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As OHIO faculty, staff and students adjust to the new reality facing us across the nation, University Libraries is working to echo those diverse needs by beginning work on a new strategic plan to ensure we build a sustainable future together. Recognizing how this strategic plan will be weaved into everything over the next several years, the Libraries welcomes your thoughtful feedback by .

ā€œThe survey asks about a range of services, and how useful they are to the survey taker, such as our online resources and our physical space, our website, our collections and our workshopsā€”drilling down to all the specific services we offerā€”and gauges if we are meeting needs,ā€ explained Katy Mathuews, head of collections assessment and access and interim head of regional library managers, ā€œor if we can, identify unmet needs that we can help to support [the OHIO community] moving forward.ā€ 

For interested survey takers, the last question on the survey asks for volunteers to participate in small focus groups, via Microsoft Teams, with the idea of holding informal conversations guided by questions about the Librariesā€™ services, and how the Libraries can best support students, staff, faculty and our partners in the community.  

Rather than just communicating through the written survey, focus groups initiate opportunities to communicate verbally face-to-face in a space that encourages open-ended conversations.
 
For Ryan Spellman, public service desk coordinator who in a typical day spends half his time working the Librariesā€™ service desk, ā€œthis really is the perfect timeā€ to initiate change.

Even in a world of business as usual, strategic priorities lay the groundwork for informed decision making about forthcoming initiatives and projects that support the diverse needs of OHIOā€™s teaching, learning and research.

ā€œAs the Libraries embarks on creating new strategic priorities, we also commit to imbuing diversity, equity and inclusion throughout those priorities,ā€ said Neil Romanosky, dean of University Libraries, ā€œ[and] recognizing that these are not aspects of our work: they are the heart of it.ā€

Please take a few minutes to .  Your feedback will make a difference. 

For more information contact Katy Mathuews or Ryan Spellman.