, information, and technology is fundamental in identifying and dismantling social injustice, and that libraries have a central role in supporting our users in this work
- Libraries have a core responsibility to uphold the principles of access, diversity, democracy, and education
We are committed to...
- Engaging in an ongoing process of identifying and confronting ways in which institutional discrimination may inhibit the lives and education of groups that have been marginalized in our society and on our campus
- Actively working with campus partners to foster skills and resources that students, faculty, and staff can use to combat systemic discrimination on our campus and in our communities
- Holding ourselves accountable for inclusive and transformational institutional change
- Creating an environment of intellectual freedom and conditions of equity, justice, and academic excellence which protects the interests of all members of our diverse campus
- Listening to students, staff, faculty, and our larger community with willingness to rethink practices and perspectives
We reflect our beliefs and commitments through the following focus areas and indicators of success, outcomes and/or projects:
Apply our emerging understandings of diversity and social justice in meaningful and visible ways that support all members of our diverse campus community
- Center our model of public service on the values of diversity, inclusion, excellence, responsiveness, and integrity
- Employ critical and culturally responsive pedagogy in our instructional program
- Provide welcoming spaces to foster discovery and collaboration
- Provide access to diverse resources, including work by historically marginalized voices
- Be intentional in our practices and trainings to confront bias and be alert to the needs of our users
- Recruit and retain staff from underrepresented populations and diverse backgrounds
- Engage with our campus community through events such as Community Reads
- Respond in a variety of ways to major world events that impact our community
Engage in purposeful inquiry around the diversity and social justice issues that impact our Library and campus community
- Explore social justice issues that are relevant to our Library and campus community through ongoing professional development activities such as the Social Justice Team, Library workshops, displays, etc.
- Support and encourage attendance at diversity and social justice-related events/workshops on campus and beyond
- Review Library policy positions and strategies and revise as needed to clearly articulate the values of equity, diversity and inclusion
Identify and establish mechanisms for ensuring action around our diversity and social justice work
- Library leadership, at all levels, prioritizes an equitable and inclusive culture within the Library and our campus community.
- Restructure and make changes to implement intrinsic diversity practices that are substantial
- Identifying best practices for hiring diverse staff
- Develop a variety of communication channels that are accessible to all users
- Regularly document, assess, and re-evaluate the effectiveness of diversity practices with consideration for national, local, and campus issues and events
Collections and Access
The Library aligns collections and access strategies with current and emerging university needs.
Focus areas and indicators of success/outcomes/projects
- Collaborate with UW Libraries partners to leverage our collective negotiating and purchasing influence, as well as to maximize efficiencies in our collection development processes:
- In partnership with the UW Libraries, develop collaborative and sustainable tri-campus collection development guiding principles and practices
- Engage in tri-campus collection development strategy conversations and decisions
- Leverage tri-campus licensing of electronic content
- Act as responsible stewards of our dynamic, curriculum-focused collections
- Respond to e-resources cost increases due to growth in new majors/minors and student FTE
- Make evidence-based targeted acquisitions and/or subscriptions of eBooks packages and eVideos licenses based on curricular needs
- Contribute to campus-wide planning for new academic areas (majors, minors, certificates, etc.)
- Conduct periodic reviews of current serial subscriptions – identify as appropriate titles for cancellation
- Collaborate with the UW Libraries to create a sustainable approach to reduce unnecessary print duplication
- Develop ongoing workflows and procedures for print collection assessment
- Engage in evidence-based deselection of older print books, serials, and media
- Make retention decisions within the larger context of our collective collection (UW Libraries and Summit partners)
- Provide course support for faculty and students by strategically purchasing required texts and audiovisual materials and providing scanning services.
- Select materials in support of the curriculum that engage diverse perspectives, as well as represent the diversity of our local and global communities.
- Advocate for the use of high-quality open education resources (OER)
- Raise awareness of commercial textbook costs and OER repositories
- Collaborate with campus partners to support faculty in adopting/adapting/creating OER
- Continue to build understanding of OER within the Library to prepare staff to support students and faculty in utilizing open educational resources
- Model OER adoption by utilizing and highlighting OER in Library work and services
- Participate in Libraries-wide, community and state OER initiatives that align with Library priorities
Library as Place
The Library is a learning space where students can read, explore, research, create and collaborate.
