town forum reports

SWOT Analysis Program

notes from the May 6, 2004 Town Forum

The University Libraries has been involved in SWOT analysis as part of overall University planning. At the 5/6/04 Town Forum, the Libraries held a breakout session in which attendees reviewed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats already outlined in the University Libraries’ analysis and suggested additional items. A breakout session was then held in which small groups brainstormed ideas for addressing these issues.

Strengths

STRENGTHS IDENTIFIED IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES SWOT ANALYSIS:

The Libraries’ greatest strength is a stable, committed, professional faculty and staff with significant expertise; our assembled team of librarians, systems professionals, and classified staff possess many years of education and dedicated service that informs decision making and sparks opportunity.
The UB Libraries host the largest, most comprehensive collection of print and electronic information resources in SUNY; we rank mid-pack among national research library peers.
Several focused special collections at UB including the James Joyce manuscript archives, the History of Medicine Collection, and the Frank Lloyd Wright/Darwin Martin correspondence are of international repute.
Our early commitment to substitute online resources as they become available for traditional print subscriptions and the attendant internal budgeting to develop a strong computerized/online library environment have enabled prompt, easy, user access to a quickly expanding body of digital scholarly information.
A detailed and constantly expanding Libraries’ website provides convenient access to the physical collection, paths to electronic bibliographic and full-text databases, subject guides, and online services; our site regularly registers xxxxxx hits each day, almost xxxxxxxxx last year, and the hit rate steadily increases.
Fast and efficient materials purchasing and processing support the timely availability of new resources; purchasing books and journal articles on demand satisfies unanticipated faculty requirements.
ILLIAD is a new, highly effective, online system that allows users to easily request and quickly gain access to many other items that the Libraries do not own; through priority borrowing services across SUNY and beyond to research libraries in the U.S. and around the world, the Libraries efficiently borrow books and journal articles in response to user demand.
The Libraries purchase and distribute or host innovative software such as EndNote and SFX which allows users to mine relevant information sources from the multitude of available databases and websites and build their own customized compilations of citations; librarians train faculty and students to use these products effectively.
The physical libraries remain important destinations for learning, research, and study for people from the University and the local community; in 2002/2003, the gate count exceeded xxxxxxxx, the highest yearly count ever.
Faculty subject specialist librarians work closely with teaching and research faculty in their respective schools and departments to keep collections and services relevant and visible and to integrate library resources into courses and curricula.
Active outreach and information literacy programs for students include services at physical and virtual reference desks, workshops, course-related information literacy sessions, and a two-credit library research course; Music and Law Library faculty direct double degree programs in music and law librarianship.
The Educational Technology Center (ETC), a major component of UB’s IT enterprise, has helped teaching faculty incorporate computer technology and online information services and resources into their instruction programs and continues to enrich the palette of computerized tools and instructional materials available on campus.
To stay current with rapidly changing information technology, the Libraries, often in partnership with CIT and the CIO’s Office, spend liberally on staff training and development.
The Libraries regularly survey faculty and students and modify our operations and services to better meet their expressed needs; every two years we employ the ARL LibQUAL Survey to measure our operations against those of our peers and to determine user perception of our quality.
The Libraries’ partnership with UB’s School of Informatics evokes conversations on issues such as the future of scholarly communication, feeds the professional assets of library faculty and staff, and renews our personnel resources.
The Libraries’ Residency Program provides staff development opportunities for young professionals from under-represented populations, enriching the diversity of our staff and contributing to an enrichment of the profession nationally.
The Libraries play an active role in the Western New York academic and intellectual communities through cooperative efforts with the Erie County Public Library, the hospital libraries of WNY, and the Western New York Library Resources Council (WNYLRC).

ADDITIONAL STRENGTHS IDENTIFIED DURING TOWN FORUM SWOT ACTIVITY:

PEC and CEC

TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY: STRENGTHS

Select two ideas or fairly specific areas for more in-depth discussion and determine: How can this strength be best used in the future to further identify the mission of the University Libraries?

“The Libraries’ greatest strength is a stable, committed, professional faculty and staff with significant expertise; our assembled team of librarians, systems professionals, and classified staff possess many years of education and dedicated service that informs decision making and sparks opportunity.”

Provides stability in knowledge long-term
Institutional memory provides better service to community
Employees take ownership of personal job and future of libraries
Develop sense of expertise in your field
When expertise is identified and utilized within the staff, it results in a more efficient overall organization (pieces contribute to the whole)

“The UB Libraries host the largest, most comprehensive collection of print and electronic information resources in SUNY; we rank mid-pack among national research library peers.”

