Strategic Planning for the NJIT Library

When an organization writes a strategic plan, they are essentially making a wish list of what it would like to do in the future. Very often there are financial and other contraints that prevents them from accomplishing their goals. The NJIT wrote a strategic plan for 2005-2009. We were asked to submit suggestions for such a document covering 2011-2015. My suggestions:


Adopt mobile computing technologies. For example, Nature now has an iPhone application. In the very near future, more electronic journals and databases will be available through PDAs and other mobile technologies. We should pursue this aggressively.

Spend a larger percentage of the book budget for electronic books. Currently, EBL is the only platform we are using. Perhaps other vendors should be considered.

Have only one service point with the Van Houten Library. The overwhelming majority of reference questions are answered satisfactorily by student workers. The reference staff should become embedded librarians and have offices in their respective departments.

More aggressively use Web 2.0 technologies to promote library services. We should use Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, Slideshare, and other services more extensively than we do today.

Expand digital projects which may require more permanent and/or temporary personnel. This may also require external funding:

Develop a finding aid and digitize the Estrin Collection
Catalog the Weston Collection
Develop an institutional repository

Space issues
The area in the front (where Jackie Rock used to be) has become a storage area. I suggest that this area become the library lounge where students can eat and drink. It should also be used as a 24 hour room where students can study when the library is closed.

A Writing Center be developed and placed in the library building. In order to do that the Pre-College program would have to move out of the Central Avenue Building or the building would have to expand into the parking lot.

Since the usage of older bound journals is minimal, they can be consolidated by using compact shelving to free the third floor for more group study rooms.