Roger C. Schonfeld
Program Director
Ithaka S+R
What strategic directions are academic library leaders pursuing for their organizations? What benefits and constraints do reporting relationships, funding, and staffing, pose for leaders in trying to execute on their vision? What strategic roles do leaders envision for their libraries in key areas such as discovery, information literacy, library publishing, and the development of research collections?
In fall 2013, Ithaka S+R surveyed academic library deans and directors across the US on these topics and several others. With a response rate of more than thirty percent, the project offers a robust snapshot of the current state of academic libraries and some of the principal opportunities and constraints they face today.
Analysis by Carnegie classification indicates areas of broad similarity across most all academic libraries and also the remarkable diversity of the landscape they inhabit. Comparisons with the Ithaka S+R US Faculty Survey 2012 on areas such as the print to electronic transition and the role of the library yield some provocative considerations for library strategy and strategic communications.
The full report of findings will be made publicly available in March 2014 in advance of the CNI meeting. This session will therefore be designed to generate a rich discussion on the implications of the survey findings and potential follow-on projects.
http://www.sr.ithaka.org/research-publications/ithaka-sr-us-library-survey-2013
