Thriving Digital Library Strategy 2022-2024

The ambitious vision executed over the span of the Future-Ready Library Strategy 2018-2021 has positioned the UOW Library for its next wave of development. Over the next three years, aspirations will be centred on what it means to be a thriving digital-first Library.

The Thriving Digital Library Strategy will be balanced with a focus on consolidation and optimisation of the refreshed digital environment and targeted innovation aligned to the UOW Collective Delivery Plan.

We will leverage the skills, knowledge and experience gained through working and learning in the maturing digital environment to enhance the design and delivery of services. We will strive to optimise the new tools, resources and analytics to create value for Library users in their quest for information and knowledge for learning, research and scholarship.

Our commitment to the success of staff and students of UOW is a hallmark of our culture – we really care about Library users and strive to understand their needs and expectations. Inclusion and equity initiatives, especially in the context of the digital environment, will drive our priorities and projects.

We will strengthen partnerships with our user communities for the development of increasingly open, personalised and human-centred services. We will draw upon our awareness, experience and learnings from the Jindaola program to build welcoming, inclusive and culturally safe (digital and physical) spaces. We will foster knowledge integrity through protocols for Aboriginal ways of knowing through services and collections underscored by the principles of respect, responsibility and reciprocity.

Over the past four years we have changed. We have transformed the digital environment and our ways of working in new environments. The user-experience informs and guides the development of services and experiences. We have fostered awareness and understanding of equity and diversity issues, challenges and opportunities. We are better at collaboration and partnerships. We have looked out for each other and celebrated progress, achievements and milestones.

This is a time for a refreshed vision, purpose and culture reflective of our learnings, experience and maturity – creating a new context for the Thriving Digital Library.

Our vision

Our unifying aspiration

Advancing truth, integrity and trust through open, equitable, accessible pathways to information and knowledge and lifelong learning initiatives.

Our purpose

We are essential for the accessibility, dissemination, use, creative engagement and management of information aligned to the UOW mission and purpose.

We are a Digital-First Library. We strive to lead and advance open, equitable and inclusive digital access models for information and knowledge for a University that is highly networked and global in its outlook.

We do this by:

• Fostering open, equitable, accessible models to information and knowledge services and resources; prioritising digital access to content and services.
• Engaging and partnering with students and staff to identify collaborative solutions to user needs and expectations.
• Being welcoming, inclusive and culturally safe in all Library spaces (physical and digital).
• Promoting knowledge integrity through protocols and Aboriginal ways of knowing for the organisation and description of collections.
• Facilitating development of contemporary and emerging literacies.
• Working with our community to understand how these literacies impact their use of scholarly, media, government, and other types of information in their daily lives.
• Advancing research initiatives through knowledge-based services, infrastructure, networks, standards, and best practices that enable digital and open access to scholarship and research now and for future generations.
• Investing in our people: who are recognised as respected knowledge workers and are forward looking, curious and constantly learning and growing.

Our culture

The shared expectations, attitudes and values for our ways of working.

• We are human-centred in our ways of working:
  • where diversity and inclusivity are respected
  • where people are safe to be authentic
  • where inquiry and curiosity are valued
• Our work is purposeful and user-centred:
  • We seek to understand needs and expectations to shape solutions
• We collaborate with students, staff and communities on UOW priorities and challenges
• We are agile in anticipating the future and invested in developing our capabilities for performance and value
• We share governance and accountability for the performance of the Library across our portfolios and teams.
• We foster the development of attitudes and capabilities of all staff through our Thriving Library Capabilities Framework.

A commitment to reconciliation and inclusion:

• Partnered with the School of Health and Society (HAS) Indigenous Working Group to facilitate discovery and access to curated Indigenous knowledge resources for inclusion in the curriculum.
• Enabled the organisation and description of collections that are accurate and free from biased and harmful language. Initiated a pilot to scope the principles, standards and community engagement needed for the remediation of descriptive content and metadata that people use to discover and learn about the materials in their collections.

Student experience and preparing students for learning:

• Embedded the Student Digital Skills Hub (a collaboration with LTC, PVCS, IMTS) within the student subject sites to make it easy to find and access foundational digital skills support resources and services.

Champion UOW research strengths and demonstrate impact:

• Developed a revitalised Library research services model and enhanced staff research capabilities.
• Completed the review of Open Access policy and contributed to development of an Open Research Strategy for UOW.
• Contributed to the Research Systems Roadmap including implementation of replacement UOW Scholars system and scoped inclusion of a replacement institutional repository system through membership of RITAS (Research IT and Systems) and RIAG (Research Infrastructure Advisory Group).

Optimisation of the digital environment:

• Implemented Phase II of the Library digital architecture roadmap.
• Strengthened data, analytic and reporting capabilities.

Staff wellbeing and organisational health:

• Adopted and implemented norms for flexible, hybrid ways of working.
• Adopted and implemented etiquette and norms for optimising time, focus and work-life balance.
• Evaluated and implemented upgrades and optimisations for workload management through improved workflows and efficiencies.