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Message from the University Librarian 1 Service and Collaboration 4 Collections 8 Digital Library Initiatives 10 Preservation and Collection Maintenance University Library 12 Facilities 14 Grants and Statistics 16 2001-02 2 Message from the This has been another University Librarian exhilarating year in the Cornell University Library. As befits our standing among the top ten academic research libraries in North America, we continue to build our print and digital collections and will surpass seven million volumes this year. We enjoy a great reputation, among the patrons we serve and our professional colleagues alike. Cornell faculty members confide to us that access to the library’s vast and rich holdings keeps them from being enticed away by other universities, while students praise the breadth of our collections and the extra effort our staff mem- bers extend to help them with research and course assignments. Students also have made the library one of the most popular destinations on campus. Yet, in a world where change occurs more swiftly than ever, all institutions face a major challenge in remaining fresh and relevant. To that end, 2001–02 was both a banner and a benchmark year. (Continued on following page) www.library.cornell.edu Left: Johnson Graduate School of Management Library P A G E1 Cornell University Library Goals 2002–07* 1 Build the knowledge base 2 Provide digital life-cycle of print, digital, and other production services materials using selection 3 Support electronic publishing, criteria that reflect scholarly communication, – the academic priorities and creative expression of the university, – significant research in all 4 Support more effective areas of study pursued organization and presentation at the university, and of information for diverse – current collection strengths audiences At the end of this process we had a list of strategic objec- tives and an estimate of the funds needed to accomplish them. Roughly $4 million in start-up costs would be needed to establish the base services proposed in the 2002–03 objectives, and maintaining them would req- uire approximately $4 million annually in additional operating funds. At first we were daunted by these figures, which represent about 10 percent of our current annual budget. We would have to reallocate internally or persuade the university or other funders to channel significant amounts to the library to back our new ventures. In a time of fiscal cutbacks, we would have to be exceptionally compelling. The process of weighing objectives, discussing them with staff members, From Vision to Blueprint clarifying our thinking on them, and developing action Over the past year we devoted much attention to the plans was conducted through the better part of 2001–02. development of goals and objectives that look out toward As the academic year drew to a close and we again consid- a five-year horizon. I approach strategic planning with ered the financial resources necessary to move forward, it some trepidation because I have seen many plans that was a pleasant surprise to discover that we had already turn out to be all process and no outcome, and others that managed to acquire or redirect 25 percent of the funds end up on a bookshelf without any relation to everyday required to meet our top objectives. operations. My objectives in planning are to articulate a vision of the library’s future that allows staff members and other stake- Access is Key holders to see where we are heading, and to outline the As you read this report, we are well under way to achieving steps we must take to make that vision a reality. This the current year’s goals. Among the accomplishments means detailing the key actions to reach our goals, allocat- last year that have helped launch our initiatives is the ing the resources required to achieve these goals, and strengthening of access to information through aggressive establishing a time frame for accomplishment. All mem- negotiations with e-publishers on license agreements to bers of the library staff must have a hand in shaping our make more resources available to the Cornell community. future so that the resulting plan serves as an internal blue- CUL now provides access to almost 61,000 electronic titles print for our actions—as well as a device we can use to and spends more than $2 million annually on subscriptions communicate our vision and goals to the Cornell commu- to e-journals and databases, placing us among the top fif- nity, our professional colleagues, funding agencies, and teen research libraries that report on such expenses. This other interested parties. means that Cornell faculty and students have anytime, anywhere access to these resources, be it from their dorm We faced numerous challenges in formulating the present room at 2:00 a.m. or a Cornell Abroad location. We now five-year master plan. Cornell University Library (CUL) have a Web librarian to lead a team of staff members who is a complex organization, including nineteen libraries will continue to update the Library Gateway and make it and many units. Finding agreement on all issues involved easier for users to discover and navigate all our online considerable discussion and not a little compromise. In a holdings and services. Our Technical Services staff mem- highly dynamic world it is difficult to predict the future bers contributed greatly to this process by developing an with any degree of accuracy, so our goals and objectives innovative way to create hundreds of catalog records had to be flexible to accommodate new information. through a computer program, saving almost 5,000 hours of Through an iterative series of meetings and retreats, our labor over the traditional approach. Estimating conserva- librarians and managers created a plan with ten goals tively, this method spared $100,000 and expedited the (shown in the sidebar above) and fifty-six objectives availability of essential scholarly information. (see www.library.cornell.edu/Admin/goals for the complete Because much of recorded knowledge still exists only in document). We next prioritized the top ten objectives books, not in digital form, the library is expanding its on which we intend to concentrate during 2002–03. efforts to connect readers and volumes more easily. During Employing techniques recommended by a strategic- the past year we laid the groundwork for Borrow Direct, planning consultant, we evaluated and prioritized each an exciting new service that provides combined access to objective based on the resources and staff expertise the collections at Cornell, Brown, Columbia, Dartmouth, required to accomplish it, the number of potential users for Princeton, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania. the service, and its impact on CUL’s prestige or influence. (See page 6). 2 C U L A N N U A L R E P O R T 2 0 0 1 – 0 2 5 Provide expert assistance, 7 Foster an organizational 9 Effectively market the library’s *CUL’s complete instruction, and an innova- culture that is agile, resilient products and services, five-year plan tive suite of user services and flexible, embraces and expand outreach to is available online change, and encourages new and underrepresented 6 Create and maintain a at www.library. teamwork constituencies physical environment that cornell.edu/Admin/goals fosters learning and 8 Secure the resources 10 Develop strategic alliances in . research through enhanced to meet CUL’s goals and support of CUL’s goals and intellectual discourse objectives objectives and exploration Other user services that were introduced or expanded dur- In August ’01 nineteen librarians participated in the ing the past year include Chat Live Online, which enables inauguration of the university’s New Student Reading a user at a remote location to have an online reference Project—in which all incoming freshmen and other new dialogue with a librarian, and E-Reserve, which provides students read the Pulitzer Prize–winning book, Guns, students access to required readings online—eliminating Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, before those late-night, last-minute bottlenecks when dilatory arriving on campus. Librarians facilitated discussion groups students queued up to check out books on reserve. with students during the first week of classes, CUL hosted (I’m reminded of an anecdote our music librarian told me, author Jared Diamond’s visit to campus, and also brought about the student who asked if it would be possible to have him to Libe Café for a more informal and lively debate two sets of headphones so she could listen to her backlog with students and faculty members. of assignments twice as fast!) In Olin and the Hotel In January we reorganized the library management team School library self check-out machines permit borrowers to provide for a more direct role of the university librarian to check out their own books. Loaner laptops also have in the administration of Olin, Kroch, and Uris libraries. been very popular, especially with wireless networks now A new division called IRIS (Instruction, Research, and available in all the libraries. Information Services) now coordinates a user-centered approach that is restructuring services and accelerating the pace of change within major segments of the library. The Renovation, Innovation, new model is characterized by innovation, creative risk- and Administration taking, and a rapid response to user needs. It promises to Although much of our activity is dependent on informa- light the way for others outside Cornell seeking to create tion technology, Cornell’s libraries are surging with users new organizations within libraries, and to increase our and visitors. We recorded more than four million visits in entrepreneurial offerings in instruction and research. 2001–02; our users checked out more than one million One day last winter the respect accorded Cornell books and asked more than 140,000 reference questions.

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