At the core of the ODU Libraries Strategic Plan are four Focus Areas, designed to build on existing strengths, capitalize on available opportunities, and improve operations to correct existing weaknesses or mitigate potential threats.
I. Academic and Research Excellence - We will build on the strengths of our academic interactions with the ODU Community and assess our services to continually improve them.
II. Sense of Place - We will increase user satisfaction with the Libraries’ physical and virtual spaces.
III. Unique and Notable Collections - We will grow unique and notable collections to support key initiatives in ODU research, teaching, and community history.
IV. Forward-Focused, Together - We will deepen our commitment to making the Libraries an effective organization and an equitable place to work.
The links at left provide details on each Focus Area and the Goals and Strategies associated with them.
Along with the four Focus Areas, the Libraries have the overarching goal of strengthening relationships with our strategic partners and collaborators to expand the reach and effectiveness of Libraries’ services. The value of collaboration has long been a centerpiece of the Libraries’ work, and, as a result, the organization has a strong record of partnership with individuals and units across and beyond the University on initiatives including information technology deployment, programmatic instruction, data management and preservation, resource sharing, open educational resources, collection building, professional development, and much more. Developing, expanding, and strengthening these partnerships will help the Libraries address our major SWOT weaknesses and threats, and help build on strengths that allow us to make progress towards SWOT opportunities. The Libraries will measure progress towards this goal by developing a rubric to collect partner feedback and quantitative data on collaborative activities. Potential partners include:
As this plan is being published, the University draws closer to a proposed merger with Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), with an expected “Day One” of July 1, 2024. This merger will have tremendous effects on both institutions; the Libraries, for our part, expects to gain a new branch (Brickell Medical Sciences Library), more than a dozen new colleagues, and a new user community with unique information needs. This Strategic Plan mentions EVMS by name sparingly, but it should be assumed that the Goals and Strategies herein include the efforts we will undertake with our EVMS colleagues. The Libraries, including its new partners at EVMS and with guidance from integration project leadership and its various task forces and subgroups, will continue to create planning and implementation documents and projects throughout the initial merger and beyond.