The document discusses strategies for libraries to remain relevant in higher education. It outlines challenges facing universities including limited resources, cost of education, and changing student and faculty needs. It argues that libraries must embrace new roles like becoming "antennas" that support teaching/research wherever it occurs, curating digital information, and embedding librarians in classrooms/labs. The document advocates for principles like user-centered management, digital curation, information fluency training, and collaboration within libraries and across institutions. The overall message is that libraries must adapt to new times and roles in order to continue adding value to their universities.

1. Excellence:
Leading for Library Relevance
Jesús Lau
jlau@uv.mx
www.jesuslau.com / Twiter: jesuslau / FB: jesuslau
College Station, TX
November 9-10, 2011

2. Topics
1. Education first: University learning and learning
players
2. Research library opportunities
3. Strategies and services to advocate

3. Part ONE
Education First:
University Learning and Learning Players

4. University Challenges
President Bowen Loftin
• Public trust
• Limited resources
• Cost of education
• Value of education

5. University Shift
• A place to hack knowledge
• A place to practice knowledge
• A place to accelerate the advancement of knowledge

6. Student Behavior
• Need meaningful and relevant learning
• Social and web hyperactivity
• Used to instant gratification
• Need information competencies

7. Faculty Destinations
• Need support for knowledge facilitation
• Require quality information for research tasks
• Need reliable sources to meet high demand to
publish
• Demand data for academic management
• Need support to benefit from new technologies

8. Part TWO
Library Opportunities

9. Airport
Pilots

10. Librarians´ Opportunities
• Be where they teach and do research
• Become the antennas of the library
• Revisit options for balance between academic
work and operational activities
• Team with faculty in their knowledge processes
management
• Provide decision-making information to
University management

11. Librarians and staff:
Choices to Be Relevant
• Lots of players in the Information Ecosystem: Librarians and staff
are just two of them, but can play unique roles to:
– Be the erudite professional: Need to go back to medieval library
role
– Be active in the intangible and virtual worlds, where users are
– Be part of the classroom and the lab
– Become digital information curators
– Be iSkills facilitator – Information literacy

12. Collections/Services:
Everything Everywhere
• Be cost efficient and effective in collection
development/access
• Library used to be just what it had, now is what it
can share and what it has access to
• Cooperation and collaboration; Join/strengthen
consortia

13. Part THREE
Strategies and Services to Advocate

14. Advocate:
1. Management Principles
• Pursue library TAMU strategic plan: An excellent flight
plan, with following principles:
• A holistic user - centered shared library management
• Be relevant to users / University
• Cost efficient and effective
• Flexible for new roles and for new times
• Inclusive excellence
• Operate information services with quality principles

15. Advocate:
2. Digital Information Curation
• Creation and production of digital information
• Harvest and integrate information resources
• Digital assets preservation
• Build digital capacity to do these things

16. Advocate:
3. Embedded Librarian
• Team with University faculty in knowledge
creation and transmission
• Be where the learning process takes place
• Have an integrated library staff, all sections / all
parts of the library have to be mission touched

17. Advocate:
4. Information Fluency
• Understand and meet new information student seeking
behavior
• Anticipate users´ information needs
• Facilitate student information fluency
• Support faculty in their information literacy classroom
tasks
• Help university management to have information skills
and information resources for decision making tasks

18. Advocate:
5. Scholarly Communication
• Ensure broad and diverse digital access to institutional
research
• Strengthen the institutional repository and state-wide
collaboration (TDL)
• Actively support institutional scholarly publishing
• Promote and advocate barrier-free access to research and
educational information resources (ARL)

19. Advocate:
6. State, National and International Collaboration
• Identify what is relevant to share by Texas A&M University
• Find niches to collaborate at state, national and
international level: Collections, services, software
• Be active in library and information associations
• Take active part in information networks and consortia

20. Advocate:
7. Creativity
• Creativity is the process of having original ideas that
have value (Sir Ken Robinson)
• Goal to create value to the user:
– Promote cross-pollination of ideas across the library and
beyond
– Have a multidisciplinary team /Diversity of skills and
backgrounds
– Embrace change: Instead of facing the current, swim with it

21. Advocate:
8. Library Diversity
• Search for inclusive excellence, not only quotas or numbers
• Promote blend of human resources: Gender, religion, skills,
race, age, language, and experience
• Value differences and similarities among the library team to
have a diversity-rich climate
• Team respect for individuals as unique and valuable persons

22. Thanks!
The future of libraries is
an open journey…
Let´s be pilots
Enjoyed the opportunity to interact with you!