麻豆视频

麻豆视频

Faculty Senate

News

Library Council

yellow text reading council spotlight on green background

The Library Council advises the Provost and the Senior Vice President for USF Health or their designees on matters pertaining to the composition, function, and structure of the USF Libraries. The Library Council is currently focused on several pressing issues:

Advocacy: Restoring the Library Budget & Enhancing Institutional Support
The cuts to the USF Libraries' budget dominated the Library Council's agenda over the last year. Dean Chavez shared detailed information about the budget, our status within the SUS, as well as our status as an aspiring ARL, The budget cuts have had a direct impact on faculty and student success and they have delayed USF aspirational goals.

The LC took the following actions:

  • Provided the Senate with a statement about the impact (Statement attached.)
  • Spoke to the Strategic Planning Committee to express concerns about the budget cuts and to advocate for proper Library funding to support USF's success.
     

Materials Policy
As a result of budget cuts, the USF Libraries implemented mitigation procedures that included the elimination of publication packages and the rerouting of access to many resources. The Library administration and staff shared phases of the process and considered feedback from council members.

Continued Council Priorities for 2021-2022
The USF Libraries seek a path to membership in the Association of Research Libraries.

The Association of Research Libraries fosters the open exchange of ideas and expertise, promotes equity and diversity, and pursues advocacy and public policy efforts that reflect the values of the library, scholarly, and higher education communities. ARL forges partnerships and catalyzes the collective efforts of research libraries to enable knowledge creation and to achieve enduring and barrier-free access to information.

To achieve ARL invitation, the Library Council will continue to advocate for the USF Libraries with the following priorities:

Restoration & Growth of the Library Budget
The USF Library budget, which has been a flat budget for 13 years, is a reduced budget for the Library due to increasing costs of subscriptions. To date, the growth in the USF index score is attributable to Student Tech Fees, grants and contracts, and employing an all source budget strategy, not increases in the budget. USF administration need to restore and grow the Library budget.

Focusing on Faculty Success
The 麻豆视频 states that it is committed to advancing the success of faculty in relation to their teaching, research, clinical, and service goals. The university recognizes the importance of an inclusive institutional environment and culture that incorporates an organizational framework for faculty success across the following core areas:

  • Teaching and Student Learning
  • Research, Partnerships, & Communication
  • Access & Empowerment
  • Finances, Infrastructure, & Analysis

USF Faculty Success initiatives should identify USF Libraries resources and key factors that enable knowledge creation and barrier-free access to information across these core areas.

Maximizing Library Contributions to Emerging Strategic Signature Initiatives
The USF Library Council reviewed the USF Strategic Planning Metrics with specific focus on the USF Libraries. As a council of the Faculty Senate, we provided the following feedback from our experience as faculty who have worked closely with the USF Libraries (Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota, Health). 

The success of USF鈥檚 strategic future is directly tied to the success of the USF Libraries. Across the Blueprint for a Bold Future, and within the 11 Institutional Core Commitments, the 7 Strategic Areas of Focus, and the 5 Approved Goals, the USF Libraries are primarily described as 鈥渋nfrastructure.鈥 

Although we acknowledge that the USF Libraries serve as infrastructure through their collections and facilities, we want to emphasize that the Libraries are also essential to research, creativity, and learning through the curation of meta-collections, the development of responsive research workshops, and their role as collaborative partners in research and teaching endeavors. 

  • Every research project begins with a literature review or some type of connection to relevant and high-quality information.  
  • The Library staff, the collections, and digital resources facilitate the discovery of information using tools that satisfy intellectual curiosity and promote innovation in research and teaching. 
  • The USF Libraries provide an inclusive environment with the freedom and resources to work towards a vision of the future. 
  • The USF Libraries provide the tools necessary to share the results of research with both the local community and the world, and to measure its impact. 
     

Whereas IT primarily serves institutional stakeholders, the USF Libraries鈥 collections, services, and partnerships engage the regional, national, and global academic communities.

As members of the USF Library Council, we want to distinguish the USF Libraries from IT infrastructure, to identify that without adequate and continual support of our libraries and information services the university cannot achieve its strategic goals, and to ensure the metrics accurately reflect the Library鈥檚 essential role in USF鈥檚 future success.

A list of the council membership by unit, the council charge, and additional council materials are available here.

Return to article listing

Faculty Senate News

The Faculty Senate News will highlight the work of the Faculty Senate, the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, Faculty Senate Councils, and share other information related to faculty governance at USF.