The commitment to act must be accompanied by a willingness to plan, continuously and intensively, to ensure that we apply the lessons of our actions to our future plans within a framework of shared goals. New facilities are expensive, and decisions made now about major capital investments for library collections and services will have long-term effects. The uncertainties are great. While capital investments endure for decades, the academic, administrative and budgetary factors that shape University planning are in rapid flux. Ongoing changes in capital resources, campus growth strategies, technologies and costs for digital archiving, and modalities of research, teaching and learning call for a focused and sustained effort to plan and adjust strategies over the extended transitional period.
Flexibility is essential.
Matching rapidly-changing campus needs and technological opportunities with existing library facility resources and planned major capital investments at the campus and regional level will require a flexible and adaptable planning strategy that can adjust resource planning and utilization to needs on a continuing basis. Such planning will in turn require an extraordinarily complete understanding of current conditions, needs, strategies and operational capabilities of the campuses and regional facilities. The University Librarians have comprehensive understanding of both library needs and campus needs and priorities as these affect library planning, as well as the authority and responsibility to effect coordination of library operational policies and procedures among the campuses. The Standing Committee complements the existing Regional Library Boards, which will continue in their existing role of oversight of operational planning and coordination of storage operations and services for their respective Regional Library Facilities. As the University Librarians serve as members of the Regional Library Boards in their respective regions, overlapping membership between the Standing Committee and the Regional Library Boards will ensure effective communication and coordination among these groups.