NMSU Library Strategic Plan Working Documents

Throughout the world, major changes are taking place in how scholarly information is accessed and used. Nowhere is this more true than at the New Mexico State University Library. Changes in our users and in the scholarly information we provide are creating new and changing demands for library service at New Mexico State University. We are working with new new wine and new bottles.

The Library is addressing these changing needs in a new strategic plan. The recent "Choosing Our Future" search conference has provided an opportunity for the NMSU community to gather and discuss how we want to access and use scholarly information in the next five years. Library personnel and members of the NMSU community are now reviewing the findings of this conference and related statistical information to create a strategic plan for the University Library. Over the summer, the strategic plan will be elaborated into objectives and programs of library departments and units. It is already clear that there will be some significant changes in library direction and goals.

Some new concepts are already being implemented. One is enhanced information training. Users want the NMSU Library to provide a greatly increased amount of training for students, faculty, and staff. We already provide regular sessions on using electronic and traditional resources. We also offer a three credit general education course, Library Science 311-"Information Literacy," for those interested in mastering information skills and strategies necessary for critical evaluation and use of scholarly information. We are looking at a broad range of enhancements including several online tutorials.

Another area of enhanced activity is in developing borderlands information. The importance of the border in our lives is becoming more and more apparent. And the library is responding. We have been fortunate to add two large collections that address current areas of weakness in Mexican and Latin American collections. In addition to our long-standing cooperation with the UTEP Library, the NMSU Library is cooperating more with the Autonomous University of the City of Juarez. This spring we are signing the first Interlibrary Loan and Reciprocal Borrowing Agreements between the two universities on the border. As a part of the Transborder Information Technology Collaborative demonstration in February, we co-hosted a demonstration of online databases with the other two institutions that was seen throughout the Las Cruces-El Paso-Juarez metroplex. For the past year and a half, we have been undertaking staff exchanges with the Autonoma Library in order to share our knowledge of each other's library operations and resources. In the area of cooperative collection development, we are sharing journal lists to assure a broad coverage of periodical titles on both sides of the border. We also are cooperating with libraries at the University of Guadalajara and at the Technological Institute in Chihuahua.

To improve access to scholarly information in areas with very expensive journals, the University Library is initiating an access initiative with the cooperation of five departments: Biology, Chemistry and Biochemistry, the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mathematical Sciences, and Physics. This program, which involves a cut in the periodicals list and enhancements in electronic access and delivery, is intended to pilot test new ways of providing scholarly information essential for research, teaching, and service. Lessons learned with these departments will be eventually applied throughout the university.

It is indeed an exciting time in the life of the library. We have new wine and new bottles. We are working to provide leadership and service in the vineyard of scholarly information. We look forward to your thoughts and suggestions as we seek the best for NMSU.

May, 1996
Charles Townley

Please address comments or questions about this document to Charles Townley, ctownley@lib.nmsu.edu, Dean, University Library

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