Focus areas and indicators of success/outcomes/projects
- Provide informal learning space for quiet individual study and collaborative group work.
- Engage in ongoing analysis of space utilization data
- Whenever possible, create additional student seating via improved space utilization
- Support student learning through the provision of high quality in-person and virtual public services and research assistance.
- Monitor chat reference transcripts for in-depth follow-up, if warranted
- Conduct ongoing analysis of public services statistics
- Create a welcoming, safe and accessible environment for all individuals including diverse populations and underrepresented students.
- Apply universal design principles to service, space and technology planning
- Work to reflect the diversity of our student population in our displays and campus events
- Recruit, mentor and retain a diverse workforce of staff and student employees
- Respond to changing space needs utilizing assessment methods to optimize our library spaces, services and flexible infrastructure and furnishings to meet current as well as future demands.
- Track space and services satisfaction and importance survey data over time
- Monitor space utilization data to inform review of building hours
- Align library space planning with related campus-wide master planning activities
- Deliver robust technology access and support, including 24/7 access to user-friendly and information-rich web site and electronic resources.
- Conduct periodic usability studies of our website
- Work to make our online resources and services available via multiple platforms, including mobile devices
Research and Scholarship
The Library is an active and engaged partner in the creation, dissemination, transformation, preservation, and exchange of new and existing knowledge and scholarship. As part of our commitment to social justice, we advocate for free and equitable access to scholarly and professional output via Open Access and digital scholarship initiatives locally and beyond.
Focus areas and indicators of success/outcomes/projects
- Advocate for Open Access publishing
- Assist faculty, staff and students in understanding their author rights in relation to copyright, publisher agreements, and Open Access publishing options
- Promote and facilitate faculty, academic staff and librarian use of ResearchWorks, the University of Washington’s institutional repository.
- Lead campus efforts by example, applying our emerging expertise of author rights and Open Access in our research and scholarship practices
- Collaborate with faculty, staff, students, and community partners to develop and sustain digital collections that are aligned with campus scholarship practices, and that reflect the Library’s commitment to social justice, diversity and Open Access scholarship.
- Leverage digital collections to support community-based learning activities, and collaborate with the Office of Community-Based Learning and Research to assess the usefulness of digital collections to community partners
- With faculty and UWB Learning Technologies colleagues, teach students archiving, metadata, and digital scholarship best practices
- Publish and archive students’ original scholarship in digital collections, and encourage use of digital collections content across the curriculum
- Sustain the vitality, currency, and enduring value of all digital collections
- Contribute to campus and University initiatives focused on fostering and supporting a robust research culture
- Partner with campus and UW Libraries staff to develop collaborative approaches to supporting faculty and student research including digital humanities projects, multimodal scholarship, and publishing and archiving activities.
- Actively engage in emerging scholarship, research practices, and new production and dissemination tools and technologies, collaborating with faculty and academic staff as appropriate; share results with relevant stakeholders
Teaching and Learning
The Library fosters in students the critical inquiry, information literacy, and research abilities necessary for academic success, and plays a vital role in cultivating the lifelong learning skills needed to be engaged and information-fluent global citizens.
Focus areas and indicators of success/outcomes/projects
- Partner with faculty and staff to strategically integrate information literacy instruction across the curriculum and the library’s services
- Target strategic points in the curriculum for integration of information literacy concepts and skills
- Actively teach users at public service points how to access and utilize library resources
- Deliver instruction that is inclusive of a variety of teaching and learning styles, and cultural backgrounds
- Engage in faculty development opportunities in order to assist them in integrating information literacy instruction into their curriculum
- Foster strategic campus-level collaborations to support undergraduate and graduate learning
- Support the unique and emerging needs of online teaching and learning across all library services
- Collaborate with faculty and staff to develop and implement online instruction and learning activities
- Utilize and continue to learn best practices in online and hybrid pedagogy
- Provide online services, collections, and resources in support of teaching and learning
- Use assessment to improve teaching and learning and to promote the library’s role in students’ academic success
- Engage in a cyclical, student learning assessment process in order to continually improve our teaching and our students’ learning
- Employ student learning assessment strategies at multiple levels (e.g. assignment, workshop, course, program, etc.) in order to inform teaching and enhance learning
- Utilize and continue to learn best practices in student learning assessment methods
