John Cox NUI GalwayHow academic libraries position themselves in their parent institutions is vital to their recognition, resourcing and prospects. This paper will look at the progress, opportunities, barriers and dilemmas for libraries as they seek to position themselves optimally in the organisation. It will take account of both positive developments and negative factors, arguing that strong connectivity with the wider institutional agenda is key to changing perceptions and ensuring that the library is not taken for granted or sold short. Otherwise the library may represent a squeezed middle, feeling the pressure from all sides but not reaping the benefits of its transformation.

1. SQUEEZED MIDDLE?
THE POSITIONING OF
ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN THE
INSTITUTION
John Cox, University Librarian, National University of Ireland Galway
@johncoxnuig

2. Outline
■ What positioning is and why it’s important
■ Shifting sands: higher education drivers & priorities
■ Library challenges and competition
■ Library opportunities, strategies and changes
■ Squeezed middle: balancing acts

3. WHAT IS POSITIONING
AND WHY IS IT
IMPORTANT?

4. Positioning Defined

5. Components of Positioning
■ Clarity of identity
– Who you are, what you do, and who benefits
– Ensuring that users know what the library is and can offer
■ Differentiation
– Understanding users and targeting their needs
– Being intentionally distinctive
■ Competition
– Recognising and learning from it
– Elevating the library above it in users’ minds
■ Communication
– Promoting the library’s (current) value proposition
– Influencing stakeholder perceptions
Walters, Suzanne and Kent Jackson. Breakthrough Branding: Positioning Your
Library to Survive and Thrive. Chicago: American Library Association, 2013. ISBN
978-1-55570-766-8

6. What Does Library Positioning Affect?
■ Resource allocation
■ Influence with institutional leadership
■ Stakeholder perceptions
■ Academic or service grouping
■ Location in hierarchy

7. SHIFTING SANDS:
HIGHER EDUCATION
DRIVERS AND PRIORITIES

8. Some HE Drivers and Challenges

9. Core Priorities for HE Institutions
■ Student success
■ Internationally recognised research
■ Community engagement
■ Global reputation
■ Impact, often metrics-based

10. LIBRARY CHALLENGES
AND COMPETITION

11. User Independence Library Invisibility?

12. Loss of Position?
“Academic libraries are no longer the symbolic
“heart of the university”.”
Murray, A., & Ireland, A. (2018). Provosts' perceptions of academic
library value & preferences for communication: a national study.
College & Research Libraries, 79(3), 336-365. [p.359]
https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16693/18647

13. Issues of Identity?
“Loss of identity in larger multi-professional alliances is a
significant risk.”
Cox, J. (2018): Positioning the academic library within the institution: a literature
review, New Review of Academic Librarianship. [p.8]
https://doi.org/10.1080/13614533.2018.1466342

14. Competitors
■ On-campus “collab-etitors”:
■ Alternative external information providers:
Department Activity
IT Digital Preservation
Research Office Open Access
Institutional Research Bibliometrics
Learning/Teaching Centre Academic Skills

15. Traditional Perspectives of Stakeholders

16. Less Support?
“Library directors are pursuing strategic directions with a
decreasing sense of support from their institutions.”
Wolff-Eisenberg, C. Ithaka S+R US Library Survey 2016, [p.4] (New York: Ithaka, 2017),
available online at https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.303066

17. Misalignment
Only 17 libraries (27%) made explicit connections
between their plan and the larger university plan.
only seven documents (11.1%) included
goals relating to student recruitment, retention,
persistence, or other success factors. These
references were often vague.
Saunders, L. (2016). Room for improvement: priorities in academic libraries’ strategic plans.
Journal of Library Administration, 56(1), 1–16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1105029

18. Limited Recognition
Murray, A., & Ireland, A. (2018). Provosts' perceptions of academic library value &
preferences for communication: a national study. College & Research Libraries, 79(3),
336-365. [p.359] https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16693/18647

19. LIBRARY OPPORTUNITIES,
STRATEGIES AND
CHANGES

20. Strategies
■ Turning institutional priorities to advantage
■ Ensuring alignment/common purpose
■ Providing leadership
■ Refocusing and rebranding
■ Reorganising teams and roles
■ Communicating value
■ Acting globally as well as locally