To become a 1st tier research library
Publicize what we have more effectively (i.e. marketing, new SUNY union catalog)
Preserve what we have
When properly organized, our collections offer optimal utilization by our patrons

Weaknesses

WEAKNESSES IDENTIFIED IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES SWOT ANALYSIS:

Relative to other institutions cited by the University as peers, the UB Libraries’ acquisitions budget and staff size are low.
The absence of a direct link between research funding and the Libraries acquisitions allocation makes it difficult for us to fully support expensive new University priorities such as Bioinformatics without damaging established collections in other fields.
Escalating journal prices, particularly those in the scientific, technical, and medical disciplines have not been addressed with adequate inflationary increases during recent budget cycles; subscription price increases have a continuing effect on the budget, have prompted significant reductions in one-time purchases, and have resulted in major gaps in our monograph collections.
The lack of key staff redundancy due to limited PSR funding poses a potential threat to specialized operation continuity and slows the timely implementation of desirable innovation.
Insignificant endowment funds forces a near-total dependence on a University allocated budget; the Libraries do not have a significant, focused development program, and the long-term benefits/possibilities of such a program have been offset by current pressing priorities.
The lack of library representation during the past administration on upper-level/decanal groups has isolated us from important strategic planning opportunities.
Budget constraints have prompted a significant reduction in the acquisition of foreign language scholarly materials.
In spite of our rapid move toward electronic subscriptions and reference materials, until a storage annex is completed all libraries at UB are severely overcrowded; stacks erected to shelve the physical collections have seriously eroded valuable user space.
An aging/dated physical infrastructure needs extensive renovation to meet current service/use requirements and to meet the needs of a new generation of active, group-oriented learners.
The Libraries maintain a dependable but obsolete and functionally dated integrated library system that will have to be replaced within the next few years.
The public printing infrastructure falls far short of user expectation and detracts from the rest of the computing environment available in the Libraries.
The heavy and growing reliance on computing equipment for both Libraries’ staff and public use of the collections adds a major cost to our physical infrastructure; the rapid obsolescence of such equipment is also a perpetual concern.

ADDITIONAL WEAKNESSES IDENTIFIED DURING TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM ACTIVITY:

The policy in the 90’s was to reduce staff size. Is there now a plan to reverse this action?
The Libraries should plan ahead so that the system will not become obsolete.
General distrust (whether earned, learned, or real) of library administration
Technology for project management, scheduling and group calendars

TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY: WEAKNESSES

Select two ideas or fairly specific areas for more in-depth discussion and determine:
What steps are needed to initiate changes that correct the problem or compensate for the weakness? Is it possible to creatively transform this weakness into a positive situation by making better use of an existing internal resource, an existing external consortia relationship, seek a new or alter an existing relationship, or develop a new program?

“The lack of library representation during the past administration on upper-level/decanal groups has isolated us from important strategic planning opportunities.”

Steps needed for change:

Strengthen ties with the new provost and leave history behind. Take this opportunity to build new relationships that will lead to better representation

Possible to transform?

Yes, by being proactive about building relationships. Hold a welcome reception for new administrators and invite them to tour the Libraries. Have a policy of being welcoming. Strengthen and use librarian-faculty relationships to raise the Libraries’ profile.

“Funding/insignificant endowment”

Steps needed for change:

Launch PR effort with images
Demonstrate to President, provost, deans, etc. the impact of lack of funding through bench marking (showing other institutions have)
Let academic departments know how they are not being supported
Active fundraising needs to be initiated
A day without databases – or shut down a single database to show impact

Possible to transform?

Show that we are a “lean, mean fighting machine”

Opportunities

OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES SWOT ANALYSIS::

The completion of a long-awaited Annex will allow us to move 1.5 million, low-use volumes out of the campus Libraries, providing space for new materials and new learner needs – quiet study, group study, expanded Cybraries, hands-on computer labs, seminar and instruction rooms, and space to meet other new library and University needs.
The rapid evolution of information systems and online resources will continue to enhance the work of researchers and scholars; systems and networks get faster and more convenient with each succeeding generation, and archives of information are expanding at an accelerating clip. Existing web-inspired software such as SFX facilitate easy links among related pieces of information; existing resources such as ScienceDirect and JSTOR demonstrate the power of massive, searchable/browsable full-text databases.
SUNYConnect gives us some reason to trust that the 64-campus SUNY organization may be able to positively use its collective power to benefit the member institutions; by sharing a common integrated system, planning for a SUNY-wide digital repository, engaging in priority interlibrary loan, negotiating group rates on electronic resources, and facilitating cooperative collection development, SUNYConnect may save UB money and improve service.
The Libraries will soon begin testing a new integrated system, Aleph’s latest release of the Ex Libris package, the package that has been adopted at most other SUNY institutions; the possibility of running SUNY-licensed and supported software on SUNY-hosted, ITEC machines would allow us to outsource system administration activities, focus on our core interests, foster closer linkages with SUNYConnect, save money, and update our central business engine to oversee core background operations.
Positioning ourselves as “early followers” with regard to technology allows us to serve most user needs without investing heavily in “bleeding edge” development; a technology strategy that prompts purchase and implementation of tested commercial products and the gradual imposition of locally developed or open source modules as possible – our impending upgrade of the text-based NOTIS public catalog with our own Web-based, XML NetCatalog, for example – is a practical way to provide up-to-date services at a reasonable cost.
Planning is underway to implement a product that will facilitate the creation of a campus-wide database of cataloged, digital images (DIGIT) and the implementation of another product that will facilitate creation, storage, and dissemination of UB dissertations and theses in digital form.
The Libraries have an exciting opportunity to identify, create, and cultivate additional funding resources and partnerships.

ADDITIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED DURING TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM ACTIVITY:

(none)

TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY: OPPORTUNITIES

Select two ideas or fairly specific areas for more in-depth discussion and determine:

How can we use this opportunity to “show us off” to the University at Buffalo Community and/or to the national academic community? How can this opportunity be best taken advantage of for the future by the University Libraries?

“ALEPH”
Better use of staff and resources, one processing unit
Offer experience and expertise to SUNY in general
Develop NetCatalog; offers further implementation to other SUNY institutions
Accessibility
Patron empowerment
NYS Union Catalog
Reflexibility
Develop and share future and additional collaboration
“Space redesign”
More flexibility
Creative opportunity for new uses
New paradigms
Collaboration with wider community – architecture, art, marketing
New display/museum spaces
Marketing to promote new uses
Try to capitalize on the library as a university center – “intentional center”
Respond to desire for an “intellectual center”
Feng Shui consultant

Threats

THREATS IDENTIFIED IN UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES SWOT ANALYSIS:

Inflation in the price of scholarly resources continues to outstrip University allocated acquisition budget increases.
The growing commercialization of scholarly publishing and the attendant trend toward large publishing conglomerates, particularly in the sci-tech fields; these conglomerates wield a great deal of power in setting prices, thus eliminating competition, and making it difficult for modestly funded institutions to maintain subscriptions needed to support research programs.
As we move away from traditional subscriptions and lease access to more electronic archives, the Libraries’ budget is no longer being spent to amass a capital resource, and we are increasingly dependent upon sustained links to the online publishers for historical information we no longer own.
The uncertainty of SUNY Central’s commitment to library resources and collaborative endeavors for access to materials and electronic products makes it risky to develop a deep dependency.
While the migration from traditional print toward electronic resources is exciting and full of opportunity, it continues at a pace that is outside our control, adds cost to an already strained budget, and forces the Libraries to simultaneously operate in two very different modes.
Strategic planning on campus that does not involve the Libraries or take into consideration the cost or importance of information resources jeopardizes the creation and maintenance of necessary infrastructure to support campus initiatives.

ADDITIONAL THREATS IDENTIFIED DURING TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM ACTIVITY:

Perception that Internet is be all and end all
Library staff is heard to complain that drinking water in the Libraries and on campus is not safe and taste is bad.

TOWN FORUM SWOT ANALYSIS PROGRAM BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY: THREATS

Select two ideas or fairly specific areas for more in-depth discussion and determine:
What steps can be taken to mitigate or counter this threat in the future by the University Libraries? Can this threat be treated as a challenge to be creative in developing a new program, create a new relationship, or seek a new resource?

“As we move away from traditional subscriptions and lease access to more electronic archives, the Libraries’ budget is no longer being spent to amass a capital resource, and we are increasingly dependent upon sustained links to the online publishers for historical information we no longer own.”

Collaboration with other institutions (libraries, associations)--regionally, nationally, and internationally--facing same problem to repackage older data into new technology
Write into licensing contracts (again cooperatively) that all data we lease or subscribe to remains available to use in perpetuity, even if we end subscription or vendor goes out of business

“Perception that Internet is be all and end all”

Respond to misperceptions, especially through education and outreach
Require library skills/research course during Freshman year
Projects and research should be tied in to course to make most useful (direct application of what is learned)
Library outreach to faculty, especially those who are teaching freshmen
Take advantage of opportunities that Internet offers to libraries
Possibilities for collaboration with School of Informatics (and others) regarding how people use our systems, the impact that technology and changes in technology have on how people do research, and how we can enhance our systems and interfaces in response to these issues
Provide what the Internet does not
Address, enhance and market the “library as place” as proactively and enthusiastically as our electronic resources

Comments: lib-staffweb@buffalo.edu

Last update: 14 September, 2004