21. Turning Institutional Priorities To
Advantage
Priority
■ Distinctiveness
■ Research impact
■ Student success
■ Independent learning
■ Community engagement
■ Maximising resources
Opportunity
■ Archives and special collections
■ Open digital publishing
■ Information literacy
■ Interactive learning spaces
■ Heritage collections, exhibitions
■ Partnership

22. Strategic Alignment/Commonality of Purpose

23. Focusing on Campus Priorities
SCONUL Focus, 66, 2016

24. Getting Out More

25. Partnering Broadly, Not Serving Narrowly

26. Less “Service”, More Leadership?

27. Providing Leadership in Priority Areas
■ The open agenda
■ Research data management
■ Digital scholarship projects
■ Learning space design
■ Combatting fake news

28. Refocusing and Rebranding
■ From collections to users
■ Library or learning commons?
■ Collections: outside-in or inside-out?
■ Library as scholarly partner
■ New paradigms*:
– The computational library
– The globalised library
– The boundaryless library
*Pinfield, S., Cox, A. M., & Rutter, S. (2017). Mapping the future of academic libraries: a report for SCONUL.
Retrieved from https://sconul.ac.uk/publication/mapping-the-future-of-academic-libraries

29. Reorganising Teams and Roles
■ Outward facing, user engagement trend
■ Multi-professional teams
■ Subject or functional structures?

30. Communicating Value
■ A different value proposition
– Traditionally collection size, book issues, etc
– Now focused on impact, outcomes, priorities
■ Examples include:
– Information literacy impact on student success
– Open access citations
– Archives engagement

31. Asserting Value and Getting Credit
“The problem is not browsing or access; it is timidity. And until
librarianship moves away from our academic inferiority
complex and embraces the calling of digital work in contrast to
the vocation of servitude, digital humanities will continue to be
led by smart, capable, progressive faculty members in English
and History.”

32. Acting Globally
■ Internationalisation strategies
■ Developing international partnerships, eg archives
■ Engaging in global scholarly communications issues
■ Publishing/attending/presenting

33. SQUEEZED MIDDLE?

34. Balancing Acts
■ Traditional/New
■ Today/Tomorrow
■ Local/External
■ Service/Partner
■ Diversification/Identity
■ Collaboration/Competition
■ Generosity/Credit

35. Source of References
https://tinyurl.com/y8bkerpq

36. References
Baker, D., & Allden, A. (2017b). Leading libraries: the view from above.
Retrieved from https://www.sconul.ac.uk/publication/the-view-from-above
Baker, D., & Allden, A. (2017b). Leading libraries: the view from beyond.
Retrieved from
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/publication/the-view-from-beyond
Connaway, L. S., Harvey, W., Kitzie, V., & Mikitish, S. (2017). Academic library
impact: improving practice and essential areas to research. Retrieved from
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/publications/whitepa
pers/academiclib.pdf
Hoodless, C., & Pinfield, S. Subject vs. functional: should subject librarians be
replaced by functional specialists in academic libraries? Journal of
Librarianship and Information Science, 50(4), 2018, pp. 345-360 Retrieved
from http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000616653647

37. References
Murray, A., & Ireland, A. (2018). Provosts' perceptions of academic library value &
preferences for communication: A national study. College & Research Libraries, 79(3),
336-365. Retrieved from
https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/16693/18647
Oakleaf, M. (2010). The value of academic libraries: a comprehensive research review
and report for the Association of College and Research Libraries. Retrieved from
http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/issues/value/val_report.pdf
Saunders, L. (2016). Room for improvement: Priorities in academic libraries’ strategic
plans. Journal of Library Administration, 56(1), 1-16. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2015.1105029
SCONUL. (2016). Leadership challenges. Some views from those in the hot seat. SCONUL
Focus, (66), 4-13. Retrieved from
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/2_17.pdf

38. References
Vandegrift, M., & Varner, S. (2013). Evolving in common: creating mutually supportive
relationships between libraries and the digital humanities. Journal of Library
Administration, 53(1), 67-78. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2013.756699
Wolff-Eisenberg, C. (2017). Ithaka S+R US library survey 2016. Retrieved from
https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.303066
Wolff-Eisenberg, C., Rod, A. B., & Schonfeld, R. C. (2016b). Ithaka S+R US faculty
survey 2015. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.277685
Walters, S. and Jackson, K. Breakthrough Branding: Positioning Your Library to Survive
and Thrive. Chicago: American Library Association, 2013. ISBN 978-1-55570-766-
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